|
From SeeingBlack.com The 411
This particular hate speech, referring to Black women as bitches and hos, is, of course, promoted big-time by Black hip-hop artists, starting with West Coast so-called gangsta rappers such as Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Some rappers say that this is the only kind of expression that lands them a contract with the same big money, mainstream media. So Imus and his White buddies aren’t saying anything new or outrageous. They are only speaking through another media outlet that does not bleep out the offending words, as is done on music radio stations that play “clean” versions of songs. Similar hate speech was broadcast last year when syndicated radio host Neal Boortz said Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s hairdo made her look “like a ghetto slut" and when Rush Limbaugh described the alleged victim in the Duke lacrosse case as a "ho." A few years ago, viewers of the top-rated “Monday Night Football,” were shocked to see the word “ho” superimposed over the image of an attractive young Black woman in a flippant commercial for Ice Cube’s “Friday After Next.” For more than a decade now, through music, movies and television, popular culture has made “bitch” and “ho” a synonym for women, particularly Black women. The expression is so common that young girls, from the inner-city to suburbia, can be heard referring to each other with the same words and defending their right to use those words because it is no big deal. The popular culture is teaching them that, on some basic level, all women have to be some kind of bitch or whore to make it in the world. All the more reason to be outraged by the comments of Imus and his buddies, directed toward a group of student athletes, who personify everything other than the drive to be another music video vixen (or singer, model or actress) who performs half naked or with the scent of sex for the same big money media machine. Though no more hateful than recent, controversial airings of the n-word, the epithets bitch and ho, as well as comments about Black women’s hair or bodies (such as in the recent hit movie “Norbit”) emphasize a particular denigration of Black women. As Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal says, these expressions emphasize that “Black women and their bodies have little value, little protection, and are accessible” for insult and violation. These words also serve to dehumanize Black women, to make us another class of human beings. It goes without saying that the young women of Rutgers do not deserve this. None of us do. So as much as we’re tired of addressing it, we have to take another, better page from hip-hop and say we “can’t stop, won’t stop” calling hate and ignorance what it is. Beginning Friday, April 13 in Durham, N.C., Esther Iverem will be reading and signing books in support of her new book, We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006, which is being released by Thunder’s Mouth Press: Please save the date to join her at an event near you. Check www.SeeingBlack.com for an updated list of events. You can also order the book at Amazon.com or at your favorite bookstore! April 13—Durham, N.C. 7 PM The Know Bookstore and Cultural Center 2520 Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC 27707 (919) 682-7223 April 14—Atlanta, GA 5-7 PM Medu Bookstore Greenbriar Mall 2841 Greenbriar Parkway Atlanta, GA 30331 (404) 346-3263 medu@bellsouth.net April 17—Charlotte, N.C. 7 PM Borders Books, Music, Movies and Café Northlake Mall 6801 Northlake Mall Drive Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 596-4382 April 20—New York, NY 7:30-9 PM Alumni Book Fair Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Rotunda of Low Library Columbia University 116th and Broadway Served by Columbia University Bookstore April 22—Queens, N.Y. 1 PM The American Museum of the Moving Image 35 Avenue at 36 Street Astoria, NY 11106 (718) 784-0077 April 26—College Park, MD 7 PM Vertigo Books 7346 Baltimore Ave. College Park MD 20740 301-779-9300 One block south of campus on Rt. 1 May 12—Washington, DC 4-6 PM Busboys and Poets, the Langston Room 2021 14th St., NW Washington, DC 20009 202-387-7638 (Tentative) May 17--Washington, DC 7 PM TransAfrica Forum Writer’s Corner TransAfrica—Arthur Ashe Library 1629 K Street, NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20006 202.223.1960 June 1—Los Angeles, CA 7 PM Eso Won Books 4331 Degnan Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90008 Tel: 323-290-1048 June 16—New York, NY 3-6 PM Smai Tawi Center 106 Kingston Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11213 (718) 221-4325 (tentative) June 21—Oxon Hill, MD Prince George’s County Memorial Library 6200 Oxon Hill Rd. Oxon Hill, MD 20745 (301)839-2400 © Copyright by SeeingBlack.com |
