Liberals prefer to ignore this comparison, insisting that there is something authentic and artistic about hate speech coming out of the mouths of millionaire black men as compared with millionaire white men. I disagree. While the social contexts that produce such speech are obviously quite different, the desensitizing effect it has on cultural communication is the same. Both talk-radio and gangsta rap represent women as legitimate objects of sexual violence. Both teach white men to regard nonwhites as subhuman. Both invite verbal and sometimes actual violence against gays and Arabs. If we seek to eliminate one, we can hardly excuse the other. If, instead, we take a position on behalf of free speech and against censoriousness and political correctness, that has to be consistent as well. Leftists have paid a significant price in the marketplace of debate in recent decades for their failed efforts to try to control the speech of those with whom they disagree. Speaking purely politically, the "political correctness" campaign has proven a kind of boomerang, undermining the credibility of those who demand it. Eric Alterman in The Nation
I think that the key idea here is that lots of money is being made by people slinging this trash. That aside, to make the argument that gangsta rap as the authentic voice of the ghetto is analogous to arguing that human sacrifice is ok because it was the authentic expression of Aztec culture. There are cross-cultural standards, and human degradation is human degradation.
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