Short and simple… They mean so much, and they can change the hearts of so many people, but I’m not talking about “I Love You”. I’m talking about “Bitch”, “Ho” and “Nigger”. According to hip hop’s Ghandi, Russell Simmons, these words should be voluntarily banned from hip hop music because they are misogynistic and racially offensive. He also took the time to say that nothing should ever be implemented that takes away the first amendment right of free speech, but that free speech includes responsibility. With all of that in mind, this sets us up for another episode of the Emmy nominated series “Make Black People Respect Themselves”. Some “leader” has to step up and make Blacks respect themselves.

The argument of the rap community has been that use of these words were instrumental to artistic expression and that this was one of the reasons why they had the right to use the words while others didn’t. To me this form of censorship was just an easy response to public criticism of the culture of today’s rap lyrics. Censorship has never been a solution to a problem of inappropriate utterances. The true solution has been and will always be to change the hearts of the people that use these words. Censorship is nothing but a mere cover up while the artists continue to live a life of what’s true to their hearts and personalities. Blocking or beeping these words to an rap artist is just like saying to Hugh Hefner “Women are constantly treated like sex objects and because of the role your magazine plays in society we would like for you to voluntarily photograph all of your women fully clothed.” Do you think that’s going to happen? No! Why? Because the first amendment wasn’t written with provisions that made sure no one was offended or allowed that nothing detrimental to society could ever be done. » Read more: These Three Words…