That’s the best thing I’ve read in weeks. The evil clutches of Chingy. I’ll be stealing that bit, thank you.

J from Fear Always Remains: “I bet Baby Bop didn’t jump into the crowd and pummel someone.”

No, a college educated (St. John’s, ‘01) professional atlete did. What parallel are you trying to draw there?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/267488p-229126c.html

Secondly, yes — I’m a 35 year old white guy who was a former Mavs season ticket holder who still watches every game on TV and attends the games often. I faithfully purchase stuff at your concession stands when I go to the AAC. I recently noticed an ad during a Mavs game for small business owners. I fit into that category too. My point: I don’t see how you *don’t* see me as your target market. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I’ve *got* to be spending more on Mavs related products and services than the typical Hip Hop enthusiast! There is no doubt that the Hip Hop generation promotes thuggery — and one of the biggest reasons I fell in love with the Mavs (after you purchased the team) is for quite some time they have kept their noses clean of that sort of thing.

I understand that you secretly fear black people, but you need to tone down the veiled racism just a touch.

First off, I never said “black” … you did. We both know that Hip Hop is not a “black thing” anymore. I added an article that the black community is up in arms about Hip Hop. Any comment on that? Is Essence Magazine being racist?

>> If hip hop promotoes “thuggery”, what
>> do rock, punk, and pop promote…

Actually, yes, I think they do, and to suggest that they don’t is pretty naive. I wasn’t defending rock, btw. I’m not a big fan of that either. But since you “understand” me, you probably already knew that.

>> I understand that you secretly fear black people …

Wow, talk about pre-judging me as a racist based on one comment in a forum … just for the record I’ve got no problem with people who live decent lives … but music that degrades women? Music that degrades the police? Glorifies drugs and murder? If that is what *you* define as being black, then yes, I fear that. That is not a healthy image for any culture, but that is exactly what is being portrayed by some/many of the musicians in the Hip Hop community.

The term “thug” is certainly not descriptive of the type of most people I know (who happen to be black). But I do think that if young black people AND young white people AND young hispanic people are fed all this crap enough they’ll wind up with brains full of mush that respect evil and hate good.

Mike, I’m very optimistic about the future of black people in this country. They have great opportunity, as do whites, hispanics, asians, etc. However, I hate to see it squandered. All I’m saying is that the Hip Hop culture glorifies a certain mindset that has an unhealthy anti-social message at its root. Sorry if you don’t like that, or feel you have to take the time to poo-poo the messenger (please debate the topic at hand, not the writer … its more effective) but its the truth. Ask Essence Magazine.

First off, I never said “black” … you did. We both know that Hip Hop is not a “black thing” anymore. I added an article that the black community is up in arms about Hip Hop. Any comment on that? Is Essence Magazine being racist?

>> If hip hop promotoes “thuggery”, what
>> do rock, punk, and pop promote…

Actually, yes, I think they do, and to suggest that they don’t is pretty naive. I wasn’t defending rock, btw. I’m not a big fan of that either. But since you “understand” me, you probably already knew that.

>> I understand that you secretly fear black people …

Wow, talk about pre-judging me as a racist based on one comment in a forum … just for the record I’ve got no problem with people who live decent lives … but music that degrades women? Music that degrades the police? Glorifies drugs and murder? If that is what *you* define as being black, then yes, I fear that. That is not a healthy image for any culture, but that is exactly what is being portrayed by some/many of the musicians in the Hip Hop community.

The term “thug” is certainly not descriptive of the type of most people I know (who happen to be black). But I do think that if young black people AND young white people AND young hispanic people are fed all this crap enough they’ll wind up with brains full of mush that respect evil and hate good.

Mike, I’m very optimistic about the future of black people in this country. They have great opportunity, as do whites, hispanics, asians, etc. However, I hate to see it squandered. All I’m saying is that the Hip Hop culture glorifies a certain mindset that has an unhealthy anti-social message at its root. Sorry if you don’t like that, or feel you have to take the time to poo-poo the messenger (please debate the topic at hand, not the writer … its more effective) but its the truth. Ask Essence Magazine.

Honestly, I don’t really care whether or not Mark/Mavs plays Hip Hop during games. It certainly doesn’t stop me from going to the games. Actually, I like the music that is played — high energy stuff. He seems to have sound business reasons backed by research that suggest that appealing to this demographic is the way to go.

Mark asked: “Now the bigger question is what can we do to get you back to owning season
tickets again ????” Hehe … play some Vince Guaraldi, Bill Evans and Cal Tjader.

http://www.100down.com/search.htm