here is snitching and there is snitching.  To live well is, among things, to know the difference.  Alas, it would appear that rapper Cameron Giles aka “Killa Cam” aka “Cam’ron” does not know the difference.  And his not knowing the difference, coupled with his promoting an ideology of not snitching no matter what, is doing more damage to the black community in America than anything that Don Imus might say about black people.  As I shall argue, Mr. Cameron is guilty of confusing the virtue of constructive self-criticism with the vice of self-deprecation.  What is more, I shall show that what we have with Cameron’s ideology, embraced by many rappers, is none other than a form of black-on-black genocide.

Now, he explains that his embracing of an ideology of not snitching no matter what is owing to how he was raised.  To this, I can only offer a measure of immutable commonsense.

Whether we should embrace the way in which we were raised surely depends on the character of the moral training that we were taught.  Our upbringing does not constitute an automatic excusing condition.  Otherwise, we would have to excuse Nazis and slaveowners and KKK folks so on.  And I am rather certain that Cam’ron, bless his heart, thinks that folks of this ilk have no excuse whatsoever for their attitudes.  Either that or he is an imbecile. 

It has gotten to be a little tiresome hearing blacks continually excusing, if not justifying, behavior obviously destructive to the black community by reference to tradition, as if tradition is to be automatically countenanced as something that is holy.  But, of course, no sane black thinks that.  And good thing, too, since slavery has had a long tradition throughout the world: Arabs enslaved black people in Africa and then whites enslaved black people in Africa.  Moreover, black people have enslaved black people in Africa.  So the tradition of enslaving black people has in fact been around longer than the tradition of not enslaving black people.

There is a difference between self-criticism and self-deprecation.  And it seems to me that blacks are quickly losing sight of this difference.  The self-deprecating person denies the virtues and talents and skills that she or he has.  Or, in any, case the individual discounts these gifts in various ways.  It is a painful reality that there are, indeed, those who are given to self-deprecation. 

Self-deprecation is a vice.  The absence of self-deprecation, however, is not the absence of self-criticism.  Absolutely not.  With self-criticism, we examine our behavior and engage in a kind of self-pruning where necessary.  On the small assumption that no one is perfect, including rappers extolling the virtue of blackness, then what surely has to follow is that rappers cannot maintain that any all things that they say and do are perfectly acceptable.  They cannot maintain that any and all things that they say and do are good for the black community.  This they cannot say even if they are making millions of dollars off the blacks of black people.  Crack dealers make millions, too, but they help no one, perhaps not even themselves in the final analysis.

I would be weary of any mindset according which it it is held that what So-and-So said is good because So-and-So said it.  Black rappers do not make this assertion as such, but what they do say is the functional equivalent of precisely that assertion.

Worse, black leaders seem to affirm this mindset, chastising anyone who should dare criticize the lyrics of rappers for being too salacious.  Do so and one is told immediately that one doesn’t understand blackness (if one is white) or that one is an Uncle Tom (if one is black).  Why, one would think that blacks engaged in sexual intimacy with different body parts.  An analogous claim holds for the criticism that the lyrics of rappers are too violent.

I have even heard that all of this is permitted in the name of poetic license.  

In any event, the relevance of all of this to snitching is this.  Nothing makes the black community more fertile soil for violence than the thesis advanced by Cam’ron and other rappers that snitching in all instances is wrong.  Indeed, it amounts to none other than a form of black-on-black genocide.  Let me explain.

Genocide is none other than willfully doing that which will bring about the destruction of a people.  Typically, the genocide of a people is defended on bogus grounds such as the people in question are inferior or they will contribute to the complete moral corruption of humanity.  But genocide can stem from plain indifference to the consequences of one’s behavior; for there is a level of indifference that bespeaks none other than a crass callousness to the humanity of the other. 

Suppose that I am in a hurry to get to my lecture.  It is next to impossible for that truth to explain why I stepped upon the body of a child who was just murdered.  My doing so can only be seen as an instance of crass indifference.  So it is even if it would have taken me an extra 2 minutes to arrive at my lecture. 

On the assumption that Cam’ron and other rappers are not intellectually bereft, what they surely know is that if an ideology of not snitching envelopes the black community, then black-on-black crime can rise to untold heights.  So to embrace and encourage this ideology is to advance a view that is completely detrimental to the well-being of blacks.  Indeed, it is a view that is more detrimental to blacks than racism itself.  After all, a black is no less dead merely because she or he was killed by another black

A rap song that said “C’mon on in the hood cracker commit a crime on the dime” would be perceived by every white who had an ounce of intelligence as a dumb thing to do because it would understood in no uncertain terms that going into the hood to commit a crime would be suicidal. 

An ideology of no snitching among blacks is suicidal for blacks.  It is the moral equivalent of putting a noose around the neck of young black folks and tightening it, precisely because the ideology gives violence free reign against innocent and handicaps all who would aim to protect the innocent from it.

This last consideration underscores laying the charge of genocide against rappers who embrace an ideology of not snitching.  There is no greater wrong than viciously harming the innocent.  Hearing the words "no snitching" may produce quite a thrill in a song and occasion quite an emotional charge, but in the end it insures the destruction of the innocent. 

As I finish this blog-entry, I find myself experiencing a depth of anger that perhaps suprises even me.  Let me just say this.  There can no justification or excuse for anyone supporting the ideology of not snitching that Cam’ron and other rappers advance.  Anyone who has found a way of excusing her or his doing so is also contributing to black-on-black genocide. 

Equality ain’t nothing if it does not first begin with respect for the humanity of all.  And to support the ideology of not snitching embraced by Cam’ron and other rappers is to make it unequivocally clear that the innocent of black people does not matter.  That is genocide by any other name. 

It does not matter to me that lots and lots of blacks do not concur.  Nor, again, does it matter to me that lots and lots of non-blacks feel “cool” or “hip” or whatever by listening to this kind of music.  Why?  Because truth is not, nor has it ever been, a function of the number of people who adhere to a view.  For that I can only say: Thank God.