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Youth UpRising Welcomes Gutter Rapper
as "Career Counselor"
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| Too Short, YU director Olis Simmons |
The weekly East Bay Express let music columnist Eric K. Arnold write a story about Too Short, who specializes in raps that demean women and glorify pimps. Now he is engaged in an attempt to purchase respectability at the Youth UpRising agency, as a "career counselor" no less.
Too Short began his career in Oakland, but feeling under pressure from hangers on, the IRS, and a wrongful death lawsuit, he lived for a dozen years in Atlanta. (Encyclopedia of Popular Music and rapnews.net) In 2006 he returned to California.
Making a false show of balanced reporting, Arnold quoted from the ORPN website. A co-founder of ORPN sent this letter to the Express in reply:
Editor: Music columnist Eric K. Arnold glorifies rapper Too ("Hey b*tch") $hort and his political-economic hookup with the management of Youth UpRising. For credibility, Arnold needed the pretense of talking to a critic. I declined to be interviewed when he submitted a list of questions modeled on, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
So Mr. Arnold cribbed from the website of a group I co-founded, Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods. However, he could read more carefully. Contrary to his statement, I am not now and have never been an attorney.
Mr. Arnold repeated City Hall's chant that we can't arrest our way out of Oakland's problems. Who said we can? (To be sure, arrests are way down.) The real issue is that Oakland has only half a police department. We need at least 1,100 police for this city of 410,000 residents, not the 700 or so we have today. Then officers could walk the neighborhoods, respond when we need help, and actually investigate and apprehend criminals.
Instead, City Hall diverts police money to Youth UpRising, even while the agency helps promote sideshows. No one condemned everything it does; health checkups are great. However, Oakland residents should reflect on two things about Youth UpRising.
First, consider that the city council handed Youth UpRising a virtually unconditional five-year grant of $1.5 million without competitive bids. The City gives the agency annual grants on top of that.
Second, ask yourself whether there is any reason to believe your neighborhood will be less plagued by "boom car" stereos, by auto thefts, home burglaries, and violent robberies as the result of an opportunistic partnership between Youth UpRising management and gutter rappers.
Charles Pine
Oakland
The East Bay Express depends on advertising from clubs, record labels and other entertainment businesses. It is regrettable that the editor chose a music columnist to cover this topic instead of one of the Express's top-notch investigative reporters.
Here are excerpts from a reader's comment on the Express website:
As a resident of east Oakland who lives in the flatlands below I-580, my family and I are constantly dealing with gunshots, sideshows, burglaries, prostitution etc., etc. We see firsthand every day what east Oakland is all about, and to us ORPN has been a breath of fresh air.
When I was young we all wanted to be rock stars, but in reality very few of us earn our livings today in the entertainment industry. I don't think it is going to be any different for most of the youngsters at Youth Uprising.
I do not have a problem with people like Too Short spending their money to help kids in East Oakland, but I do have a problem with Measure Y money being spent on Youth Uprising because that money should be going to hire more cops so the people of Oakland can walk the streets without being shot, robbed, raped, etc.
Oakland leaders need to fund the basic services such as public safety, clean streets, and good schools before they fund recording studios for future hip-hop stars.
– Sept. 9, 2007
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