Category Archives: books

Saul Williams' Open Letter To Oprah Winfrey

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

From Kalamu. 

An open letter to Oprah 4/18/7: From Saul Williams

Dear Ms. Winfrey,

It is with the greatest respect and adoration of your loving spirit that I write you. As a young child, I would sit beside my mother everyday and watch your program. As a young adult, with children of my own, I spend much less time in front of the television, but I am ever thankful for the positive effect that you continue to have on our nation, history and culture. The example that you have set as someone unafraid to answer their calling, even when the reality of that calling insists that one self-actualize beyond the point of any given example, is humbling, and serves as the cornerstone of the greatest faith. You, love, are a pioneer.

I am a poet.

Growing up in Newburgh, N.Y., with a father as a minister and a mother as a schoolteacher. At a time when we fought for our heroes to be nationally recognized, I certainly was exposed to the great names and voices of our past. I took great pride in competing in my church’s Black History Quiz Bowl and the countless events my mother organized in hopes of fostering a generation of youth well versed in the greatness as well as the horrors of our history. Yet, even in a household where I had the privilege of personally interacting with some of the most outspoken and courageous luminaries of our times, I must admit that the voices that resonated the most within me and made me want to speak up were those of my peers, and these peers were emcees. Rappers.

Yes, Ms. Winfrey, I am what my generation would call “a Hip Hop head.” Hip Hop has served as one of the greatest aspects of my self-definition. Lucky for me, I grew up in the 80s when groups like Public Enemy, Rakim, The Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, and many more realized the power of their voices within the artform and chose to create music aimed at the upliftment of our generation.

As a student at Morehouse College where I studied Philosophy and Drama, I was forced to venture across the street to Spelman College for all of my Drama classes, since Morehouse had no theater department of its own. I had few complaints. The performing arts scholarship awarded me by Michael Jackson had promised me a practically free ride to my dream school, which now had opened the doors to another campus that could make even the most focused of young boys dreamy, Spelman. One of my first theater professors, Pearl Cleage, shook me from my adolescent dream state. It was the year that Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” was released and our introduction to Snoop Dogg as he sang catchy hooks like “Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks…” Although it was a playwriting class, what seemed to take precedence was Ms. Cleage’s political ideology, which had recently been pressed and bound in her 1st book, Mad at Miles. As, you know, in this book she spoke of how she could not listen to the music of Miles Davis and his muted trumpet without hearing the muted screams of the women that he was outspoken about “man-handling.” It was my first exposure to the idea of an artist being held accountable for their actions outside of their art. It was the first time I had ever heard the word “misogyny.” And as Ms. Cleage would walk into the classroom fuming over the women she would pass on campus, blasting those Snoop lyrics from their cars and jeeps, we, her students, would be privy to many freestyle rants and raves on the dangers of nodding our heads to a music that could serve as our own demise.

Her words, coupled with the words of the young women I found myself interacting with forever changed how I listened to Hip Hop and quite frankly ruined what would have been a number of good songs for me. I had now been burdened with a level of awareness that made it impossible for me to enjoy what the growing masses were ushering into the mainstream. I was now becoming what many Hip Hop heads would call “a Backpacker”—a person who chooses to associate themselves with the more “conscious” or politically astute artists of the Hip Hop community. What we termed as “conscious” Hip Hop became our preference for dance and booming systems. Groups like X-Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Arrested Development, Gangstarr and others became the prevailing music of our circle. We also enjoyed the more playful Hip Hop of De La Soul, Heiroglyphics, Das FX, Organized Konfusion. Digable Planets, The Fugees, and more. We had more than enough positivity to fixate on. Hip Hop was diverse.

I had not yet begun writing poetry. Most of my friends hardly knew that I had been an emcee in high school. I no longer cared to identify myself as an emcee and my love of oratory seemed misplaced at Morehouse where most orators were actually preachers in training, speaking with the Southern drawl of Dr. King although they were 19 and from the North. I spent my time doing countless plays and school performances. I was in line to become what I thought would be the next Robeson, Sidney, Ossie, Denzel, Snipes… It wasn’t until I was in graduate school for acting at NYU that I was invited to a poetry reading in Manhattan where I heard Asha Bandele, Sapphire, Carl Hancock Rux, Reggie Gaines, Jessica Care Moore, and many others read poems that sometimes felt like monologues that my newly acquired journal started taking the form of a young poets’.

