FREE ESSAY ON GENERATION GAP

GENERATION GAP

Critique 
on 
The New Generation
When discussing the generation gap, many issues surface. In this article in Newsweek,
issues such as music, morals, and goals arise with the wide gulf of generations in the
black community. Older Americans continue to be separated from the growing hip-hop
culture, and they, along with the hip-hop community, have not yet learned how to deal
with this separation.
Music is one of the largest rifts between the civil rights generation and the hip-hop
generation. An increase in violence, sex, and disrespect in modern music reflects the
increase in violence, sex, and disrespect in the modern pop culture. This is the view of
younger black Americans. Older Americans feel that the violent and sexually explicit
music is the cause of such chaos and degradation of our society. Morals have declined,
and this is evident even in the professional world of the NBA. Disrespect for referees
and other players dominate the court by younger players. The word nigga is used with no
remorse, conviction, or thought of being inappropriate and inconsiderate. Goals have
changed considerably with the generations. Older black Americans fought for rights that
the hip-hop community takes for granted. Racism is much more subtle in this pop culture;
and we don't fight against it because we don't know how. We're not taught how to continue
the struggle. All we know is that you have to get yours and don't worry about nobody(Ice
Cube, p.55).
Yes, I agree with the writer that there is a definite gulf in the values of older
Americans and the values of the new hip-hop culture. Older Americans struggled for their
rights. They worked for every inch of luxury they enjoy today. Today's emerging pop
culture, though, has lived off the sweat of the ones who have gone before them. They have
no reason for unity. They have no need for morals because they live for themselves.
They're just 'out to get theirs'.
Many factors can cause a generation gap. The fact that the generations were raised in
different eras with different circumstances cause a major rift. Because you're dealing
with different eras, you are dealing with different values. With different values come
different taste. Different taste breeds new music and clothing styles. Technology makes
us not have to think for ourselves. In this article, Bill Cosby mentioned meeting a man
who called himself a musician. When listening to jazz CD, he could not differentiate
between the instruments because technology had done everything for him. This not having
to think for ourselves brings about what older Americans would call lazy or lack of
initiative.
This article brought to one's attention the issues that emerge as a result of a
generation gap, but offered no solutions. As mentioned earlier, because the generations
were raised in different eras with totally different circumstances, we don't even know if
there is a way to narrow the gap. What do you do when both parties believe that they are
right? The right answer would seem to be to sit down and talk peacefully about it and
compromise; but that can't be the right thing to do. How do you compromise on crime? How
do you compromise on sexually explicit music being available to children? Honestly, I see
no middle ground, and I have no solution to narrowing the generation gap.