Rap Sessions @ the University of Chicago

from the Chicago Tribune

Forum tackles hip-hop debate
Depiction of women discussed at U. of C.
By Lolly Bowean, Tribune staff reporter

On the heels of the controversy over radio host Don Imus' racial comments, hip-hop and its depiction of women was a hot topic Saturday at the University of Chicago.

No subject and no person was off limits, even hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

The community forum, called "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?," was planned months before Imus made disparaging comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, but the incident spurred a spirited discussion from the 500 or so at the forum. The event included a panel of scholars and authors who lecture, write and offer critical views on hip-hop.

Simmons was singled out by one of those panelists.

Award-winning author and feminist commentator Joan Morgan said that when Simmons recently met with a group of music industry executives about the sexist and demeaning portrayal of black women in hip-hop music, the only solution they came up with was to censor three sexist and racist words. But, Morgan noted, beeping out those words on radio and television broadcasts is being done already.

She said that shows that those with power in the music industry don't take the opinions of young, black women seriously.

Even without the hurtful words, some songs and music videos are just as hurtful, misogynist and damaging, said Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, director of the black studies program at Vanderbilt University, who also spoke at the forum.

"They want to deal with words, but not deal with their behavior ... their way of being," Sharpley-Whiting said. It's much easier to tackle language than to attack the sexist attitudes that are revealed in the music, she said.

See Video Here...

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"Niggerology" 101: A Conversation with Jabari Asim

from Salon.com

Who gets to use the N word?
by Mark Anthony Neal

Author Jabari Asim talks about the history of the loaded term, when its use is valid and why Don Imus' firing was justified.

April 25, 2007 When faced with increasing criticism for his "nappy-headed hos" commentary, Don Imus deftly flipped the conversation, suggesting that he found inspiration from the world of hip-hop. The conversation quickly and disingenuously turned into a debate about the role of hip-hop in spreading sexist and vulgar language, as if scripted by the folks at CBS Radio and NBC. Central to this discussion was the sense that a double standard exists where black male rappers are permitted to call women "bitches" and "hos" and are subject to little scrutiny while old white men like Imus face a public crucifixion for what some deem a bad joke. Author and longtime Washington Post Book World editor Jabari Asim had heard all of these arguments before in relation to the use of the word "nigger" in American popular culture. In his new book, "The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why," he places the focus squarely on American society and the undercurrents of white supremacy in our culture. Conceived long before the Imus story broke, "The N Word" provides a needed perspective on the controversy. Asim spoke to Salon about the use of the word, from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to N.W.A. to Imus, and set some boundaries for who can say it -- and where.

One of the things I thought about while reading "The N-Word" was Ralph Ellison. In his review of Leroi Jones' [Amiri Baraka] now classic "Blues People," Ellison quipped that the "tremendous burden of sociology that Jones would place upon the body of music is enough to give even the blues the blues." In that same vein, the amount of historical research and literary history that you present throughout "The N-Word" fundamentally demystifies the word.

I had my preconceived notions about the word, but I tried for them to not be a guiding influence. I wanted to be as open-minded as I could honestly be. I wanted to look into it and see where it led me. Let me just wander around in the culture, and I'm a greedy consumer of culture. Bakari Kitwana said to me that I'm obviously a bibliophile, and that's the one area where I had some confidence, so naturally I leaned on that -- a lot more than I could lean on music.

What was the conversation like with your publishers about the title of the book? Was the title your idea?

That was the working title from the beginning. I thought that was a marketable title because everybody knows what the N-word is. Where we went around the bend a little bit was on the subtitle, which was originally "race, metaphor and memory," because I kept thinking of the N-word as a metaphor for these various ideas involving citizenship and black inferiority, in particular. Later, my editor and I agreed on "a short history of racism" because ultimately the book is about white supremacy. Then the marketing people said that it wouldn't work, so they came up with the current subtitle. I didn't like it at all, but they said it was the difference of having the book displayed with the cover out front as opposed to just the spine. What it leads to, as the marketing people well knew it would, is that I've done about 50 radio interviews.

