Middle School Principal Defends Teaching Kids About Jay Z

Photo Credit: WREG Memphis
Photo Credit: WREG Memphis

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

Jay Z is without a doubt one of the most successful rappers to ever pick up a mic, and that surely has to do with the fact that the rapper has found plenty of success outside of music. He has gone on to create successful businesses and his latest venture Roc Nation Sports is already taking off just several months after its launch. But despite all of Jay Z’s success, parents of a middle school in Mississippi were not happy to learn that their children were learning about Jay Z’s path to success and they reached out to FOX News to complain. Here’s a snippet of the first post we wrote on the controversy:

 

According to Fox News, sixth graders at Desoto Central Middle in Mississippi spent three days learning about some of Hip Hop’s most successful artists and entrepreneurs in the country, and they even had to take a test on Jay Z’s resilience. One of the parents reached out to Fox News and said they were outraged their child was learning about Jay Z because they consider him a thug. She was also upset that one of the songs the kids studied was “Big Pimpin'” and some other song she says talked about his “thug life.”

 

Interestingly enough, the school’s principal Duane Case is defending the school’s choice, and he says the whole point of the course is to teach students how to overcome obstacles and succeed despite troubled beginnings. He also says Jay Z is just one of the individuals focused on in the course, and a handful of others will be studied such as Nelson Mandela and they haven’t had but two complaints since they began teaching the course three years ago. Case says selecting Jay Z was simply a move to offer more diversity in their studies and he revealed that the students were not reading lyrics to any Jay Z songs, despite a parent’s earlier claim:

“We are not promoting the way he talks. We are not promoting what he`s done in life. Some people have taken that one small part and added their own little twist on it. We just wanted to clarify that. That is not what we did, glorifying anything that he’s done. If we study the holocaust that doesn’t mean that we are glorifying Hitler.”

 

The principal says the whole point of the nine week course is to teach students about people who have risen above their circumstances, while also highlighting diversity and adversity:

“You can overcome anything if you continue to work.”

 

Principal Case says as a result of all the backlash and media attention on what he feels like is a misunderstanding of the course, the school is considering dropping Jay Z from the assignment.

14 comments

  1. I still don’t see the problem if they aren’t listening to his music or reading the lyrics. His story is a very inspiring one and I know Jay has inspired lots of people in business. Oh well.

  2. It’s hilarious how white people still feel like they are superior to everyone else. Everyone has a past, but for some reason if you’re black, they refuse to acknowledge your changes. What a self entitled and hypocritical race of people.

  3. They totally blew this out of proportion. Kids would be better off if they did read up on people who came from f-cked up situations to make it on FORBES. Not everyone is born into privilege. That’s why all these kids don’t have work ethic and lack motivation, Mommy and Daddy sheltered them too much.

  4. SMH. In America, you can make it out the hood and become a multimillionaire and business person. But if your skin is black, you will always be a thug to them. Funny thing is they don’t even call out the real thugs, politicians and those that own the banks. Idiots.

  5. Stupid people. Jay has never bragged on dealing drugs. He always said he wanted out of that life and his fans should too! It’s always those that don’t listen to his music or know his story that hate him so much.

  6. SMH what the principle said makes perfect sense, but it looks like you don’t believe your own words if you’re going to drop him from the course. So much for diversity…

  7. This type of sheltered parenting is going to destroy our country. Parents will object anything that makes their child (or themselves) slightly uncomfortable. There are people like a past Jay Z out there in the world, people that sell drugs, kill, steal, lie. And there are people like a current Jay Z who have overcome their obstacles, perservered, never gave up and became rich. Teach your kids about both. Don’t just tell them that those people exist but truly educate your children about what’s in this world so maybe they have a chance at surviving it without you one day.

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