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Black America's cultural tipping point Janet Jackson's 40-year-old breast's coming out party is starting to look like one of those Tipping Points, for which we hacks are always searching. Since that extraordinary evening, a cascade of events appears to be leading to a wide-spread, mostly voluntary, clean-up of popular culture. And a lot of it is coming from the heart of the black community. Consider. In mid-May, during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in public schools, Bill Cosby left black leaders stone-faced. "These people were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around," declared The Coz. "The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting ... I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is.' You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth." Moving on to crime, he said, "These are not political prisoners. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola." Right on, I thought, along with (apparently) Kweisi Mfume, head of the NAACP. Then, last week, P. Diddy announced that enough was enough. He was a middle- aged, mainstream fashion designer and Broadway star, not, after all, a bad boy for life. A day later, Dennis Rodman popped up on a nighttime talk show to say pretty much the same, and looking, well, normal. Still had four studs in his mouth and nose, but he admitted that yes, they were pretty silly. Just to reassure us that the stars were still in their heavens, however, the Mayor of Atlanta decided, in a tone-deaf misreading of the national mood, that June 7 was the official day of ultra- profane Atlanta-born rapper Ludacris. Not such a good idea, it seemed, since many saw this as a reversion to the all- too-recent bad old days. Spelman College, the grande dame of black women's colleges, cancelled a performance by Nelly, a rapper who'd been booked to celebrate Ludacris Day. Juan Williams, the widely respected black correspondent for NPR and former Washington Post columnist, went on Fox News to say that enough was enough, and that black culture had been degraded by these hip hop madmen. And, by the way, Cosby was right. The City of Atlanta promptly removed any reference to Ludacris Day on its Web site, even as it stiffly pointed out that Ludacris donated lots of money to inner city children and was a great Atlanta man, etc., etc. Fox News host Bill O'Reilly rejoined that Atlanta earned a billion dollars a year from hip hop- related business and could there be a connection to the fact that Atlanta's violent crime is four times the national average, property crime three times the national average and murder six times the national average? Is this shaping up to be a scrap or what? Before I could draw breath, on Saturday night, comedian Chris Rock, no stranger to profanity or vulgarity himself, debuted a new, cleaned up comedy show by saying what everyone thinks, which is that Michael Jackson should and must go to jail. As a result of Janet Jackson's Superbowl "wardrobe malfunction," Congress passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004, and fines for indecency jumped from $27,500 to $275,000. The radio chain Clear Channel has recently been fined $2-million for a variety of infractions, some involving well-known shock jock Howard Stern. The result has been a distinct and voluntary chilling. The exposure of an elderly woman's breast on ER was blocked, and Britney Spears, Fountains of Wayne and Alanis Morissette have all been asked by MTV to clean up their music videos. The chilling is not confined to low and middle-brow culture. Recently, a cleaned-up episode of the much-praised British police drama, Prime Suspect was aired. Like most reasonable people, I think "indecency" should be left to premium cable. But this stepped up government regulation is a fearsome thing (except child porn which should be outlawed for all eternity). One can only wish the leaders of the black community had spoken up earlier, before the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, before Michael Jackson had sleepovers with another dozen little boys, and before we had to look at that 40-year-old breast on Superbowl Sunday, after church, with our grandkids.

© 2004 Elizabeth Nickson The material at this website is available only for personal non-commercial purposes, and it may not be reproduced without permission.