Yet, I still noticed that I was a bit different from these poets who listed names like: Audre Lourde, June Jordan, Sekou Sundiata, etc., when asked why they began to write poetry. I knew that I had been inspired to write because of emcees like Rakim, Chuck D, LL, Run DMC… Hip Hop had informed my love of poetry as much or even more than my theater background which had exposed me to Shakespeare, Baraka, Fugard, Genet, Hansberry and countless others. In those days, just a mere decade ago, I started writing to fill the void between what I was hearing and what I wished I was hearing. It was not enough for me to critique the voices I heard blasting through the walls of my Brooklyn brownstone. I needed to create examples of where Hip Hop, particularly its lyricism, could go. I ventured to poetry readings with my friends and neighbors, Dante Smith (now Mos Def), Talib Kweli, Eryka Badu, Jessica Care Moore, Mums the Schemer, Beau Sia, Suheir Hammad…all poets that frequented the open mics and poetry slams that we commonly saw as “the other direction” when Hip hop reached that fork in the road as you discussed on your show this past week. On your show you asked the question, “Are all rappers poets?” Nice. I wanted to take the opportunity to answer this question for you.

The genius, as far as the marketability, of Hip Hop is in its competitiveness. Its roots are as much in the dignified aspects of our oral tradition as it is in the tradition of “the dozens” or “signifying.”

In Hip Hop, every emcee is automatically pitted against every other emcee, sort of like characters with super powers in comicbooks. No one wants to listen to a rapper unless they claim to be the best or the greatest. This sort of braggadocio leads to all sorts of tirades, showdowns, battles, and sometimes even deaths. In all cases, confidence is the ruling card. Because of the competitive stance that all emcees are prone to take, they, like soldiers begin to believe that they can show no sign of vulnerability. Thus, the most popular emcees of our age are often those that claim to be heartless or show no feelings or signs of emotion.

The poet, on the other hand, is the one who realizes that their vulnerability is their power. Like you, unafraid to shed tears on countless shows, the poet finds strength in exposing their humanity, their vulnerability, thus making it possible for us to find connection and strength through their work. Many emcees have been poets. But, no, Ms. Winfrey, not all emcees are poets. Many choose gangsterism and business over the emotional terrain through which true artistry will lead. But they are not to blame. I would now like to address your question of leadership.

You may recall that in immediate response to the attacks of September 11th, our president took the national stage to say to the American public and the world that we would “…show no sign of vulnerability.” Here is the same word that distinguishes poets from rappers, but in its history, more accurately, women from men. To make such a statement is to align oneself with the ideology that instills in us a sense of vulnerability meaning “weakness.” And these meanings all take their place under the heading of what we consciously or subconsciously characterize as traits of the feminine. The weapon of mass destruction is the one that asserts that a holy trinity would be a father, a male child, and a ghost when common sense tells us that the holiest of trinities would be a mother, a father, and a child: Family.

The vulnerability that we see as weakness is the saving grace of the drunken driver who because of their drunken/vulnerable state survives the fatal accident that kills the passengers in the approaching vehicle who tighten their grip and show no physical vulnerability in the face of their fear. Vulnerability is also the saving grace of the skateboarder who attempts a trick and remembers to stay loose and not tense during their fall. Likewise, vulnerability has been the saving grace of the African American struggle as we have been whipped, jailed, spat upon, called names, and killed, yet continue to strive forward mostly non-violently towards our highest goals. But today we are at a crossroads, because the institutions that have sold us the crosses we wear around our necks are the most overt in the denigration of women and thus humanity. That is why I write you today, Ms. Winfrey. We cannot address the root of what plagues Hip Hop without addressing the root of what plagues today’s society and the world.

You see, Ms. Winfrey, at its worse, Hip Hop is simply a reflection of the society that birthed it. Our love affair with gangsterism and the denigration of women is not rooted in Hip Hop; rather it is rooted in the very core of our personal faith and religions. The gangsters that rule Hip Hop are the same gangsters that rule our nation. 50 Cent and George Bush have the same birthday (July 6th). For a Hip Hop artist to say, “I do what I wanna do/Don’t care if I get caught/The DA could play this mothafuckin tape in court/I’ll kill you” epitomizes the confidence and braggadocio we expect an admire from a rapper who claims to represent the lowest denominator. When a world leader with the spirit of a cowboy (the true original gangster of the West: raping, stealing land, and pillaging, as we clapped and cheered.) takes the position of doing what he wants to do, regardless of whether the U.N. or American public would take him to court, then we have witnessed true gangsterism and violent negligence. Yet, there is nothing more negligent than attempting to address a problem one finds on a branch by censoring the leaves.

