With the recession, inner-city crime, TV violence, the first Gulf War, the final Cold War tensions, etc., were the early '90s a frightening time to experience, compared to the calmer late '90s?

Yes it was. I also think things are getting that way again now, although it is still not nearly as bad as it was then as far as crime and gang violence, but it's heading in that direction nonetheless. The situation with Iraq has been an ongoing thing for this decade, and the possible war with Iran is on a lot of people's minds. Also, the economy going bad mixed with the stress is causing the crime rate to rise. Another factor is that in 2006, President Bush cut the programs that Clinton created which gradually reduced crime since the mid 90's, thus reversing the progress.

Not to mention MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, The New Kids On The Block, and Sinead O'Connor didn't help matters much....... :\'(

It was pretty scary. We had political upheavals in the former USSR, the Rodney King beating and accompanying race riots, war in the Middle East. There were some pretty tense years there during the early Clinton era, but not really because of Clinton.

Not to mention MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, The New Kids On The Block, and Sinead O'Connor didn't help matters much....... :\'(


;D

Things started to turn around for the better around 1995.

With the recession, inner-city crime, TV violence, the first Gulf War, the final Cold War tensions, etc., were the early '90s a frightening time to experience, compared to the calmer late '90s?



Yes.  Good observation. 

I think teenagers thought of ourselves as even more bad ass then you kids today do.  Just because we were like, "hey look at how violent and crazy the world is, we're living in hard edged, gritty times that other people didn't.  We're so super freakin' cool and special.  We're a misunderstood generation, we're different from the kids before us, blah blah blah"....that every group of kids has said since the 1950s.

Donnie, sometimes you get your observations and facts astonishingly correct for someone your age, but then you go and get another half of observations and facts that are way off base from the way it really was, and that sorta negates your good stuff.

Donnie, sometimes you get your observations and facts astonishingly correct for someone your age, but then you go and get another half of observations and facts that are way off base from the way it really was, and that sorta negates your good stuff.


Of course, I can observe the '00s and '10s correctly, once they're finished  ;)

By that time you will be in our position, listening to some kid ramble on about the '00s, probably insisting it was just a rerun of the 90s and that 2005 was just like 1999.  And you're gonna be like, "no it wasn't a rerun of the 90s!  I can tell you all kinds of differences".  And then he'll ask you what life was like in 2003 or 2006.  It's like, how do answer such a question.  uuhhh, well it was life. 

"Did you lock your doors back in the '00s and did kids smoke weed and get drunk?"

 ;)

The 90's were quite scary.  That whole Gangsta Rap movement, and the crime that came out of it.  Even the Grunge music didn't help make the 90's any less scary  :\'(

Yes.  Good observation. 

I think teenagers thought of ourselves as even more bad ass then you kids today do.  Just because we were like, "hey look at how violent and crazy the world is, we're living in hard edged, gritty times that other people didn't.  We're so super freakin' cool and special.  We're a misunderstood generation, we're different from the kids before us, blah blah blah"....that every group of kids has said since the 1950s.

Donnie, sometimes you get your observations and facts astonishingly correct for someone your age, but then you go and get another half of observations and facts that are way off base from the way it really was, and that sorta negates your good stuff.


I don't believe it was a thought, but an actuality.

I can't remember the exact number of physical fights I was either directly involved in or witnessed. It was not a great time.

Racism and xenophobia was also worse back in the early 90s (it has generally improved) than now. I remember names like 'wog', 'chink', 'dago' etc were used in the early 90s, but are used nowhere near as often nowadays.

Racism and xenophobia was also worse back in the early 90s (it has generally improved) than now. I remember names like 'wog', 'chink', 'dago' etc were used in the early 90s, but are used nowhere near as often nowadays.




Don't be fooled. Both still exist and may be getting worse.

Don't be fooled. Both still exist and may be getting worse.


Perhaps its just gone more underground...needless to say, we can't really ever get rid of it...

[quote author=wһіѕ

Racism is actually more acceptable now, because people can just use being "anti-PC" as an excuse.

