My 2 Cents: Flocabulary Inappropriate in OKC Schools

By Kelly Ogle, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- After looking at "Flocabulary's" hip hop lessons in the textbooks some Oklahoma City teachers brought to us, I understand their concern.

I scanned through the U.S. History book today. It comes with a CD of rap songs with the printed lyrics in the appropriate chapter. My first impression, white people don't come out looking very good in these hip hop history songs, and I don't think we need added racial tension in our schools.

For instance, the chapter on America's founding fathers is titled "O.D.W.M," which stands for "Old Dead White Men." The rap for that chapter includes the lyric, "his slaves be thinking they're going to jump this boy," and later "White men getting richer than Enron, they're steppin' on Indians, women and blacks."

Andrew Jackson's forced removal of the Indians is compared to Hitler's Holocaust.

Talking about the 1920's a rapper says: "KKK wearing their sheets, as if they weren't white enough, those dumb junkies.

Some lyrics are just stupid or inappropriate for middle school and high school text books.

Talking about the Supreme Court the rapper says, "..the dudes in the robes, What they wear under there nobody knows."

Another compares Aaron Burr's duel with Alexander Hamilton to Dick Cheney's hunting accident.

Other text books by this company I thumbed through today smell of a political agenda. I'll be interested to hear why Oklahoma City decided to use them.

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