R.I.P. Sean Taylor

Jason Whitlock discussed his assumption that black men killed Sean Taylor. (This column was published prior to the arrest of the young black men). He stresses how in his opinion, today's hip-hop culture promotes violence, particularly among young African Americans. Whitlock shares how the violence will not stop until the aspects of the pro-violence culture are defeated.

I read this article about ten times. My first reaction was, "Wow. This Jason Whitlock guy makes me sick." At first I was angered that he was focusing on African Americans, because when I heard about the murder, race didn't come to mind. Then I scrolled over and realized that Jason Whitlock is an African American. So, I read the article again. Then I realized that he was focusing on the effects of the culture; it was then that I saw his point. Music, movies, and TV shows promote violence. Whitlock's right; nothing will change until fingers are no longer pointed, and people take matters into their own hands and fight the pro-violence culture.

I believe Jason Whitlock best used parallelism when he said, "Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever." This strengthens Whitlock's point because the list of things to blame goes from drugs to 'whatever.' A person can blame violence on 'whatever', but the problem won't be solved until society starts looking at their own choices and actions. I think this is what Whitlock was trying to get across to his readers. Promoting a peaceful culture gets a little bit difficult when every other song, movie, or TV show consists of violence. The promotion of violence won't just disappear. He used parallelism to basically say, "Stop blaming everything else, no matter how big or small, and take some action."