 |
| The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah |
I am always on a journey to find a good book. Rummaging through the city libraries and checking the bookshelves at thrift stores has become a past time. Discreetly borrowing (and often stealing) literature from friends and family is an art that I have perfected over the years. No matter how much I read, and despite how well assembled the book, I have never been satisfied. After reading the last chapter, my mind begins to slip and my conscience falls between the blank line spaces of the last page. I ponder over the characters and what becomes of their lives. The storylines stream within my mind and I wonder what would happen next if the book didn’t end? After finishing a text, I always want to know more. With literature, there is always a hunger that can’t quite be fed.
As an adult and an avid reader, I am able to decipher the words on the pages from the words that circle the real world. Although I grow attached to characters and plots, I can understand clearly that my fantasy planet of diction and imagery is separate from what is taking place in actuality. Unfortunately with younger generations, these two worlds often combine. Young and impressionable minds actually warp and conform to particular ideas and messages that are displayed in books.
Many studies discuss the power of music and television on youth. These two elements are definitely influential. Yet, over the years, the popularity of books has risen. It is becoming a tool that is shaping the way young adults view life. Books are dictating the minds of teens. As we have seen with the Harry Potter series and the Twilight saga’s (both being literature before being turned into movies), novels are completely impacting the life of our youth. These books are providing fantasies that young ones are falling in love with. And with teenagers, these fantasies and themes found in books have begun to spill over into reality. Just as with television and radio, books are beginning to place their stamp.
There are many pieces of literature that are harmless. Although powerful, they are not encouraging negativity. However, there is a particular genre of books that is sweeping inner city youth into a fantasy that is neither positive nor productive. These books are heavy on eroticism, sexism and violence. The vocabulary is easy to read, thus young people are more in adept to do so. And since the free libraries carry these novels, they are easily accessible to anyone (no matter the age) who wants to read. Most people know these books as Urban Literature. I affectionately call these books Hood-Lit. The influence that these stories have on younger generations, though, is pathetic.
 |
| Zanes, The Sex Chronicles |
My purpose is not to bash urban authors. It makes me proud to know that so many minorities are beginning to understand that writing can be used as a career opposed to a hobby. And no matter how reckless these books may be, I cannot deny the fact that they are encouraging urban communities to read. However, there is an audience that Hood-Lit fails to reach. Young men are not as interested in urban books as younger females. Most of the storylines in these books chronicle the lives of females and frankly, men simply cannot relate.
Although, I seriously doubt that they are penning their books for teens, my intentions are not to down play or degrade urban writers or their literary techniques. If younger generations weren’t using these books as a backbone, I am sure that there would be a decrease in teen violence and pregnancies. I believe that if adults monitored the reading material of teens, then this would eliminate a lot of the troubles that engulf urban communities.
A fixture in Hood-Lit is poor grammar. Characters speak in broken diction and slang, and even the narration is sometimes written very poorly. These are not things that will help teens improve their English, nor does it promote higher education. During these tough summer months when school is out, most parents are just ecstatic to see their child read anything. Instead, they should be recommending books with substance and moral value, which many of these books are lacking.
The setting of most Hood-Lit is the ghetto. But it’s not the ghetto that is filled with hardworking men and women who are legally supporting and taking care of their families. It is not the ghetto with scholars who are struggling everyday to finish their education. And, of course, it is not the ghetto filled with neighbors who actually care about each other and the condition of their environment. The center stage of these books is every stereotypical urban staple. This includes the pissy project buildings, with weed smoke in the air, promiscuous young women, guns, drugs and broken dialect. Instead of slamming these “essentials”, Hood-Lit normally glamorizes it. These books build a fantasy world where all of these wrongs are not only acceptable, but admirable. And since young people can relate to the negative, they latch on to it. However, young people can actually relate to the positive, too, but don’t realize it since it is seldom mentioned or seen within these pages.
