Comments

1. P. wrote:

   This is a completely unrelated issue, but since there’s no topic listing that I can find regarding the V. Tech shootings, I need to voice my fears in a forum that I respect.

   What scares me most about the events that just took place in Virginia isn’t the idea that folks like this killer exist. Instead, I’m terrified by the amount of repressed racism and race hatred that such an event spawns nation wide. Just take a brief glance at the blogs and listserves regarding this tragedy, and you’ll see what I mean.

   I don’t fully believe that all this hostility is simply a process of mourning. No, I think that some of these comments arise because people take advantage of catastrophes such as the one we’ve just witnessed to give us all a dose of hate. It’s sort of like the mentality that was in the air right after 9/11: suddenly calling out folks on there racist beliefs was looked at as unpatriotic, shallow political correctness. The irony is that times of crisis are exactly when we should be most alert to racist sentiments.

   Again, I’m sorry that this is off topic. But I’m rather frightened by the amount of racial slurs and general xenophobia that circulating through the media and cyberspace at the moment apropos of Virgina Tech. It’s things like this week’s tragedy that tend to lay out our national unconsciousness and at these moments I’m scared of Americans.

   Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 2:58 pm ¶

2. bertie wrote:

   I caught the second day “Hip Hop Responds” segment. The rap panelist included Rus Simmons, Kevin Liles, Common, and Rev. Ben Chavis. Gayle King had a second panel of Spelman students commenting via satellite. So you had the violators panel versus the violated panel.

   The gist of the rap panel’s response to sexism in hip-hop was that (i) yes…there is sexism in rap lyrics, (ii) rap’s sexism is a reflection of greater problems in society–poverty, racism, oppression, etc.–, and (iii) to fix the lyrics we must first fix the greater social ills.

   I found the “poverty/oppression makes them call you a b@tch” logic a complete cop out. Plenty of artist in the past have come from poor or oppressive circumstances (umm Jim Crow anyone?) and managed to write songs without demeaning women. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the panel.

   I was also disppointed with shows format as well. While the rappers/record companies are part of the problem, so is radio, BET and MTV. But no one from these major media outlets was on the panel. Nor was Radio/MTV/BET’s role in perpetuating the problem by adding demeaning songs and videos to their playlists addressed.

   I was further dissappointed that the industry reps (ie “the culprits”) were all male and all black.

   Where were the complicit industry black women like Sylvia Rhone (vp at Universal Music), Debra Lee (pres. BET), Cynthia Norman (pres MTV), Cathy Hughes (owner Radio One). Where were the white guys, the Sumner Redstones (CEO Viacom), Jimmy Iovine (Interscope ceo), etc.

   It seems like Oprah wanted to simplify the issue for her audience as “black men demeaning black women for profit.” The make up of the two panels–the perpetrators (panel of all black males) versus the victims, (panel of all black women) seemed to underscore this point. I don’t think its that simple–as a diversity of mouths are getting fed off offensive lyrics. I wish Oprah would have tried to highlight the complexity.

   Lastly, the way the show was formatted, there seemed a sense that white folks did not have a stake in this argument. All the panelist were black and all the audience members comments came from blacks. There was no other voices chiming in on the issue. Very little was made of the fact that a large percentage of rap music is consumed by whites–ie the sons and daugthers of Oprah’s demographic. Yet their voices were not heard.

   Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 5:57 pm ¶

3. Maxjulian wrote:

   I think Bertie nailed it. All the black faces when the context within which all of this behaviour operates is racism/white supremacy. I kept thinking, “who controls the companies that put out the overwhelming majority of this garbage?” “Why is it that ‘conscious’ rappers don’t get airplay?”

   It is no accident that the corporations that record, market and produce this music are predominantly white, as are the companies - liquor and shoe, for example - that ally themselves with rappers.

   It is nothing short of mind control/programming black men and women for self destruction.

   Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 7:10 pm ¶

4. Lyonside wrote:

   P: Check it here:

   http://www.racialicious.com/2007/04/16/now-that-we-know-the-virginia-tech-gunman-was-asian/

   Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 10:53 pm ¶

5. Adrianna wrote:

   Bertie your post is right on!!! I can’t believe Russel Simmons was the only hip hop mogul there. He refused to answer the filmmaker Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes in the PBS documentary on these issues . I knew he was going to do the same on Oprah. It’s sad to say, but this is going to change nothing. It’s going to take a women movement in the black community for things to change. I hope when if it happens it ’s going to spread all aver the world.

   Posted 20 Apr 2007 at 12:42 am ¶

6. MNC wrote:

   Bertie is dead on. I think there is a lot of hypocrisy with regard to this whole Imus flap. There also seems to be a problem with context in this whole arguement as well. People miss the fact that all the “-isms” have context and that hip hop and Imus don’t exist in a vacuum. America/Americans don’t embrace past or recent in any useful or realistic way so much so that everything becomes an “isolated incident.”