Name calling, racist generalizations, sexist perceptions, are all rooted in something much deeper than an uncensored music. Like the rest of the world, I watched footage on AOL of you dancing mindlessly to 50 Cent on your fiftieth birthday as he proclaimed, “I got the ex/if you’re into taking drugs/ I’m into having sex/ I ain’t into making love” and you looked like you were having a great time. No judgment. I like that song too. Just as I do James Brown’s “Sex Machine” or Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines.” Sex, drugs, and rock and roll is how the story goes.

Censorship will never solve our problems. It will only foster the sub-cultures of the underground, which inevitably inhabit the mainstream.

   Oshun

There is nothing more mainstream than the denigration of women as projected through religious doctrine. Please understand, I am by no means opposing the teachings of Jesus, by example (he wasn’t Christian), but rather the men that have used his teachings to control and manipulate the masses. Hip Hop, like Rock and Roll, like the media, and the government, all reflect an idea of power that labels vulnerability as weakness. I can only imagine the non-emotive hardness that you have had to show in order to secure your empire from the grips of those that once stood in your way: the old guard. You reflect our changing times. As time progresses we sometimes outgrow what may have served us along the way. This time, what we have outgrown, is not hip hop; rather it is the festering remnants of a God depicted as an angry and jealous male, by men who were angry and jealous over the minute role that they played in the everyday story of creation. I am sure that you have covered ideas such as these on your show, but we must make a connection before our disconnect proves fatal.

We are a nation at war. What we fail to see is that we are fighting ourselves. There is no true hatred of women in Hip Hop. At the root of our nature we inherently worship the feminine. Our overall attention to the nurturing guidance of our mothers and grandmothers as well as our ideas of what is sexy and beautiful all support this. But when the idea of the feminine is taken out of the idea of what is divine or sacred then that worship becomes objectification. When our governed morality asserts that a woman is either a virgin or a whore, then our understanding of sexuality becomes warped. Note the dangling platinum crosses over the bare asses being smacked in the videos. The emcees of my generation are the ministers of my father’s generation. They too had a warped perspective of the feminine. Censoring songs, sermons, or the tirades of radio personalities will change nothing except the format of our discussion. If we are to sincerely address the change we are praying for then we must first address to whom we are praying.

Thank you, Ms. Winfrey, for your forum, your heart, and your vision. May you find the strength and support to bring about the changes you wish to see in ways that do more than perpetuate the myth of enmity.

In loving kindness,
Saul Williams

"It's Men's Attitude, Stupid!": A Commentary About Imus, Hiphop And Sexism

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Just got this from Akila Worksongs.  

“It’s Men’s Attitude, Stupid!”: A Commentary About Imus, Hiphop And Sexism

By Byron Hurt

April 24, 2007

As a response to the Don Imus fallout surrounding his racist and sexist rant hurled at the blameless Rutgers University women’s basketball team – and to the dramatic shift and intense media glare on hip-hop’s sexism and misogyny – Russell Simmons and Dr. Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, leaders of the New York-based Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, bowed under mounting criticism and pressure, and announced this week that they will make a strong push to have the words “nigger,” “bitch,” and “ho” bleeped on mainstream public radio stations nationwide.

That is not enough.

As an anti-sexist activist, pro-feminist African-American male, I have had the unique and interesting experience of rolling up my sleeves and working with thousands of boys and men in the United States around sexism, men’s violence against women, and homophobia. I have worked with boys and men across race, education, and class lines, and I know how deep and complex these issues are. In my lectures and workshops, I acknowledge my own past as someone who was sexist, and who, as a heterosexual man, behaved badly with women. I am also very candid about how I still grapple with certain gender issues that to this day confuse me. I challenge guys to speak out about sexism, and inspire men to join in the effort to end men’s physical, emotional, and sexual violence against women. I show men how all of these issues hurt men as well as women.

Over the past 14 years years, I have been in the belly of the beast delivering this message. I’ve been in locker rooms with male athletes, on U.S. Marine Corps bases with young Marines, on-campus with black and white fraternity members, and in closed-door sessions with men in positions of authority at colleges and universities. I have also addressed, to a lesser degree, men in law enforcement, and batterers in court mandated battering intervention programs.

