Status Updates From Let It Bang: A Young Black ...

"The idea endures that country music is based on wholesome values, but studies are finding otherwise. Country and rap lyrics, once you peel away the cultural differences, have generally similar violent through-lines. (What's more, country music actually makes more references to drugs than any other major musical genre, while rap makes the fewest.)" (23) I wish these studies were in the endnotes for my own nerdiness

"That was when I learned from Lizzie that you don't comment on how many guns a person has. You don't ask how many guns they've bought. You don't ask how many guns they've sold. 'It's like asking how much money you make, or how many times a week you have sex with your wife,' Lizzie said. 'You just don't do it.'" (17)

"I brought up the idea that country music is just as bad as rap music in its characterization of violence. That it was just as bad as hip-hop in its depiction of women as objects, and to act as if that statement wasn't true was the sort of exercise in arrogance that black people weren't allowed." (22)

I need to get back into this. I picked up the book after hearing the author on a radio show. However, the writing doesn't engage me. The author uses swear words for no apparent reason, just to seem tough perhaps. I'm not a prude. The writing just isn't engaging.