   Also, the whole move to be anti-racist is squashed when we do things like Carmen noticed Oprah did by filling the audience with black faces for a “black issue.” Sometimes we as people of color can isolate ourselves so much that we begin to believe that we really are the sole cause of the “race problem” and that the weight of “solving” that problem is all to be hefted on our shoulders.

   Then you throw in a healthy dose of the “opression Olympics” syndrome and we find ourselves only responding to slurs against our “own kind” and not speaking up against all forms of “-ism” when they happen.

   I could go on forever especially since I have seen first hand how the companies who profit from perpetuating these racist and sexist images try to respond, absolve, and redeem themselves all at once when they are called to task.

   As a person on the lower rung in this sort of organization, I find myself conflicted daily knowing that my rent is paid by the dissemination of these images thus making me a partner in these crimes as well.

   Posted 20 Apr 2007 at 10:08 am ¶

7. Kenny wrote:

   Bertie pretty much said it all.Imus makes a racist remark and Black men are to blame for this too.The Black women who audition and are paid for dancing in the videos were not acountable either of course.The women who also buy these records and sing along and dance to them have no fault either.The blame a Black guy” syndrome was in full ,but subtle effect on Oprah.

   Posted 20 Apr 2007 at 10:17 am ¶

8. S wrote:

   And the cop-out “shift the blame on the white man and poverty” syndrome has been in full effect since Hip Hop lyrics have come under fire.
   In essence, what are most these rappers saying? “White men have been sexist and nobody’s saying anything, but when they talk about hip hop, they call us sexist. It’s a double standard. Blah Blah Blah.” So, since the white man does it too, means rappers can’t think for themselves and change for themselves? For their sisters, mothers and daughters? They can’t be the first one to put a stop to this video ho mess? JUST BECAUSE women are showing up DOESN’T MEAN you have to make a sexist video. We need more backbone and balls in the black community, or else it’s gonna be every man for himself as it appears to be now. Looks like it’s gonna have to start with mainstream women and “video hoes” themselves, and that in itself sounds almost inconceivable, but it can happen.

   Posted 22 Apr 2007 at 6:08 pm ¶

9. Donna Darko wrote:

   I highly recommend this post at Ubuntu:

   http://iambecauseweare.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/j-on-public-discussions-about-commercial-hip-hop-andvs-black-women/

   and the 1991 article linked on there:

   The development of a Black feminist sensibility is no guarantee that Black women’s interests will be taken seriously. In order for that sensibility to develop into empowerment, Black women will have to make it clear that patriarchy is a critical issue that negatively impacts the lives not only of African-American women, but men as well. Within the African-American political community, this recognition might reshape traditional practices so that evidence of racism would not constitute justification for uncritical rallying around misogynistic politics and patriarchal values. Although collective opposition to racist practice has been and continues to be crucially important in protecting Black interests, an empowered Black feminist sensibility would require that the terms of unity no longer reflect priorities premised upon the continued subordination of Black women.

   http://bostonreview.net/BR16.6/crenshaw.html

   Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 1:00 am ¶

10. mnc wrote:

    donna, the article you link to reminds me of when elaine brown came to my college to discuss her book. she spoke a lot about the sexism she encountered during her time w/ the black panthers and the patriarchal views that were rife in “the movement.”

    angela davis was a visiting professor at the time and was not present at elaine brown’s talk. apparently there is some bad blood btw. her and elaine brown. i never got to bottom of their hard feelings toward one another, but i always thought elaine brown had a point about the patriarchy that existed in many quarters of the progressive 60s movements.

    Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 12:02 pm ¶

11. Donna Darko wrote:

    I saw that talk too and she was invited to that campus again this year! She also spoke about the media hyped claims of violence of the Black Panthers. When I have time, I will read her book, A Taste of Power. Who knew something happened btw her and Davis but with all the sexual violence that went on within, women’s relationships can get strained.

    I don’t GIVE A F*** if white men blame black men (Imus), or black men blame white men and corporations, the bottom line is women are being hurt. I know there are tons of so-called hip hop feminists male and female who don’t get coverage unless you look for it. But I like how men and women are unapologetically speaking up now. Russell Simmons banned the words, ho, bitch and n***** today and that is the start of a more public dialogue.

    Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 7:51 pm ¶

12. Donna Darko wrote:

    White feminists have been screaming and marching against white male sexism since the 1800s so it’s not singling out sexism of communities of color. They scream and march every week about something somewhere. There’s rallies and very public campaigns of white feminism in mainstream news all the time. So communities of color aren’t being scapegoated. WOC feminism is just an idea whose time has come.

    Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 8:08 pm ¶

13. Donna Darko wrote:

    oh someone’s gonna get upset at that. woc feminism has existed since time immemorial but white feminists have been able to very publicly protest. woc have been able to protest as publicly and unapologetically.

    Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 8:56 pm ¶

14. Donna Darko wrote:

    *not been able to protest as publicly and unapologetically

    i very publicly protest white male sexism and spread the meme everywhere that we need to examine and deconstruct masculinity because of this stupid war on terror, bush, etc. i’ve been protesting white male sexism for many years.

    Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 9:00 pm ¶

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