My current mission is to engage young men from the hip-hop generation – men who, it seems, are today’s lone scapegoats for centuries-old patriarchy, sexism and misogyny. Let the truth be told, hip-hop’s misogyny is indefensible and must be confronted. But hip-hop is surely not the only place where boys and men are informed about girls and women. From the recent Supreme Court decision to ban partial birth abortion, to “men’s interests” magazine covers donning scantily clad female celebs, to hard and soft-core pornograghy that subjugate women – men are bombarded daily with messages about gender. Even as a woman, Senator Hillary Clinton, mounts a formidable campaign to become the first female president of the United States, the messages about gender in popular culture are clear – men rule the world, and women are sex objects, bitches and ho’s.

Hip-hop’s sexism is only a piece of a much larger puzzle.

I am a hip-hop fan. At 37 years old, hip-hop music has been the soundtrack of a huge chunk of my life. But as I learned more about gender issues as an original member of Northeastern University’s Mentors in Violence Prevention Program, I began to question hip-hop’s ever-present macho themes and images. I grew up with hip-hop, but hip-hop did not grow up with me. I became so weary of hip-hop’s testosterone that, in 2000, I decided to do something about it. Over a period of six years, I directed and produced Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, an award-winning PBS documentary film about violence, sexism, and homophobia. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to standing ovations in 2006, and won best documentary at the San Francisco Black Film Festival.

The film is getting around. It is being shown on college campuses from Howard University to Harvard University. And last month, Firelight Media launched a year-long community engagement campaign to use the film as a media literacy tool in communities across the country. National and local community partners include: A Call to Men, Mothers Day Radio, YWCA–Racial Justice Project, Gender PAC, Youth Movement Records, Reflect Connect Move, HOTGIRLS, Inc., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Center for Family Policy and Practice, and The P.E.A.C.E. Initiative. Additional events are planned in collaboration with this year’s Essence Music Festival, the Congressional Black Caucus, Rikers Island, and the Open Society Institute. The goal is to help young people, using hip-hop as a catalyst for discussion, think critically about the myriad gender issues in hip-hop specifically, and in the larger American culture in general.

The Ford Foundation has also pitched in providing resources for a Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes Historically Black College Tour to further conversations about the gender politics of Hip-Hop culture on black college campuses.

For several years now, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network has done some great work for the hip-hop community. Through a series of national workshops, panels, and seminars called “Hip-Hop Summits,” Simmons and Muhammad have helped register thousands of young people to vote, have confronted the unjust Rockerfeller Drug Laws, which disproportionately sentences black and brown men for non-violent drug offenses, and they do much to educate aspiring artists and businessmen before they enter the music industry. As hip-hop entrepreneurs, they do much to give back.

But Simmons and Muhammad’s action plan to have radio stations bleep the words “bitch” and “ho” on public airwaves is at best, a Band-Aid solution for a much larger problem. As Jackson Katz, author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help, says “… if men’s violence against women truly carried a significant stigma in male culture, it is possible that most incidents of sexist abuse would never happen.” I agree. Men who are not sexist need to send the message to other men that sexism and misogyny is not cool.

As men, we are woefully uneducated about gender issues. Many of us, with some exceptions, have never had a serious conversation about sexism. For decades, women all over the country have led the charge to eliminate men’s sexism and violence. But largely due to male privilege and sexism, men across racial lines have not listened. We posture, we resist, and we call it male bashing. I know, because I was once one such man. As Don Imus did so cunningly in the week after his transgression, we deflect and push blame onto someone else. In Imus’ case, hip-hop, whose face is largely black and male, was the convenient bogeyman. As men, we all need to acknowledge our sexism and take responsibility for our actions, and then work hard to change. Men are conditioned to be sexist, and we can be conditioned to become anti-sexist with education and leadership.

If Russell Simmons and Benjamin Muhammad really want to confront sexism in hip-hop, they have to begin by using their leadership, money, and status to educate the hip-hop community about the roots of sexism, and what we can do to change it. As hip-hop executives, they must own up to their own sexist attitudes and behaviors, and then, firmly reject sexism in hip-hop culture beyond bleeping offensive words. He must ask his cronies in positions of power and influence in the industry to do the same.