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David Halberstam Goes Home

When I entered graduate school in 1991, I sercretly desired to become the "David Halberstam" of the hip-hop generation. It was my hope that I would write the big social history of the post-Civil Rights era. Of course it was Bakari Kitwana and Jeff Chang who would eventually write those books, but I still always admired Halberstam's work. Nevertheless there's a big book in me about baseball and the black men who played it in the 1970s and David Halberstam will be one of the primary inspirations for it.

Listen to David Halberstam though the years on NPR's Fresh Air

A Night at the Museum

Grammy Award-winning producer Ninth Wonder explained his craft of record sampling at an event the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Professors Mark Anthony Neal from Duke and Kawachi Clemons from North Carolina Central University commented on the musical form's cultural roots.

Up at Bat: Davey D

from The Brian Lehrer Show (WNYC)

Have we reached a turning point on what's acceptable speech, in light of the Don Imus firing? Cora Daniels, journalist and author of Ghetto Nation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless; Davey D, columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, runs a website about hip-hop and politics; John McWhorter, senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute; Marc Maron, stand up comic and former Air America host; and listeners weigh in.



*Thanks to Jeff Chang for this.

Make the Music with Your Mouth

Professor Kim has posted an 18-minute audio interview with Rahzel. Here's a taste of Profesor Kim's narratve:

"RESPECT"--the 40th Anniversary

from the BBC Scotland--Songlines

S.O.N.G.L.I.N.E.S. demands your respect this week for a soul classic. Otis Redding first ignited the listeners’ attention before the song burst into flames with Aretha’s interpretation, transforming it into a rallying call for civil rights in America, as well as an anthem for women around the world. With host John Cavanagh and featuring Nikki Giovanni, Jerry Wexler, Mark Anthony Neal and others.

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Elaine B. Richardson Week at Case Western University

HUMANITIES WEEK DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES
Case Western University

ELAINE RICHARDSON

Critical Literacy and Discourse Practices of African American Females in the Age of Hiphop and the New Racism
Monday, April 16, 11:30 (Clark Hall 206)

My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black and Po in Cleveland
Tues, April 17, 11:30 (Clark Hall 206)

Racism, Sexuality, Class, Gender and Literacy
Wednesday, April 18, 11:30 (Clark Hall 206)

Elaine Richardson is a graduate of the Cleveland Public Schools and East Technical High School. She received her BA and MA in English from Cleveland State University, and her Ph.D. in English Composition and Applied Linguistics from Michigan State University. She taught at the University of Minnesota’s General College for two years before joining the English Department faculty at Penn State University, where she is currently an Associate Professor in English and Applied Linguistics.

Dr. Richardson has published several books. Her first, African American Literacies, focuses on teaching writing from the point of view of African American language and literacy traditions. Her most recent book, Hiphop Literacies, is a study of Hiphop language use as an extension of Black folk traditions. She is currently writing a book about her experiences growing up as a girl from the hood of Cleveland, and how she climbed out of the underworld to further her education and become who she is today. Its working title is PhD to PhD-from Po Ho on Dope to PhD: The Literacy Narrative of Dr. Elaine Richardson.

Additionally Dr. Richardson is an accomplished R&B vocalist, performing as the featured vocalist in the Cleveland-based band Fleshcoat. Their most recent release is Coat of Flesh.

Street Level: The Art of Sampling

Mark Bradford, Untitled (Shoe), 2003. Paper collage, 30 x 31 1/2 inches. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins and Co.

Exhibition
Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova and Robin Rhode
March 29 – July 29, 2007
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

The Nasher Museum presents the work of three promising early career artists, who are exhibiting together for the first time. For Mark Bradford (Los Angeles), William Cordova (Lima, Miami, New York) and Robin Rhode (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Berlin), the streets of their respective cities act as fluid, living sources of inspiration. Found objects, urban vernacular and performative gestures help build a foundation for their art, including painting, works on paper, sculpture, photography, video, installation and other mixed media. Their work explores the ways that cultural territory is defined and space is transformed in urban environments. This exhibition is the first at the Nasher Museum organized by curator of contemporary art Trevor Schoonmaker.

