It is disappointing to see the hip-hop theme night at Old Town’s Spiral Video Dance Bar end because of the ludicrous lack of judgment of a single person that early Thursday morning. Although club management have done the right thing in ending the theme night - presumably to protect patrons from potential future violence - we shouldn’t view the incident as an affront on hip-hop music or culture.

Hip-hop should not take the blame for the late July shooting outside the club, 1247 Center St. Spiral was full of responsible hip-hop fans that night, and club management have spent nearly $1,000 per Wednesday on security to provide the safest environment inside the club possible.

The Lansing area hip-hop community has long struggled to establish a place for where fans can go to enjoy the music and have a good time.

But an incident like this only serves to set things back, and damages hip-hop’s reputation. And as long as there are those who come out to cause trouble, a viable venue for hip-hip will never be established in the area.

Unfortunately, that means a lot of people will be punished for the actions of a few.

Hip-hop’s popularity continues to grow, but as the genre becomes more successful, it’s fans must do their part to end the violence that threatens the culture.

Even if Lansing establishes another venue for hip-hop, people who fear for their safety will not frequent that place and the violence that has threatened every other recent hip-hop club will take aim there, too.

This is the real tragedy, as the positive fans lose out on a place to have a good time, solely because of the foolish actions of a very few.