If the lyrics are to change, then the sexist attitudes that live on the edge of male rappers’ tongues, must change. That is going to take real work over a long period of time. Bleeping sexist words just won’t cut it.

Joan Morgan

 

Tricia Rose

Simmons and Muhammad must mount a campaign using artists with credibility, heart, and a strong desire for gender equality (that combination will be hard to find – but is possible) to send the message to all men that sexism and violence against women is – in hip-hop parlance – wack. I challenge Simmons and Muhammad to put their money where their mouth is and use their national “Hip-Hop Summit” tour to address hip-hop’s sexism and misogyny in a real and meaningful way. I dare Simmons and Muhammad to organize panel discussions with hip-hop feminists like Joan Morgan, Tricia Rose, Aishah Durham, Elizabeth Mendez-Berry, Carla Stokes, Rosa Clemente, Tracey Sharpley-Whiting, Monifa Bandele, April Silver and others, who have for years, railed against hip-hop’s sexism. Put them on the same dais with hip-hop executives and artists. Bring in some of the countries most skilled and experienced anti-sexist male activists to roll up their sleeves and work with male rappers and hip-hop heads. Conduct workshops and training sessions led by men like myself, Quentin Walcott, Don MacPherson, Ted Bunch, Antonio Arrendel, Tony Porter, Kevin Powell, Bikari Kitwana, Mark Anthony Neal, Asere Bello, Tim’m West, Juba Kalamka, and other profeminist men who love hip-hop, but who do not accept its hyper aggression, sexism, and homophobia. Make a real commitment to ending sexism and misogyny in hip-hop, not a paper-thin, disingenuous, and contrived public relations charade.

Not all men are sexist. Not all men in hip-hop are sexist. Not all rappers are sexist. Like me, many men within the hip-hop generation reject the macho and sexist manifestos contained in hip-hop lyrics and in music videos. When men with credibility, status, and a love for hip-hop stand up publicly to denounce sexism with conviction, it gives other men, good men, the space to do the same.

Byron Hurt is an anti-sexist activist, writer, college lecturer, and a filmmaker. His documentary “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and aired nationally on PBS’ Emmy award-winning series, Independent Lens. Byron is married and currently lives in Plainfield, N.J. He can be reached at info@bhurt.com. His website is www.bhurt.com.

Four Years Later, CBS' "60 Minutes" Discovers The "Stop Snitching" Movement…….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…………coincidentally enough, a week after airing a report on the I-Mess.

As usual, hiphop was blamed for Everything That Has Gone Wrong With Black People. Although at least there was some acknowledgement last night that money talks, and that the rappers are just doing their part to make it (for the white corporations).

Checking out tonight’s story, I heard no more than two sentences and one sound-bite about police-Black community relations. Not only was the shrift short, that history wasn’t even acknowledged by “60 Minutes”‘ Special Correspondent Anderson Cooper until two-thirds into the story—after the socio-racial pathology had already been established. Oooh-kay.

I’m not offering any excuses for anyone. It’s better to just provide info. So here’s a longer history.

APRIL 27th UPDATE: From EUR:

CAM’RON CLARIFIES  ’60 MINUTES’ COMMENTS: Rapper hires PR firm to deal with backlash following Sunday’s telecast

Rapper Cam’ron has drawn a barrage of criticism and outrage over comments he made during last Sunday’s “60 Minutes” segment on “snitching.”

During the show, the artist said that his street credibility, and ultimately album sales, would suffer if he were to ever cooperate with police in bringing criminals to justice.  He told correspondent Anderson Cooper that he wouldn’t even alert cops if he knew a serial killer had moved next door.

“I wouldn’t call and tell anybody on him—but I’d probably move … but I’m not going to call and be like, ‘The serial killer’s in 4E,'” Cam told Cooper.

According to Allhiphop.com, Cam’ron hired publicity firm 5W Public Relations to help deal with the backlash caused by his controversial comments on the news program. He told the Web site in a statement:  “In 2005, I was a victim of a violent crime. I was shot multiple times without provocation by two armed men who attempted to carjack my vehicle. Although I was a crime victim, I didn’t feel like I could cooperate with the police investigation.”

“Where I come from, once word gets out that you’ve cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence,” Cam’ron explained. “That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s reality. And it’s not unfounded. There’s a harsh reality around violence and criminal justice in our inner cities.”
     
