This man is a children's entertainer. No clowns, no balloons, no party hat. But, as sure as you're breathing, this man, the gangsta rapper who calls himself "The Game," is a children's entertainer. He knows it. His record label knows it. In fact, everybody seems to know it except you—the parent who stupidly puts money in this man's pocket, paying him to ruin the lives of your children. The record labels' public posture is this "gangsta" stuff is all adult entertainment. The industry has labeled its wares with big warning stickers to that effect, and stores aren't supposed to sell their product to minors. But there is no legally enforceable statute to prevent retailers from selling this stuff to whomever they want, and the primary consumers of this type of entertainment are teens and children. Fatherless children, I would imagine, are the most vulnerable to this mess because those kids are the most in need of role models. Risk is exciting. Breaking rules, and by extension laws, implies risk. Gangstas and bad boys are exciting. Half-dressed bad girls are titillating and appear to be popular in those videos. This prurient content promotes an attractive lifestyle to impressionable youth. White youth, perhaps living vicariously through black culture, are the primary consumers of this material, but the collateral damage is within minority communities. Blacks and Latinos may not, in fact, spend as much money on this stuff, but they absorb and emulate the culture, burning pirated copies and passing them along. It is life imitating art without much grounding in either, and with no real lessons in the consequences of negative behavior. Every time you pay that cable bill—whether you allow this stuff to be viewed in your house or not—you put money in this man's pocket. Cable and satellite companies may allow you to block certain content, but you are still paying for—and therefore financing—all of it. Even with a block on BET or MTV, those companies still receive royalty payments from the cable and satellite carriers, and that money flows on to finance the phony culture that is ultimately destroying the black family.

What you allow into your home reveals who you are.