Panel Discussion: The Art of Sampling
April 17
7 PM

Mark Anthony Neal (associate professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke), Kawachi Clemons (who teaches the innovative hip-hop course at North Carolina Central University) and Ninth Wonder (hip-hop producer and DJ with Little Brother) lead a discussion and demonstration of sampling, both visual and musical.

Open to the public.

Free with admission.

Bakari Kitwana on Don Imus and Hip-Hop (New York Newsday)

The style, but not the substance
The words that Imus used are freighted with complex meaning that mainstream culture doesn't understand
By Bakari Kitwana

When Don Imus put his foot in his mouth on the air last week with a dirty and derogatory reference to young black women, he was articulating a message that had been clearly voiced by Michael Richards, Rush Limbaugh and countless others long before him. Ditto the white law students at the University of Connecticut who donned big booties and blackface this year on Martin Luther King Day, as well as the rash of undergraduates across the country, from Michigan to South Carolina, who somehow imagine that hosting "pimp and ho parties"is a good idea.

That message is this: The aesthetics of hip-hop culture - from the language and clothing to the style and sensibility - can be absorbed into American popular culture like any other disposable product without any effort or responsibility on the part of the consumer.

It is an idea in part ushered in by the marginal voices of black youth themselves, youth so eager to be visible that they gave up far too much of their identity in the interest of partnering with the corporate music industry. Together, and all the while green-lighted by the Federal Communications Commission, a handful of rap artists packaged and commodified rap music (not to be confused with hip-hop culture lived daily by countless youth around the globe at a local level, from graffiti and break dancing to deejaying, spoken word poetry and political activism.).

Encouraged by the quick bucks, this partnership was quickly reinforced by additional peddlers of one-dimensional images of young black men as violent, and women as oversexed bitches and hos - from filmmakers and television producers to music video directors, comedians and beyond.

These snake oil salesmen marvel at the gravitational pull that hip-hop exerts over American youth and see dollar signs. Drawing necessary distinctions between the various lifestyles (street culture, prison culture and the traditional culture of black America) that converge on the national stage isn't even an afterthought.

The result is what cultural critic Greg Tate addressed in his 2005 book, "Everything but the Burden." That is, far too many American consumers of black popular culture don't take the time to decode the complexity of black life that produces a 50 Cent, a Jay-Z or a Russell Simmons, multi-millionaires all, who peddle rap music riddled with the language of the street.

When I interviewed Jay-Z as I was completing my book "Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes and the New Reality of Race in America," he put it this way: "Hip-hop is not clothing or a place you go, this is people's lives, people's culture."

But who picks up the slack when this gets lost on the consumer?

Imus - and his defenders who claim they learned this language from hip-hop - are only partly correct, even as they are wholly dishonest. They would do themselves and the country a service by owning up to at least three facts. 1) Imus took liberty with a culture that he didn't fully understand, and when he got called on it, rather than coming clean, he pointed the finger at hip-hop to take the weight. 2) Clearly those far more powerful than rappers are complicit in bringing pimp and ho talk to the American mainstream. 3) If indeed Imus is a hip-hop fan, innocently consuming its language and aesthetics, that doesn't remove him from the responsibility to understand hip-hop cultural and political roots in all their complexity.

Rather than an ignorant fan chopping it up in the living room with one of his buddies, he's a public figure whose voice is heard by millions. His responsibility then is even greater.

That is why he had to be removed from his radio and cable TV networks. Lest folks inside the hip-hop activist community who were calling for such be deemed hypocrites, let the record show that media justice advocates such as Davey D Cook (of the organization daveyd.com), Rosa Clementes (of R.E.A.C.H. Hip-Hop) and Lisa Fagers (of industryears.com) have for years been very loudly challenging the music industry and rappers to raise the bar.