Despite this reality, Cam’ron adds: “My experience in no way justifies what I said” on 60 Minutes. “Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime.
     
“Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment.”

"Enough" Of Juan Williams

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Juan Williams just said on “FOX News Sunday” that Black America has not had any real campaigns against sexist and mysognistic lyrics. So I yelled at the Tee Vee.

Nothing could be further from the truth. (Has Williams ever gone to a Sharpton speech during the last seven years? Sharpton correctly said on the show that many of their actions against bad hiphop aren’t covered.) But I guess those generalizations allow Williams to continue to be rewarded for his half-truths and half-analysis. 

Williams loves to characterize Jackson and Sharpton as de-facto racial hustlers, but his hustle never changes. He thinks they’re self-appointed. Williams is appointed by White Talking Heads who think that Clarence Page’s dominant miliancy on the Sunday morning talkers needs checking. 🙂

ADDENDUM: Three cheers for Roland S. Martin and his candor on “Reliable Sources.”

Tee Vee "For The People"

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

One of the many Afrocentric Listservs that clog my inbox daily provided me with this link, and for that I’m very grateful.

“For The People” was a Black public affairs television show that was unapologetically African-centered. When I first moved to the Washington, D.C. area from the New York tri-state area, I was having serious “Like It Is” withdrawal. Discovering “For The People” on WHUT-TV (then WHMM-TV) was like a surprise gift from Shango.

I miss this program and its host, Listervelt Middleton. Like his guest, Middleton is now an Ancestor.

Imus, Part XI: Invisible Women? A Black Woman's Response To Don Imus' Most Recent Sexist-Racist Remarks

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

 

From April Silver, by April Silver.

Invisible Women?

A Black Woman’s Response to Don Imus Most Recent Sexist-Racist Remarks

By April R. Silver

(April 9, 2007)  The recent media frenzy around national radio and talk show host Don Imus’ sexist-racist comments about the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University (New Brunswick) is one more item in the evidence column of how women are regarded by men. With a natural fluidity, Imus casually referred to the Rutgers players as nappy-headed hos.

Two days later (Friday, April 5), he read a statement that was supposed to be an apology. Today, he extended his apology by saying “I’m a good person. I said a bad thing.” 

When I first read the news, “What the hell…?” was all I could muster. Blood rushed. My heart ached and I lamented for Black women. Then I went back to doing what I was doing. It was surreal to not be surprised or outraged by his comments, but I wasn’t. From what I know about Imus, which is not much, he’s a veteran offender of everybody (except White men, I suppose). That men, be they Black or White, see women through idealized or dehumanized lenses, is not new. That Imus, in particular, would make ignorant comments, is status quo. So “shock jocks” are not shocking any longer. 

Perhaps the hardening began as I was growing up in Los Angeles in the 1980’s. LAPD’s death grip of choice for Black people was the choke-hold. That was one of my first understandings that some white people with authority had it in for Black people. And some non-authorative white people too! In 1998, James Byrd of Jasper, Texas was murdered by three racist white men. They hitched him to the back of their truck and dragged him for 3 miles. It’s believed that Byrd was alive for some of the time he was being dragged. A fast forward to recent times would bypass countless other racist murders and hate crimes, but it would bring one up to speed with Michael Richards’ rant about niggas at the Laugh Factory, as well as the NYPD murder of Sean Bell in New York, among other maddening things in this so-called civilized society. 

No doubt my hardening is also cemented by the current all-time high sexist state of affairs of today’s hip hop. Grown Black men, aided by white affluent male financiers, over-saturate our multi-media landscapes with sex, sex, and more mega sex fantasies – which do an excellent job of animalizing women or only presenting them, as Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall so eloquently states in Byron Hurt’s groundbreaking documentary “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,”  as “objects to be fucked.” 

  

But Black sexist men, whether they care to admit it or not, take their cues from White sexist men. They reinforce each other and form unspoken alliances – all at our expense. But oppressed anybodies take their cues from dominating forces. It’s universal, scientific, and is part of the reason why women accommodate injustices from men.

