This New York Times editorial, which ran in today’s Tennessean as well, really made me think this morning. (The NYT won’t let you read the column online without subscribing to their paid service, so I’ve linked to a full-text posting of it elsewhere. So there.)

I’m just going to confess now that I completely do not understand hip-hop culture. Why does it glorify violence, drug use, prostitution and even a much lesser “offense” like dressing like a complete idiot? Why would anyone want to be perceived as a criminal?

Is it that our larger, dominant white culture has taught many African-Americans that they will not be allowed to achieve our culture’s measures for “success?” Have some African-Americans, especially young men, said, “screw your culture,” and decided to celebrate being outcasts? Since they are on the outside looking in when it comes to our culture, have they decided that they will instead establish another culture, one that they can succeed in?

Have African-Americans who embrace hip-hop culture effectively said, “If you won’t let us be a part of things, we’ll be a part of something else?” If you feel like you already live in a society that isolates, ostracizes and demoralizes you, is the best response to celebrate individuals who excel at achieving that disenfranchisement on your own and revel in it? I’ve lived in middle-income white America for 100 percent of my life and had all kinds of advantages that most minorities do not have, so I’ll admit that I just don’t know.

Is part of this about having the power of self-determination? Are young men who embrace the violent and destructive elements of hip-hop culture effectively choosing to become the vilest criminals they can before society tries to put that label on them?

If I’m in the right ballpark, how do you ultimately change that? As Bob Herbert wrote, how do you return to a culture that focuses on noble agents for change, such as Martin Luther King, instead of 50 Cent? And how and why in the world did that shift happen in the first place?