Read More...

***

Bakari Kitwana is director of Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop and author of The Hip-Hop Generation

Black Intellectuals: Davey D Sits Down with Michael Eric Dyson

Hip Hop, Scholarship & Race: Interview w/ Michael Eric Dyson
by Davey D

Michael Eric Dyson is by far one of the most spirited, passionate and sharpest people you will come across. Dubbed a Hip Hop Intellectual, over the years he's made is mark with a string of books (14 in all) that have covered all sorts of topics including 2Pac (Tupac Shakur), Marvin Gaye, Martin Luther King, Hurricane Katrina, and of course his favorite topic - Bill Cosby.

He just released his latest book called 'Debating Race' where he focuses on the current state of race relations here in America. In this book he takes on everyone from Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson to Black conservative Ward Connerly to George Bush' lap dog Condoleezza Rice to racist blowhard Bill O'Reilly and that ditzy airhead Ann Coulter. Dyson also weighs in on key issues like Hurricane Katrina, Manhood, Mexican Immigration and Reparations.

During our interview we started off by talking about the politics of academia and role Hip Hop plays on University campuses. We talked specifically about the types of challenges faced by professors who must publish certain types of books written in very specific and often times 'heady' language in order to be accepted and make progress in Academic circles. Dyson explained the struggle he once faced and what many emerging professor face now face where they get criticized and penalized for writing material that is easily understood by the masses. Its not considered rigorous scholarship by those can grant tenure or access. Dyson felt that Hip Hop scholars are now positioned to play important roles and can add immensely to the discussions that need to be taking place.


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Farah Jasmine Griffin on Public Apologies

Don Imus has apologized publicly for racially charged comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. But is an apology ever enough after racist remarks? Farah Jasmine Griffin, professor of English and comparative literature, and African-American Studies at Columbia University, discusses the value of public apologies with NPR's Farai Chideya.

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William Jelani Cobb: Black Culture in the Age Dave Chappelle

William Jelani Cobb, professor of history at Spelman College, talks to NPR's Farai Chideya about his new book The Devil and Dave Chappelle, a collection of essays about the art and politics of black culture.

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Guy Ramsey, Jr: Scholar, Musician, Father

Shock Jocks, Lady Jocks, and the Freedom of the Press-ing Comb

by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.

Can musical objects speak? Of course, they can. And if you attend any of my courses or lectures you’ll learn how they speak loudly, expressing profound riches where mere words can often fail. As we learned this past week, unfortunately radios personalities speak loudly, too.

I’m a father who raised two daughters in the long shadow of Title IX during an era in which young girls of aspiration were not only encouraged but expected to participate in sports as enthusiastically as their male counterparts. My daughters are both accomplished young women now. One decided mid-way in high school that while she had learned through the years to “suck up” a loss on the basketball court or soccer field, she couldn’t bare the thought of the abominable A-minus on an exam. Not to mention the elusive and unpredictable bad hair days. Ramsey “the younger,” however, preferred the full-court press to the “press and curl,” the pick and roll over the hair roller. She thrived on a hurdle, sprint, and triple jump and the requisite burnt midnight oil. She could live with a split end but not without a fast break.

I dedicate my two cents and sixty seconds to my athletic daughters and to all female-student athletes. No corporate-sponsored, mass-mediated, and ill-conceived insult can erase our pride in your accomplishments. May you continue to exercise your hard won choice to fly high during the game and to be oh-so-very “fly” after the buzzer sounds.

***

Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. specializes in African-American and American music, jazz, cultural studies, popular music, film studies, and historiography. Ramsey is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop ( University of California Press, 2003), which was named outstanding book of the year by IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). His current project, In Walked Bud: Earl “Bud " Powell and the Modern Jazz Challenge, is a study of jazz pianist Bud Powell and is forthcoming from the University of California Press. His band Dr. Guy’s MusiQologY has performed for audiences in South America, New York, Australia, the University of Pennsylvania, the Kimmel Center, and in Philadelphia venues such as Zanzibar Blue and Gloria's Seafood House. Ramsey composes and arranges all of MusiQologY's music, which moves beyond the traditional Jazz idiom, experimenting with R&B, Latin, Hip Hop fusions. The band’s first CD, Y the Q? will be available soon.

