Why The Double Standard When It Comes To Violence?

SURGEON General Joycelyn Elders was recently asked by a congressional committee about the causes and cures of violent crime.

When you really think it through, Dr. Elders said, it is clear that violent crime is rooted in poverty.

Dr. Elders, meet Tupac Shakur. Shakur will be going on trial soon for his role in facilitating the gang rape of a young woman in New York city. At the time of this alleged incident he was awaiting trial for allegedly shooting two off-duty police officers in Atlanta after a traffic dispute. His past includes other violent episodes, including an attack on a man with a lead pipe.

But Shakur isn't living in poverty. In fact, Shakur is rich. He is one of America's premier gangsta rappers.

So is Snoop Doggy Dogg, charged in November as an accomplice to murder. Snoop's past includes a drug conviction and numerous parole violations. His latest album, "Doggy Style" debuted at number one.

Another rapper, Flavor Flav, of Public Enemy, is facing charges for attempted murder after chasing and shooting at a neighbor he accused of fooling around with his girlfriend. Not that Flavor Flav is chivalrous. He did a brief stint in jail for punching his girlfriend.

All of these guys could face prison for violent crime. Why? Because they have no job, education or employment skills? Hardly. They are at the top of a billion-dollar industry.

But they also embody a culture that sees black women as "bitches" and "whores," and black men as obsessed with sex, contemptuous of authority, and worthy of respect only in relation to their capacity to kill or maim others.

Hmmm. Isn't that how David Duke sees inner-city black people too?

Why are hateful words against blacks regarded as evil if uttered by whites, but tolerated - even rewarded by platinum albums and standing ovations at rap concerts - if shouted by blacks?

And why the double standards when it comes to violence?

Last year, more black men were killed by other blacks than have died in lynchings throughout the entire history of America. If a car stuffed with skinheads started shooting at black people, unshirted hell would be unleashed. But so long as the perpetrators are black . . . and the victims are black . . . it's treated as just another incident in the 'hood.

Gangsta rap nourishes and glorifies this mentality. It aims plenty of hatred toward others, especially the police. But its essence is self-hatred.

A perfect snapshot of these suicidal values comes from 24-year-old Lichelle "Boss" Laws, one of the fastest-rising female rappers in the country.

Laws' rap is vulgar, graphic and incendiary. She curses violently, incessantly, brags about her collection of automatic weapons, drinks malt liquor from 40-ounce bottles, and talks about her desire to kill people.

Laws talks often about her tough life on the streets. Last week she told the Wall Street Journal that she has sold drugs and hung out with the Bloods street gang. She also says she spent time in the joint.

She didn't. In fact, quite the opposite.

Lichelle Laws grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Detroit. Her father, a retired auto worker, used to take the family out to dinners, movies and plays. Occasionally he'd drive through the rough part of town to emphasize the importance of getting a good education. Lichelle went to private schools, studied ballet and piano, and went to church.

While in college, she got turned on to rap music by a friend. They formed a group and performed at campus gigs. But when she and a friend moved out to L.A. to try and make it big, things changed.

"I tried the straight-up, nice girl approach," she said. "It didn't work."

Laws started "dressing down" in gang garb, writing explicitly violent and sexual rap lyrics. Lichelle claimed that during this period she was living on the streets, but her mom told the Journal that the family always sent their daughter money. "Lichelle could have stayed at the Embassy Suites with all of the money we were sending her," she said.

Lichelle is now with a record label owned by Sony. She struts around on stage during concerts bellowing "I don't give a (expletive) about none of y'all!" that is obvious.

But the values she discarded to make it big drive home the feebleness of blaming inner-city violence on poverty.

"This killing is not based on poverty," Jesse Jackson said recently. "It is based upon greed and violence and guns."

Gangsta rappers and hard-core street gang members thrive on this greed and violence, and inject it throughout our culture. In doing so they have revealed an awful secret: Mayhem, violence and inhumanity against black people is still tolerated and excused, so long as the predators aren't white. This brings little comfort to a grieving mother or friend, but it's worth celebrating in the music industry.

John Carlson is president of the Washington Institute for Policy Studies in Seattle and hosts an afternoon program on KVI (570 AM). His column appears Tuesday on editorial pages of The Times.