Hip-hop rap performed for mayor-elect, Rahm Emanuel, stereotypical and very embarrassing

Photo: Rich Hein - Chicago Sun-Times

This article is not an indictment of the students at Ralph Ellison Charter School. After all, they are only children. However, the teachers who allowed them to perform a poorly worded "hip-hop rap", topped off with black stereotypes of hopelessness and despair, ought to be ashamed of themselves.

For approximately ten seconds... I was literally rendered speechless after reading excerpts from the "rap" that was performed before mayor-elect, Rahm Emanuel, on Friday. 

Unless the Chicago Sun-Times mistakenly printed an article full of typos and stereotypes, someone at Ralph Ellison Charter School has some explaining to do.

If you think I'm being harsh, or overly critical, here are a few lines from the children's rap - exactly as it was printed by the Chicago Sun-Times:

“The sounds of the Midwest. It’s cold. It’s cold in the Windy City. The sounds of the Midwest. We try. We’re just trying to be successful. The sounds of the Midwest to survive. We’re just trying to make it home in one piece. The sounds of the Midwest. Hope keep us alive. I hope I make it to see the age of 25.” “Midwest cold and then a leaky brown faucet. Time to take cover from the gangs, so be cautious….The Windy City is so subliminal. These thugs and criminals don’t rest until they killing you. We shouldn’t be living like this. It’s pitiful. Please, take me literal when I say can’t survive…. I’m fed up with all of this. Listen to my argument. Listen to my predicament. These are the lives that we’re living in. But I’m gonna be the end of it….Here comes the next black President.” “Cold chills running down my spine. Nothing but fear in my heart and trouble in my mind. It’s getting difficult to claim my life as mine. I gotta keep my body moving on top of my thoughts will start flying. They say the sun will come out tomorrow, but it’s still dark in the Midwest.”

If you didn't know any black children who lived in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, where the Ralph Ellison Charter School is located, you'd swear every child in that community was barely literate, paranoid as hell, and badly in need of antidepressants.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that the children who live in some of Chicago's rougher neighborhoods, pretend their lives are filled with rainbows, apple pie, and butterflies. But instead of encouraging them to wallow in self-pity,  public schools should offer those children refuge from whatever negative influences are plaguing their young lives.

Furthermore, educators are suppose to teach our children how to write and speak, effectively. No teacher worth their paycheck, would have allowed these students to embarrass themselves by performing  a rap that reinforced the notion that black children are academically challenged.

Apparently, great minds think alike. Several Chicago Sun-Times readers agree with my position.

"Instead of these kids trying to rap they should focus on learning something useful," said one Sun-Times reader. "No wonder CPS students are in such dire straits," said another commenter.