Kevin Powell on Don Imus, Race, and Sex in America

Don Imus, Race, and Sex in America
By Kevin Powell

I attended Rutgers University in the 1980s, I am a native of Jersey City, and I've always been proud of any accomplishments that have come from that state. So you can imagine my pride as the school's women's basketball team made its march through the recent NCAA tournament. Proud because Rutgers' coach, C. Vivian Stringer, one of the sport's great mentors, has had so many tragedies in her life, yet she has withstood them with grace, dignity, and a complete dedication to these young women, all underclass students. Proud because I noted the backgrounds of RU's players (the majority of them African American), many of them from inner city environments similar to mine; yet they had managed to avoid those minefields and had become, with their brilliant run to the championship game against the mighty University of Tennessee, an example for women and girls nationwide. Focus and persevere, their play seem to say, and you can achieve anything.

Yes, I was disappointed that the Lady Knights lost to Tennessee. But far more disappointing was radio personality Don Imus' “nappy-headed hos” remark the next day, Wednesday, April 4th-coincidentally the 39th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, engaged in the following exchange:

Imus: "That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos..."

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk quipped. "That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus added.

We know we live in a world of shock value humor and media commentary. We know that terms like “civility” have long gone the way of short basketball shorts. But there comes a time when an individual or an institution crosses the line, and that is precisely what Mr. Imus did. And no matter how much he apologizes, proclaims that he is “a good man,” details his charitable efforts that include African American children, what cannot be ignored, nor erased, is the fact that his views are typical of American males who continue to view women, and particularly Black women, as objects to be mocked, scorned, and beaten down, even when they do good, as the RU women clearly had done. This is nothing new, unfortunately. America has a long and terrible history, dating back to slavery, of disrespecting, degrading, and disregarding Black women. Of reducing Black women to sexual favor, to cook, cleaner (recall that Mr. Imus once referred to renowned Black journalist Gwen Ifill as “the cleaning lady” as she covered the White House), mammy, anything, really, except as whole human beings, as whole women. Little wonder, then, right into the twenty-first century, that we still have millions of Black American women and girls who feel inadequate, less than, who battle with identity issues, because this country's standard of beauty often does not include their body types, their skin colors, their hair textures. Mr. Imus' dis' is not some mere isolated incident. It is part of the American racial sickness that habitually views Black women and girls as unattractive, as ugly.

Add to this reality the present-day fact that mainstream corporate conglomerates have signed off on a popular culture-namely the hiphop industry-which has, for at least the past decade and a half, and without fail, portrayed Black and other women of color as vixens, strippers, and, yes, “hos.” Where do we think Mr. Imus got the term, if not from the vernacular of our times, put forth via record labels, radio stations, and video networks, and, yes, from far too many ignorant Black male hiphoppers, to describe women? Thus what we have is the crash collision of racism and sexism in the person of Don Imus.

Now, is Don Imus the problem by himself? Of course not, which is why I think calls for his dismissal are rooted purely in emotionalism and miss the larger issues here. Bigger problem number one is a federal government and a corporate hierarchy that have allowed destructive and despicable images and words regarding women to be transmitted, without any real regulation, for far too long, to the point where someone like Don Imus believes it okay to refer to women as “hos” on a nationally syndicated radio show heard by millions. Bigger problem number two is the American society we've become where, for the sake of profit and audience size, personalities, commentators, and pundits are allowed to spew all manner of hateful rhetoric, even as such language unwittingly reinforces negative stereotypes, perpetuates individual and mass bigotry, and wounds the self-esteem of the targeted recipients.

