50/50: Is Hip-Hop Bad for Black America?

by China Okasi

Is Hip Hop Holding Back African-Americans? That’s what we asked Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of “Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture” and Dr. Lester Spence, associate professor of political science at John Hopkins University and author of the forthcoming book “Stare in the Darkness: Rap, Hip-hop, and Black Politics.” It’s a vague question, we know, but one that Williams recently evoked with the publication of his book. It is certainly a question that will continue to echo through discussions on African-American political and social topics for quite some time.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV