One of these concerns is the feeling of hopelessness that is felt by the young people living in the poor conditions of a Ghetto. Coolio’s second line is “I took a look at my life and realized there’s nothing left” (Coolio, 2-3). He sees no reason to live and no purpose in life as many teen in inner cities feel. The more violence that youths had been exposed to, the more likely they are to become violent themselves, to misuse drugs and alcohol and to lose hope of the future (Everding). Many people feel stuck in poverty and believe that they will never be able to get out. When people live in an environment where they can be killed at anytime, it makes them not care to try to make a better life for themselves, in fear that it will be taken away in a moment’s time. “Tell me why are we so blind to see that the ones we hurt are you and me?” (Coolio, 32-33). In other words violence and other crimes committed by gang members and other residents hurt their own children, family, friends and even themselves directly. “According to a study done by Washington University the biggest behavioral influence may be the real-life violence that many inner-city teens face in their homes, schools and neighborhoods” (Everding). As a result it becomes a furious cycle that seems to never end and cause many teens to feel hopeless.
Living on welfare is a common thing for children growing up in the Ghetto. Coolio includes this issue in his lyrics, “I can’t live a normal life I was raised by the state” (Coolio, 21). Living on welfare can be very hard because first of all it is not enough money for a family to live comfortably and second it can be degrading to have to take a handout from the state. In a website for minorities to voice their views on life in the ghettos a young man writes about welfare.
“Welfare is not a staple of the inner-city community. You can not feed a family with children on what is hand by the government. There is not a propensity of the brown or black man or woman to want to accept a hand out. There is no race that is more inclined to be beggarly. Those are just myths that are created by the media to and backwards "social scientists" whose ideas stem from the inhuman and unreasonable ideas of social Darwinism” (Josephson).
He is not alone many people on welfare wish they did not have to take help from the government but inner-city life can feel like a trap that seems too hard too get out of. It’s like a college commercial on T.V. talking about a horrible cycle for not being able to get a good job—a person can’t get a good job because s/he doesn’t have any skills, s/he doesn’t have any skills because s/he didn’t go to school, s/he didn’t go to school because s/he doesn’t have any money, s/he doesn’t have any money because s/he didn’t go to school…and the cycle keeps going on forever until a change is made. Many people rely on welfare for years at a time to help them pay bills, rent and buy groceries. “In 1992 40% of people receiving food stumps for over twenty months were African Americans, 26% white, and 34% Hispanic” (U.S. Department of Health and Social Services). “In 1992, 31.6% of blacks were below the poverty line; 9.9% of whites and 29% of Hispanics” (U.S. Department of Health and Social Services). As a result it is not surprise that the highest percent of people receiving food stamps are African Americans. “The age group with the highest percentage in poverty is ages 1-5 with a 26.5% in poverty” (U.S. Department of Health and Social Services). Poverty was a problem for Coolio growing up and he was among those on welfare (Huey).
As mentioned before a big reason so many people are in poverty is because of the lack of education. The education system has failed so many American children living in the Ghettos and as Coolio puts it, “They say I gotta learn but nobody’s gonna teach me, If they can’t understand how can the reach me” (Coolio, 39-41). In other words society expects children to learn but sometimes doesn’t not give them the tools to do so may it be books, desks, good teachers or just the feeling that they are teachable. “High poverty rates have been linked to low levels of educational attainment. Low levels of formal education have been linked to employment in low wage earning jobs. Low wages have been linked to subsistence living. As can be seen, the links create a cycle from poverty to poverty” (Miller). Money and education go hand in hand and so many times children living in the inner city do not get a decent education. Drop out rates prove this fact time and time again. The poverty rate is three times higher for high school drop outs than for high school graduates (Miller). “There is a direct relationship between educational attainment, job opportunities and poverty. Although some people with low levels of education have been able to break the cycle and live successful productive lives, this scenario is not typical. Today's job market relies heavily on the technical skills and knowledge gained from a post high school education and above. Higher levels of education narrow the income gap across gender and racial lines” (Miller). Coolio is among those who grew up in the ghetto and still managed to graduate high school. However his once promising scholastic career wound up falling victim to his violent, poverty stricken environment (Huey). He spent several months in jail at age seventeen for larceny after trying to cash a money order stolen by a friend (Huey). While enrolled at Compton Community College he began rapping on stage and took the name “Coolio” (Huey).
Not only does inner city violence, lack of money and education distort ghetto children’s expectation but so does T.V. Coolio said it perfectly in his song “Gangsta’s Paradise”, “too much television watching got me chasing dreams” (Tommy Boy). On average children ages one to eighteen spend four hours a day watching television (Sylwester). That is a huge chunk of time children are influenced by mostly negative subjects that affects child development greatly.
“Emotion drives attention, which drives learning, memory, and behavior, so mass media often insert strong primal emotional elements into their programming to increase attention. Since violence and sexuality in media trigger primal emotions, most young people confront thousands of violent acts and heavy doses of sexuality during their childhood media interactions. This comes at the expense, alas, of other more positive and normative experiences with human behaviors and interactions. Mass media tend to show us how to be sexy not sexual, and powerful not peaceful” (Sylwester).
That’s why there are so many under aged children in the ghettos and in fact all over our nation are sexually active and resort to violence. Many parents have to work and leave children alone at home after school for hours which is an excellent opportunity for them to experiment with what they see on T.V. Not only is T.V. a negative influence but it produces unreal expectations. Commercial sponsorship in mass media has led to a distorted presentation of important cultural and consumer-related issues. For example, TV commercials tend to be very short, superficial, and factually biased. Further, computer programs and TV editing techniques tend to compress, extend, and distort normal time/space relationships, a critically important element in the creation and use of effective long- term memories’ (Sylwester). These expectations are never going to come true because real life is not the way it is made to be on T.V. Especially for those who are poor and don’t have the money or chance to even get close to things seen on T.V.
Coolio was a child living in the ghetto of Compton, California with a single mother and experienced many things he rapped about in “Gangsta’s Paradise”. He seen and experienced inner city violence, living on welfare and T.V. effects. However he was never really in a gang and did finish high school. Regardless this hit is a excellent description of life in the ghetto and gives its audience a sense of what it is like. That is probably why is reached number one on the hit charts in 1995 (Huey). A mixture of all the issues discussed in this paper makes growing up in the ghetto so hard especially for a young African American male.
Works Cited
Coolio. “Gangsta’s Paradise”. Gangsta’s Paradise. Tommy Boy, 1995
Everding, Gerry. “Study finds inner-city teens influenced by real life violence.”
Record. 2006. Washington University in St. Louis. 20 Feb. 2006 http://record.wustl.edu/archive/1995/08-24-95/7807.html
Huey, Steve. “Coolio Biography.” Yahoo Music. 2005. Yahoo! Inc. 20 Feb. 2006
http://music.yahoo.com/ar-306949-bio--coolio
Josephson Institute. “Youth Violence Statistics.” CC!. 2004. Josephson Institute. 20 Feb. 2006
http://www.charactercounts.org/rskstats.htm Miller, Juanita. “Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet.” The Ohio State Unviversity.
1999. Ohio State University. 20 Feb. 2006
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5707.html
Sylwester, Robert. “The Effects of Electronic Media on A Developing Brain.”
Media Literacy Review. 2005. University of Oregon. 20 Feb. 2006 http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/readings/articles/effects.html
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Indicator of Welfare Dependence.”
United States Department of Health and Human Serices. 1997. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 20 Feb. 2006 http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators97/front.htm
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20 Feb. 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton,_California#Crime
