“50 Cent” a supposed music “artist” was recently heralded for his musical achievements in the medium of “music videos.” Mind you, having grown up in Northern New Jersey and having all my family in the Bronx and Queens, I thought I had heard it all. Now, as a teacher I will encounter the glorification of “50 Cent” in my school and maybe, even be treated to a favorite verse by teenagers parodying their hero. “Hoe make the pimp rich, I ain’t payin’ bitch.”

“50 cent” and “Snoop Dogg” are leading children into a duplicitous lie, where pimps are some perverse anti-hero, as if the business of procuring women and girls as prostitutes for profit is acceptable. Now in school, I must stop each student I hear discussing “bitch slappin” or “big pimpin” and give them a dose of reality of what those terms mean. Words are our means of communication, words carry impact and value and can scar and maim. Some defenders of this genre will hide behind the First Amendment. Freedom of speech comes with a price and that price is meant to benefit society. Try yelling bomb in an airport and see how free speech has limitations: for the good of the community rather than the individual. As a die- hard defender of the First Amendment, I would dishonor the framers intentions of free speech if I allowed this language to go unchallenged in and out of school.

After kicking around as an ironworker, laborer and other assorted jobs, I found my niche as a teacher. During a trip to New York City, I was propositioned by a sex worker, or as some would call a hoe. She was a beautiful African American woman, who was articulate and witty. During conversation, she told me that her parents had thrown her out of her house, professionals that ironically, worked in the same neighborhood I taught in. I gave her twenty dollars, told her to get a bus home and make up with her parents. Her eyes welled up and she hugged me and kissed my cheek and simply said, “thanks.” She told me no one on the street had every shown her any concern, unless a sexual act was part of the deal. I think of her from time to time, knowing that she probably didn’t meet the fate of Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman.” No, her world, now mocked by those who write lyrics about her pain probably had a wall of obstacles: a world of being subhuman, having no rights or being invisible.

The average entry into prostitution is 13 years old, just like the kids I will have in my science class and the age of my youngest daughter. The prevalence of incest among these girls and boys that enter prostitution runs between 65% to 90% and about 90% of all prostitutes have pimps, those glorious men in the big rimmed hats and fur coats that now are fashionable. The rate of rape reported by prostitutes hovers around 80%, with some girls raped eight to ten times per year: so much for the oldest trade in the world as being victimless. Add to this the rate of violence mainly by pimps, from broken arms to burnings with cigarettes and you may understand why I shudder when I hear a girl called a hoe in school.

We are letting our children’s childhoods’ evaporate, leaving them to navigate the shark filled waters of our new “everything is for sale” society. Many young girls will be wearing their September best for school: thongs for preteens called “eye candy”, overpriced shirts bearing a meaningless logo and listening to the numbing beat of music where profanity replaces creativity as adjectives. Their hallways are a verbal minefield where their appearance is judged and juried, but don’t worry, they can drown their sorrows in a can of Pepsi provided by the school. Corporate pimps look to make kids hyper-acute of themselves, where only self-indulgence and materialism are the placebos of medicating their self- doubt, inhibitions and fears. “Logomania” be it empty, profane verses of a song or an empty promise made in a corporate come-on can never fulfill a child like the love of a caring adult, the respect given by a peer or the knowledge of one’s self worth minus the glitz. This is no time to be obsequious lapdogs to those who look to “pimp” our children: no, it is time to find our internal resolve and show some moral courage.

The terms pimp or bitch have no place in school. For those who glorify such scum, I suggest society give them a square kick in the buttocks. If Snoop Dogg and his ilk are artists who care about the condition of inner city children, provide financial support to organizations that will give women a hand up, not a “bitch slap.” Sing about the true nature of pimps: the underbelly of society who should be an endangered species made extinct. Revel in the qualities that define one’s worth: no gaudy medallion or gratuitous T- shirt can give cover to your shallowness.

Teachers, refuse to have those words used in your class or hallways. Take time to explain what a pimp really is and how women do not cherish being sex workers: give your students a dose of reality. Reach out to those who are despondent, because the end of a rope or the edge of a razor may be their final solution to perceived insurmountable problems. Parents listen to what your children call music and have a loving discussion about the boundaries of what is acceptable and why.

Columbia Pictures, who plans to release an 80- minute cartoon about a nine-year old pimp, should feel your wrath. Does our society have a place for kids reveling in “Lil’Pimp T shirts” or playing out fantasies on a pimp board game? Don’t buy into the perverted spin that casts debasement be it in song or video as free speech. Call it for what it is: pawning children for profit, no matter the cost.

I will find myself humming to a rap song when I greet my students. Called “I Can” by “Nas”, it focuses on what children can be and should be, no exploitation, no false illusions about what determines their beauty as humans. “I know I can, be what I want to be. If I work hard at it, I’ll be where I want to be.”

The question is where are we as adults, as the wise elders who must lead? Do we know what we can be? 55 million school children await our decisions.

John F. Borowski is an environmental and marine science teacher in North Salem High in Oregon. He can be reached at jenjill@proaxis.com. His pieces have appeared in PR Watch, Counterpunch, Utne Reader, NY Times and other publications.

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