Imagine, for a moment, what those young ladies at Rutgers University must be feeling right about now. They lost the championship on national television, and then, the very next day, they are referred to as “hos” on national television and national radio. These are young women, in the formative stages of their lives, in a world, as I am sure Coach Stringer has told them time and again, which is already aligned against women in so many ways. You are a teenager, early twenties, at the most, and you have already been referred to as “hos” by a very powerful man with three-decades plus in the media. What do they have to look forward to from us men, regardless of what we do or say we are about, if this is as good as it gets? Sexism, clearly, knows no bounds and takes no prisoners.

Do I believe in freedom of speech? No doubt. Do I believe in irresponsible speech, regardless of the context, that could bring serious injury to others? No, I do not, not any longer, because I've certainly been on both sides in my own life journey. It is not right to project hate and abuse toward others, nor is it fair to be on the receiving end of it, either.

So where do we go from here? Don Imus should be fired. If he is not fired, he should be suspended for six months, not the two-week vacation he has been given by both CBS and NBC. That is a slap on the wrist and a disingenuous way of saying “We hope this blows over soon.” Mr. Imus needs to understand, during that real suspension, that there is a difference between charity and justice. What he does for children with cancer, including those Black ones he keeps mentioning, is charity. Justice means he understands in his bones that his actions and words have got to be consistent, otherwise all that wonderful work he and his wife do are for naught.

Next, CBS and NBC, Mr. Imus' employers, should each make a significant donation to Rutgers in support of a program selected by the women's basketball team, which means it wouldn't be limited to an athletic thing. And CBS and NBC should each immediately hire Blacks and other people of color and women as hosts or lead hosts for programming that parallels Mr. Imus' time slot in terms of importance, because we cannot ignore the on going problem of diversity, or the lack of it, in mainstream American media. Moreover, Mr. Imus' termination or suspension should constitute a two-strikes-you're-out policy regarding such vile remarks going forward for all radio personalities. In other words, the Federal Communications Commission needs to start doing its job, better, on all fronts and in protection of all Americans. If it could come after Janet Jackson and CBS for the infamous Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction,” then it should be monitoring and penalizing all radio speech, all television images, that can really hurt people in some way. Again, justice needs to be about consistency.

At the end of the day, this is not about political correctness. Nor is this about eliminating freedom of speech. We want diverse views and we want our humor, our commentary, and, yes, our rants. We are simply sick and tired of American humor, commentary, and rants that do not foster real dialogue, real thought, and that, when all is said and done, burn and destroy more bridges than they build.

***

Kevin Powell is a writer, public speaker, activist and author of 7 books, including SOMEDAY WE'LL ALL BE FREE (Soft Skull Press). He is based in Brooklyn, New York and can be reached at kevin@kevinpowell.net.

Soul Patrol's Bob Davis on Don Imus and Knee-GroW Radio

It seems to me that folks seem to have forgotten that the principle of "free speech" also applies to people who have opinions that differ from our own?

Broadcasters say things every day that might offend someone. Does that mean they should lose their jobs?

Hell, I have pretty much stopped listening to the radio because I can't find anything on it that doesn't offend me (except the traffic and the
weather).

The flip side of "freedom of speech" is "the freedom not to listen".

I find most of what is currently broadcast on "knee-grow radio stations" to be offensive.
They have freedom of speech to be offensive.
It's guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Therefore despite the fact that I'd like to see them removed from the
air, I simply don't listen to them.

I don't listen to Imus either for the same reason.
I have better things to do with my time...

I guess what I'm not quite understanding is where and why people get the time/energy to put into what a DJ says, but have so little time or energy to focus on other issues that might actually have a meaningful impact on their lives.

Freedom of speech isn't going away.
Neither is Imus.
But lets suppose for a moment that he did go away.

Would it change anything?

***

Bob Davis is co-owner/creator (with his brother Mike) of the award winning Soul-Patrol.com website. He is also the web master/moderator/editor/radio program director of Soul-Patrol

No Apologies: Note from a Nappy Headed Sister

No Apologies: Note from a Nappy Headed Sister
by Stephane Dunn

Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio," said a statement from the network. "As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments.