The crime wave of the late '80s and early '90s was more due to urban unemployment as class inequality grew (the middle and upper classes rapidly growing, yuppieism swallowing up working-class resources), the corresponding racial tensions as (this applies to NYC, anyway) Asian and European immigrants moved into the inner cities as business owners and caused resentment, rising housing prices, and the crack cocaine epidemic. The last, bred by all the others, was the big cause of it, and peaked c. 1991, probably.

Racism is actually more acceptable now, because people can just use being "anti-PC" as an excuse.


I agree.  I don't think racism ever really went away, it's just shifted to other people.  For instance, black people are now envied by many suburban youth for their race (which in itself is pretty racist, actually, since they see them as "weird"), whereas it's pretty acceptance for people to make fun of Mexicans, for instance.

What I think is important to understand though, in any case of bigotry, is that people who are different in some way, whether it be race, sex, orientation, religion, whatever, do tend to have cultural differences, but that these differences should be celebrated rather than being looked on as inferior.  For instance, men and women really are different.  Does that mean one is superior to another, or that all men and woman are different in the exact same way? Of course not, but the solution to bigotry isn't to ignore differences that actually exist, it's to embrace and accept cultural differences and not acknowledge ones that don't really exist.  This is where I think the feminists go wrong; they want to destroy gender and make men and women exactly the same, as opposed to making each equally free and entitled to rights.

The early 90's were scary with the Gulf War starting early in the decade and of course, the gangsta stuff and what seemed to be an epidemic of East Coast/West Coast rivalry shootings. I would just say things were a bit scary, but not like today. Today is a lot worse because of our sudden fear of being bombed like we were on 9/11. We hadn't been bombed on home turf since Pearl Harbour, and we all know what became of that. So, the early 90's were not quite as scary to me. There were other things going on, but not on an international level of total threat.

The early 90's were scary with the Gulf War starting early in the decade and of course, the gangsta stuff and what seemed to be an epidemic of East Coast/West Coast rivalry shootings. I would just say things were a bit scary, but not like today. Today is a lot worse because of our sudden fear of being bombed like we were on 9/11. We hadn't been bombed on home turf since Pearl Harbour, and we all know what became of that. So, the early 90's were not quite as scary to me. There were other things going on, but not on an international level of total threat.


Plus, the Gulf War was very short, whereas the current war in Iraq seems like it will go on forever.  The early '90s were an innocent time compared to now.  Heck, the late '90s were innocent compared to now.

I think Racism is natural and intrinsic to human nature, and a society completely free of racism, while ideal, would be 'unnatural' (not that I promote or condone it, of course). Think about it, there have been few societies in history where racism has not played a role, and shaped societies. Even some close tribes in Africa despise each other on ethnic/racial grounds (look at Rwanda). The thing is, dis-mantling the mechanisms causing racism will be seen to erode the cultural identities of ethnic/minority groups, so it's a bit of a qaundry. But anyway, a whole new can of worms...

Now I don't know about (aboot?  ;D) in Canada,...


Canada Rocks!!! 8)


As Cypress Hill once put it in a song from the Temples of Boom album...."Up until the summer of '91 wasn't no mutha f**kas talkin' about smokin' blunts".  Gangsta rap was more about the low self esteem in inner city communities, especially in 1991 L.A. and 1993 New York.  It was, in fact, a scary and intense time in the early 1990s when crack and cocain, as well as marijuana use ran rampant up into the scene in mass amounts; high cost of living and low income in the inner cities; loss and hoplessness in a sense of belonging with the urban youth, causing the need to kill "anotha brotha" and rapping (aboot) it.  When the 1990s entered happier times c. 1995, gangsta rap started to get happy too, and I mean commercialized.  It's like back then, east coast rap talked about the trials and tribulations in the life a man went through, with a jazzy, smoky, Billie Holliday style sounds and beats to make listening more pleasurable.  It said to us....."hey, this is life....so we got to survive."  West coast rap was more...well...violent in its expression to the world, saying (and I am going to use euphamisms for this)..."look, if you don't give up the goods or represent the hood, I'll make your life end", drowning in saturated samples from George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and the Ohio Players.  Point is, styles of music were in grim and dark times during the early 90s, but both expressed how those times affected them and I have to give 'em props for making their mark in society...in the U.S. that is, eh 8)