"Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?"
About this Quote
Then he flips the script with a pop-cultural wedge: rap as an unintentional antidote. Not because music magically “solves” racism, but because fandom creates intimacy. If a kid’s emotional world includes Snoop Dogg as an icon - a voice in their headphones, a personality they quote, a style they admire - the old racist lesson (“that guy is less than you”) starts to sound incoherent. Jay-Z is arguing that contempt requires distance, and pop culture collapses distance faster than any lecture.
The subtext is savvy: integration doesn’t always arrive through policy; sometimes it sneaks in through taste. This is also a quiet flex about hip-hop’s power. The genre that was once treated as a menace becomes a conduit for cross-racial identification, forcing a teenager to choose between inherited bigotry and their own genuine attachment.
Contextually, it’s a Jay-Z move: pragmatic, street-level sociology delivered as conversational logic. No moral sermon, just an everyday scenario where racism fails the vibe check.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jay-Z. (2026, January 17). Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/racism-is-taught-in-the-home-we-agree-on-that-67765/
Chicago Style
Jay-Z. "Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?" FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/racism-is-taught-in-the-home-we-agree-on-that-67765/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?" FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/racism-is-taught-in-the-home-we-agree-on-that-67765/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.