What? Are you kidding me? So, let me get this straight. If you’re a Hall of Fame Broadcaster with a rep for saying the ‘politically incorrect’, you can defame the character of a whole group of young women and in effect a whole race of women because you’re protected by the white male racy commentator thing, right? If you’re the big network somehow not in charge, quickly issue a hey-MSNBC-is-sorry-but-we-don’t-directly-own-the-radio personality-or-show declaration. Don Imus gave his regrets so can we be a little shocked and move on already?

Sorry, but I’m just too sorry. I’m sorry that a public radio show under the umbrella of a media powerhouse can cast black women as “rough girls”, “hardcore hos” and “nappy headed hoes” with blissful ease and with no expectation of severe consequence or sustained public censure. I’m sorry that Bernard McKurk, Don Imus, and their racist-sexist construction of the young ladies on the Rutgers’ basketball team are but manifestations of a continuing devaluation of the very humanity and physical distinctiveness of black women. Since Imus is far too lazy to endorse anything but the hype—that the whole of black womanhood is contained in a rap music video, he and Farkus didn’t even think of checking their mouths. Next, they’ll be shaking their heads in feigned ignorance and saying they were merely copying some rappers and thought ‘ho’ was merely the hip way of naming black women. I’m sorry that while Isaih Washington, Michael Richards, and even Mel Gibson took a justified lashing for their respective homophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic slurs and were forced to deal with the defamed group, Imus and his partner probably won’t be subject to nearly the same level of public condemnation. But forget the requisite fake apology tour, there should be sanctions and jobs hanging in the balance.

In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his infamous report on the black family and subscribed black family dysfunction to castrating, matriarchal black women. Imus and Farkus follow Moynihan in carrying on a tradition that has existed since before slavery was the law of the land--the privilege to demonize black women as animalistic, unwomanly, unattractive, and unworthy of respect. I don’t even need to intellectualize, historicize, or theorize this too much ‘cause it’s really just this plain. In a week where I attended a rousing rendition of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues as part of the V-Day, end violence against women campaign featuring Ensler and Jane Fonda, twenty-two year old Clara Riddles was shot dead in the CNN Center amid a crowd of onlookers and Don Imus and McGurk affirmed that the bodies and personhood of black women continue to be free texts for verbal violence too. I’m not sorry at all--‘sorry’ isn’t nearly enough.

***

Stephane Dunn is a writer, professor, and film journalist living in Atlanta, GA. She has published several articles on film, literature, and popular culture and is the author of the forthcoming Baad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas: Race, Gender, & Sexuality in Black Power Action Fantasies (University of Illinois Press 2007).

Esther's Got to Have It: A Book Party

A Book Party Celebrating the Release of

We Gotta Have It: 20 Years of Seeing Black at the Movies: 1986-2006 by Esther Iverem

The Know Book Store
2520 Fayetteville St., Durham, NC
Friday, April 13, 7:00pm
919-349-6203

Esther Iverem is is the recipient of a National Arts Journalism Fellowship, a contributor to numerous anthologies, a commentator on television and radio and a member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

Excerpts from early reviews:

"She is hands down one of the smartest cultural critics of her generation It's one of those books we gotta have." -- Robin D. G. Kelley

"In this groundbreaking collection, she proves that we have our own way of seeing, and appreciating, the movies." -- Tavis Smiley

"The work of African American filmmakers continues to outpace critiques and commentary by African American film critics. Esther Iverem closes this gap." -- Warrington Hudlin, president, Black Filmmakers Foundation

Is Barack the best choice for the hip-hop generation?

The East Bay Express

Chuck D vs. Obama: Is Barack the best choice for the hip-hop generation?
By Eric K. Arnold

Does the hip-hop generation finally have a viable presidential candidate? Before we answer that, a little history is in order. In 1984 and 1988, the Reverend Jesse Jackson ran for president of the United States. Jackson even had a rap song commissioned in his honor — Grandmaster Melle Mel's "Jesse" — yet in truth, the former MLK aide was much closer to the civil rights generation than to the then-emerging hip-hop demographic.

