Is Gangsta Rap Sending the Wrong Message?

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 12, 2004 that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: “Factor” Follow-Up segment tonight: As you know, we have severely criticized the rap world for coarsening American society and hurting kids; two more examples for you.

First, a rapper named Joe Budden (search) has a song that suggests aborting a baby.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

JOE BUDDEN, RAPPER: Pray that she abort that, if she's talking about keepin' it. One hit to the stomach, she's leakin' it."

(END AUDIOTAPE)

O'REILLY: One hit to the stomach. Isn't that nice?

And another guy named Jadakiss (search) has a best-selling rap that asks the question, why did Bush “knock down the Tower,” suggesting the president was responsible for 9-11?

There's no question the whole rap industry is out of control. And joining us now from Los Angeles is syndicated columnist Star Parker, a member of Care Net, a national network of crisis pregnancy centers.

I'm not surprised by this. I mean, we had Eminem (search) saying that he was going to beat up his pregnant wife and kick his mother and all of that. That was years ago. And now we have this guy is suggesting that if the girl won't have abortion, you kick her in the stomach.

What I am surprised at is that it continues to get worse and worse and worse. You know, and it doesn't seem to be any end in sight, does it?

STAR PARKER, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE: Well, it doesn't, Bill. But there's a bigger question on the table. It's when we call this behavior anti-social in an environment where we say that there are no absolute social standards, it's very difficult. And what these rappers are doing is interjecting their ideas on what they might call reality into bigger debates.

The debate on the president is one thing, in an election year. But the debate on abortion has serious implications against the black community. We're talking about law — the Roe v. Wade — has, frankly, committed genocide against African-Americans in this country. We're talking about an attempt to just take away a natural consequence to irresponsible sexual behavior.

But yet, in the black community, we're looking at one out of three pregnancies in an abortion. That's 1,400 a day, 500,000 a year, 13 million since Roe v. Wade. We should be concerned, as a community of people and so should the entire nation.

O'REILLY: OK. But you can't have genocide, because black Americans and white Americans who have abortions are doing it to themselves. Nobody from the outside.

PARKER: They're doing it to themselves. But the implications on black America are very critical at this point, because just at the current abortion numbers, just at the current rate in the African-American community, in less than 20 years, some studies are showing that blacks will be just a footnote in American history.

O'REILLY: Sure. I mean, it could definitely impact on population and all kinds of things. But this guy doesn't know that. He doesn't know about these stats.

PARKER: No.

O'REILLY: All he knows is that he's trying to shock people into buying his rap stuff, and that he knows that he'll get attention. And he is, because we're doing a segment on it.

PARKER: That's right. But we have to look at the bigger question and the bigger picture. What is it that they're really asking for? It is up to us, as a nation, to define these two realities. He's saying that there's a reality. That's a reality of evil. But there is a reality of good. And what we need to do is call ourselves some more social responsibility as a people.

And our culture has said to these people, these young people growing up in these broken homes, these ones that are making this rap music, our culture has told them that they can choose whatever they want to.

O'REILLY: Absolutely.

PARKER: And there are no real consequences to it.

O'REILLY: That's what Bill Cosby's getting at. You know, I wrote my column.

PARKER: Yes, he is. Yes, I saw your column.

O'REILLY: I wrote my column this week on Bill Cosby. And he's right, but he's wrong, too. I want people to go to billoreilly.com or read the "New York Daily News" today and you'll see it. But Cosby's saying the same thing you are, but in a different context.

Now, you come to this, Ms. Parker, from a very personal way. You had four abortions, is that correct?

PARKER: Right. I did not only come from four abortions — a background of believing the lie of the left that I can do whatever I want to with my sexual energies and that there were these safety nets to my decisions, whether the safety net was abortion. But after that fourth pregnancy, the fifth time I was pregnant, I just looked out at my choices in life and decided to go into the welfare state and ended up living there three-and-a-half years consistently. I lived in there seven years. So, I know what I'm talking about.

O'REILLY: People are going to say at home, how could an intelligent woman like you get pregnant five times and not want to be pregnant? How could that happen?

PARKER: How could it happen? When you create an environment that says you can do whatever you want to — I talk about this in my book, "Uncle Sam's Plantation," that tells people, in particular, when you're coming from hard-hit inner-city neighborhoods, that you do not have to think about your life or the consequences of any decisions that you make.

We have these safety nets. It is very easy to get into reckless living, because it's easier to go ahead and just abort sometimes as opposed to looking at…

O'REILLY: So, you didn't even care. You just didn't care.

PARKER: Well, no, I didn't care. And I was only part of the statistics of why.

O'REILLY: Right.

PARKER: And we're seeing the implications in all areas of our lives today.

O'REILLY: Oh, sure, and it's worse now than when you were coming up, because you have this pervasive rap music and terrible other entertainment.

PARKER: Not just there, but I want to talk to you about in your article.

O'REILLY: We only have 20 seconds. Go ahead.

PARKER: Even in the school systems, so it gets right back down — that's why we can't allow them to the public schools, as you said. The government needs to get out of education. It comes down to deciding on absolute moral standards in our society.

O'REILLY: OK. Ms. Parker, thanks very much. We appreciate it.

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