Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Last December, I was approached by journalist Mayssa Ferah, from The Press, who wanted to know my position on the legitimacy of the amalgams existing between rap and criminality. I notice, at the beginning of February, a text titled: “Who is afraid of rap? »
In the 1960s, the headline could have been: “Who’s Afraid of Blacks?” “. N* * * * * (admittedly, rap did not exist in the 1960s, but the Afro-descendant communities that contributed to its growth did exist. There was jazz, right? And for this same jazz, there was, in our streets, the morality squad…).
Recently, the Pivot media confirmed that the mother of Jannaï Dopwell-Bailey, a young man stabbed to death in front of his school last October, had been told by the compensation program for victims of criminal acts ( IVAC) that she could not receive help for the moment, because her son would be part of a street gang. On October 20, Mr.me Ferah had written about it. His text with a sensationalist title said that three young [blancs] celebrated the death of a 16-year-old black man named Jannaï, dancing to drill music.
“Who’s afraid of rap? ” Title click bait, since the text does not answer the question. Little room for analysis of the game that takes place around the tragedies that repeatedly shorten the lives of so many young people. Afraid of rap? What type of rap? The simplistic treatment of the question as well as the diversion of the initial question testify to a process that hinders the media’s ability to collect criticism on its own way of approaching what characterizes rap: youth, black and racialized communities, urban realities and the dominant media narrative that traps it (the youth).
A responsible title would have been: “Who benefits from the rap resulting from the social and physical death of certain young people? And here, I’m not necessarily talking about the rap prized by prime time radio stations, but rather the unfiltered rap that has nothing to do with the tales of Fred Pellerin.
Another proposal: “Who benefits from the amalgam between crime and rap? » Those whose criminality we would not even dare to suspect, #WilliamRainville. Or maybe, “Who really benefits from rapping?” Rarely those who do. It is the status quo that holds its own. We invest in the same structures of repression and surveillance over the same groups, without however considering in a sustained way, the possibilities offered by the gamble of absolute confidence in the genius young people, lacking favorable environments for the creation of new rites of passage.
The amalgams between rap and crime are dehumanizing and obscure the dynamics that push a young person to commit the irreparable. By dehumanizing young people who have been killed violently, by sorting out those who have no history and those who are wrongly presumed to be members of street gangs, there is reason to wonder whether our media are not doing the contrary to what they claim to do. The dynamics of current media production seem to favor bureaucratic coldness towards victims. There are delays with the IVAC.
Those who take advantage of the dominant narrative on rap also take advantage of the clichés that persist about black communities.
In the case of the murder of Jannaï, last October, it is all the intensity of the prejudices that we find and that it is urgent to rectify.
And to rectify a mistake requires the courage of analytical honesty.
Response from Mayssa Ferah
As I indicated to Mr. Lamour at the start of our meeting, I was interested in the amalgams surrounding rap and crime. Well aware of the prejudices that plague hip-hop and rap culture, I wanted to hear the point of view of multiple actors in the field to put some context.
My goal this time was not to write an article on the phenomenon of armed violence.
In this sense, I believe that the dossier published in The Press fulfills its mission.
Do the media do the opposite of what they claim to do? I do not believe. My job as a reporter is to deal with each subject without prejudice, to unearth information and testimonies, to verify their validity and to transmit the facts to the public.
In this sense, I consider fulfilling my mission.