Snap Judgements

I was in my American Government class the other day. The professor is very friendly, and always striking up conversations with students. He asked me what kind of music I listened to. Of course, I told him hip hop. He seemed pretty surprised, like he didn't understand. He said, as he understood it, rap music was very misogynistic. I told him that a lot of music is, or at least started out that way, not that there's an excuse for it. I also told him that hip hop has a lot of problems along the lines of what kinds of people it accepts. He gave me this look like he just didn't get it. I wanted to tell him that most of the stuff I listen to will never make it on the radio, and is not as misogynistic as he thinks. I felt like his understanding of "rap music" was the stereotypical middle aged white male understanding and judgement of a culture that is misrepresented. It's an example of public understanding of hip hop is so negative.