The impact of words, especially collectively, matter. Currently, 28 of the top 50 hit songs on Spotify contain the Explicit lyrics label.
These songs routinely call women the b-word, use the f-bomb and n-word ubiquitously and call for and glorify violence. A Google search of the word racism in their news category generates 153,000,000 hits.
As a point of contrast, the word U.S. Constitution generates 67,200,000 hits, Equal rights is 63,000,000 and Equality pulls 49,300,000.
Sensationalism sells, and the entertainment and media industry know it. Over the weekend, NPR ran four stories in a row on racism and, during the promo break, they advertised an upcoming story on…. systemic racism, of course.
If music lyrics and news media constantly sing, print, and preach hate and promote culture wars, then that has an impact on how people view their world. After a while, people start believing it, whether it is true or not.
Garbage in. Garbage out.