In addition, a lot of these books follow female protagonists who are involved in drugs or violence. Most of them are dating drug dealers. Throughout the book, they are exposed to gruesome brutality. Although most Hood-Lit ends with the main character turning her life around or getting arrested, the moral often comes too late. Before the life change occurs, readers are witnesses to the exciting and often lavish lifestyle that crime can offer. These young women who are dating drug dealers have luxury vehicles, endless spending money and a designer wardrobe. The “lucky” girls may even move out of the hood into a beautiful suburban home. All of this is show before these books reveal the downfall from being involved in a life of crime. A lot of young women, who are coming from poverty stricken neighborhoods, do not realize that with hard work and dedication they can achieve these materialistic things. These books show that it is a lot easier for them to shack up with a young hustler and worry about the consequences later. The gruesome violence in these novels also desensitizes frequent readers from real life trauma. Being an actual witness to vicious acts becomes almost routine and evokes little emotion. This will eventually make younger generations believe that violence is acceptable.
These female protagonists often hold the same physical perfection of a life-size Barbie doll. They are portrayed as light skinned with long haired and chiseled facial features. They are also described as being slim or really in shape, never being overweight or exhibiting any physical imperfections. This sends a very wrong message to teen girls. The flawlessness of these characters could possibly influence and foster insecurities.
Often times, these books also encourage young women to rely on their external beauty to carry them throughout life opposed to being good-hearted and kind.
They are encouraged to use their bodies as a means to achieve a higher social status, opposed to using their minds. Sometimes, the females these books lead extremely harmful sexual lives. Which is portrayed by extremely graphic text that borders on pornographic literature. Authors are writing in explicit details about sexual encounters between characters. There are even some urban books that are solely used to give out sexual pointers and tips. Yet again, of course these novels are not meant for the teens who are reading them, but the fact of the matter is, they are reading these books. They are reading them and re-enacting everything from the pages.
I have lost count of how many young girls I have seen reading urban erotica author Zane’s “The Sex Chronicles”. These books show all of the pleasure and joy that can be received from sex and often neglect to show the negative sides. I cannot remember at least one urban book that I’ve read where a character has to deal with STDs or any consequences from irresponsible sex. So many of these books personify women as nothing more than sexual objects. Sadly, the majority of these authors are women themselves and they do not care about the messages they are sending to fellow females.
 |
| Sister Souljah’s- No Disrespect |
There is a possibility for younger generations to read books that are connected to their environment without having purposeless violence and hazardous sex forced down their throats. Almost everyone in the inner-city is familiar with Sistah Souljah’s book “The Coldest Winter Ever”, which follows the glamorous but sometimes shaky life of a hustler’s daughter. Sistah Souljah definitely has a moral implication that she is trying to send through that particular book, but it gets lost. Instead of reading that novel, parents can encourage teens to read her biography “No Disrespect”. Her biography is divided into five lengthy chapters that discuss her interactions with the five most important people she has encountered. It is beautifully written, thought-provoking and very insightful. Most importantly, it still provides an urban flair that can peak the interest of young people growing up in the “hood”. For a more adult read, Lorene Cary is a stunningly gifted Philadelphia based author who through pieces of literature also provides an intellectual urban appeal. Her novel “Pride” (a story about the complicated relationships between four black women) has the same juice of a Hood-Lit book but lacks the horrific violence and derogatory sex scenes.
Donald Goines is known for his gritty street tales. However, unlike typical Hood-Lit, the extremity of violence and sex are strictly used as a scare tactic. His books don’t offer any pleasure from these negatives. His novels leave an eerie feeling of hope; after reading, there is a strong pressure to do better than the typical environment of urban communities. His literature, which focuses on a variety of characters, can be easily relatable to young black males: a missing group of readers. I believe it is the duty of adults to put these types of books in the hands of our youth.
Books are an easy way to travel to a fantasy world. But when that fantasy starts dripping into reality, it is the jobs of adults to ensure that children are catching the droppings of something constructive.
~Amity Nathaniel