Critical Thinking in a Hip-Hop World

Crusaders against gangsta rap often fail to include in their reform plans those most affected by its explicit sex and violence: young people, points out the Los Angeles Times (registration required). That’s where media literacy programs like the San Francisco nonprofit Just Think come in. “As activists busy themselves with boycotts and contemplate how low hip-hop culture has sunk,” reports the L.A. newspaper, “media literacy programs provide young people with the skills to process intelligently whatever that lowbrow culture should send their way.”