In 2004, Dennis Kucinich, an über-liberal congressman from Ohio, publicly stated he wanted to be the candidate for the hip-hop generation. Yet when directly asked, he couldn't name even one song by his favorite rapper, Tupac.

As the '08 campaign gets under way, with a Democratic field including self-aggrandizing ice queen Hillary Clinton and long-lost Duke of Hazzard John Edwards, Barack Obama seems the only logical choice for hip-hop generationers in 2008. Though he doesn't rhyme or namedrop rappers, the junior senator from Illinois has much in common with the hip-hop generation: At 45, he's (relatively) young. He's fresh. He's charismatic. He represents a new way of thinking. Oh, by the way, he's also black.

Even as media flacks debate his "blackness," Obama's greatest strength might be his ability to depolarize race. During a St. Patrick's Day rally at Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza, his overall message seemed to be "It's not a black thing, it's an American thing." Obama openly relished his lack of Washington experience (causing one middle-aged white woman to exclaim "Thank God!") while championing "politics not based on fear, but based on hope." Obama raised the specter of slavery and outlined proposed legislation to prevent racial profiling, yet his platform is otherwise typical moderate lib-Dem fodder: universal healthcare, education, disabled veteran support, ethics reform, opposition to the war, etc.

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Pimps Up, Hoes Down?

The Bitch Ho Problem
Vandy scholar explores the sexual politics of hip-hop
by Maria Browning

A crowd of rowdy young men enter a mansion that’s staffed by an army of voluptuous, thonged and bikinied women. They shake and pop and gyrate, bend over and spread their charms, take it from behind and get busy with each other. The guys haul them around like sides of meat, pulling their legs apart and shoving their asses toward the camera. But it’s cool: the girls are smiling because these boys have plenty of cash, and that makes it all right. The bills shower down on female flesh, along with champagne—and whatever else might be flowing. The climax to this conjoining of sex and money? A grinning man swipes a credit card between a girl’s ripe buttocks.

That’s pretty tame porn, you might say, and you’d be right—but it’s not porn; at least it’s not marketed as such. It’s the video for rapper Nelly’s hit “Tip Drill,” which has been beamed into millions of U.S. households via cable’s BET network, along with other rap videos in the same vein. Networks like MTV and VH1 show them, too. The “Tip Drill” video leads the pack in raunchiness, but only narrowly, and its lyrics are mild compared to some.

It’s rude stuff, but there’s no denying its popularity. Slick, sexed-up, beat-driven party rap is the most lucrative segment of hip-hop, and hip-hop has CD sales of more than a billion dollars annually, accounting for about 14 percent of the overall music market. That means a large chunk of current youth culture features the wild ho and the pimp who does her, pays her and kicks her to the curb as stock characters. They’re the Punch and Judy of the 21st century.

There’s never been a lack of voices condemning “indecency” in pop music, and rap has taken its lumps on that score since the days when Tipper Gore launched the Parents’ Music Resource Center. Rap has always loved the “f” word and the “n” word and a lot of other words that drive Mom crazy. But the brutal treatment of women has become far more pronounced as rap has entered the big money ranks of the music industry, and that has led to critiques from all sides, even from its supporters. Leaving aside the question of why the marketplace is suddenly filled with hypersexual music, it’s worth asking what effect it has on the kids who consume it.

Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting explores one aspect of that question in her book, Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women. While the “Tip Drill” aesthetic may be an insult to all women, Sharpley-Whiting contends it has a particular effect on young black women, who are still largely invisible elsewhere in mainstream media. Because there are few other images of young black women to balance it, the way they are portrayed in the world of hip-hop music and fashion is especially potent. Sharpley-Whiting believes what she calls the “pervasive misogyny” of current rap represents a real threat to black women, both in terms of how they see themselves and in how the world sees them.

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