found this on another site, what ya think?
Letter from James C:
yo ras
Bullshit that you'll ever get this message, but anyway..Im from New Zealand and I wouldn't consider myself a racist person.You're song nature of the threat is pretty fucking racist, I understand where youre comming from tho, but I think the way to cure racism is'nt to remind the racists of the facts or try to prove them wrong by doing some research, it's not that simple. It will take thousands of years for people of different nations to become socially accepted in some places. I think hip hop and rap creates racism, it creates ghetto's and places black people and other races apart
eg: white people can't rap its only for black people...
In New Zealand now the native people and the surrounding Islands now think there from the ghetto, but their getting paid benefits from the government for being unemployed, having children, being single, crippled etc. It's not the same and you understand what Im talking about that isn't the ghetto or wateva, but its creating crime and seperation.To tell you the truth many people are imaging themselves and having people like yourself as role models , are your songs gonna solve the problem?
-sugarsniffer
Response from Ras Kass:
"The best way to predict future behavior {is} to examine past behavior"- Don Dahler
"Guess it's not so bullshit, I got your letter. To be completely honest with you James C. I think your letter is rank with racism, or at least ignorance. at the worst -stupidity. I'm not calling you stupid but to say that hiphop/rap creates racism is just not an intelligent thing to say. Rap has existed for about 20-25yrs James. I don't think the Dutch who colonized South Africa a few hundred years ago were listening to 50cents album. The Spanish Conquistadors who slaughter the natives up and down Central America didn't have the new Kay Slay mixtape; not even the American whites had any Run DMC, or P.E. when, after 400 years of chattel slavery, they bombed churches killing defenseless children and barbarically beat "peaceful protesters" because they wished to exercise their right to vote. And that was just about 40yrs ago! Racism yes; No rap tho! Actually, James you prove my point. You are exactly the reason why it's important that songs like Nature of a Threat exist. To hold a mirror to the face of the oppressor because the oppressor tends to live in a false reality. It's easier to go to sleep at night if you don't have to be reminded how many "natives" you fucked over to live as comfortable as you do. Don't get defensive because you don't like the reflection.
Any University/College history professor will tell you that history is usually written for the point of the victor. Whoever wins tell the "story". The purpose of a Nature of a Threat is the same as why a mother teaches her infant child to speak, write, and not to touch fire; to transmit acquired learning experience. That way the next generation has the "sum total of knowledge" that his ancestors pass on. If all of us had to start from scratch meaning, create a language, learn agriculture, etc, we would have no civilization. Likewise, because especially in America (and apparently in New Zealand too), non-whites are so mis-educated we are constantly having to start from scratch. Meanwhile whites are also mis-educated but it's a curriculum that tends to favor the Eurocentric way of thinking. That's probably how you could even try to equate Hip Hop with "single, crippled" (Natives) who create crime cause they want to be ghetto. I mean, be for real man, crippled people are your society's downfall because they need economic assistance? How fuckin' heartless are you? You ever thought maybe the natives never asked you to be there in the first place? To answer your question tho, knowledge is power. I am not God and I do not purport to have all the answers on how to solve the problem of racism, but I do believe that if a man doesn't treat you right then by no means will he teach you right. All I did was gather as much information from credible sources to paint the most accurate truth I could. In the end it's ironic that you're offended because I simply told the TRUTH. Maybe you should ask yourself if you're a part of the problem...be a part of the solution!"
original poster:johnny cochran
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