Snoop Lion

This Daily Mail article (link above) addresses recent photos which show Snoop Lion (formerly Snoop Dogg), smoking a bong with his 18 year old son, Corde. The general tone of this article and any subsequent discussion I've come across is incredibly negative. Snoop Lion is characterized as "failing" his son for smoking pot with him, because he is perceived as encouraging and enabling his son in his use of marijuana and hence all the negative qualities associated with marijuana ie. laziness and a lack of ambition. This is particularly salient because Corde just recently turned down a football scholarship to focus on becoming a musician like his father, and the underlying  message is that Snoop is a bad parent for allowing his son -- a legal adult -- to make this decision.

The furor over Corde and Snoop's pot-smoking relates directly to the issues addressed in Nancy Lesko's article concerning the association of "normal" adulthood with white maleness, individuality and productivity. Playing college football is perceived as a healthy, normal, productive American male thing to do (if you ignore the likelihood of injury), and turning your back on that opportunity in order to make music and smoke pot is seen as inherently immature, foolish and, I would argue, is associated in this instance with racist notions of the lazy, uncivilized, unproductive black man. This is particularly ironic considering the fact that Snoop Lion is an incredibly successful musician who has had a prolific career spanning several decades, and the likelihood of his son succeeding in that industry is high considering his father's influence and connections.

Fears that Snoop Lion is failing his son by smoking pot with him (an element of Snoop's religious belief system) surely highlights our society's discomfort with seeing a successful black man, who has chosen a different (non-normative) path for himself, pass along "non-normative" values (non-white, non-masculinist) to the next generation. Additionally, the idea that Snoop should have better control over his son and not address him as an equal reinforces the notion that young people are inferior, are incapable of knowing themselves and require adult intervention to direct them towards proper ways of being in the world.

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