Some Good Men

“If men had to go through what ya’ll go through today, the movement would have been started a long time ago. We couldn’t endure all that you put up with.” A male friend’s comments one afternoon as we discussed a few sacrifices that women make in order to please men. Our rituals around hair, make up, and body, mostly, not exclusively, have their origins in our desire to indulge men. Another friend, who is also regarded as an anti-sexist male, told me that his activist work is largely inspired by a woman in his life who was killed at the hands of an abusive husband. “When I first started challenging men about our sexist behavior, I was very nervous.” He confided. “I never knew what I was going to say, let alone how it was going to be received. But I would conjure up Tara (not the woman’s real name) and she would “talk” to me. She would guide me in taking up her cause. I felt like I was defending her and other abused women. I was glad to do it and I became less and less nervous over time.” I know plenty men who understand that the discussions about gender must involve men. I’m baffled that I know many men wise enough to stand this ground. They are a rare breed and I don’t exactly how they arrived at this place in their lives so securely…there’s nothing in our society that nurtures such thinking.

   

The thinking that gets upheld in this country is the normal Imus, he and his bashing kind—Black and White (Howard Stern, Star, formerly of Hot 97 and Power 105 in New York and others). More often than not, these men get rewarded by default. Their sexist-racist views are not eradicated, but are suspended, as if in mid-air, for the world to behold and publicly criticize…for a time. They have jobs to come back to…somewhere in the entertainment field, no matter how irresponsible and violating the comments. So cozy is the old-boy network, Imus doesn’t have to pause from his job right away…even his suspension is held in suspension. There have been meetings, marches, and mea culpas for a few days now. Imus’ firing has been called for by Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Brian Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, and many others. Despite my hardening to these sex-race fests that pop up on the national scene every few months, I am still jolted by a glaring factor. 

The Mule of the World

The exclusion of Black women weighing in on this controversy is thunderous. In the immediate aftermath of the comment, I never got the impression that “the media” was even remotely interested in feedback from the young Black women hit, or from any other Black woman for that matter. The respondent faces of this controversy have been predominately male. In fact, the one woman who was given a national platform this night on CNN’s Paula Zahn was a white woman — an enlightened, well-spoken, and progressive one — but a white woman nonetheless.

The by-passing of Black women is the kind of obnoxious, oppressive exclusion that “the media,” and the white affluent men who own it, have embraced for decades. Black women don’t immediately come to mind in the search for analysts or independent thinkers, even when the subject is them. Black woman organizations are not who Imus sat down with when he offered a so-called apology. He bowed toward men first. Rev. Sharpton is the logical go-to person in a national controversy such as this, for he has consistently stood up for the disenfranchised. It is not logical or acceptable, however, that Imus by-passed the women of the Rutgers basketball team and Black women leaders in making his first, second, and subsequent statements about the matter. Another item in the evidence column that Black women can be the ‘ho, the bitch, or even the reason for the gathering, but we are not to be engaged intelligently. It is not even assumed, by the so-called powers that be, that we can think, speak, or defend ourselves. If we take a stance at all, it must be after the men do their bidding.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Nanny (of Their Eyes Are Watching God) said that the Black woman is the mule of the world. That would be an ascent in some eyes.Amongst Black women, perhaps even we assume that White men just have too much power for our own good. Perhaps we also assume that if our transgressors are Black men, then well…maybe there’s no dignity or progress to be made if we dare challenge them. That’s just too disloyal. I disagree.

There is a time, a place, and the power of reason to stand up for ourselves, even amongst family. Part of my work, ironically, is in the media field (and, up until two months ago, I co-hosted an African American talk show on a prominent national cable TV show). In my work, I have come across narrow-minded decision-makers whose job it is to book commentators in the media. They often whine that in situations like this, they don’t have enough Black women resources to pull from. A lazy person’s out.

There is a solid body of work (be it literary, media, programming, or activist works) by highly intelligent African American women who have been doing anti-sexist work on the ground level for decades: Sister Souljah, Monfia Bandele-Akinwole, Erica Ford, Yvonne Bynoe, Joan Morgan, Farai Chideya, Toni Blackman, Rha Goddess, and countless others across the country – some known, some not. Either way, there is a deep-rooted knowing of injustices that only Black women, regardless of their station in life, can properly articulate.    

To Black Women 

When she reached adulthood, an enslaved African named Isabella Baumfree changed her name and identity to the one we know today: Sojourner Truth.

When Harriet Tubman fully grasped an understanding of the world she lived in, she mapped out her own survival, that for her family, and for her larger community. Both women, and others like them, were keenly aware of their unique skills, talents, and missions in life. They were self-permitted to think, organize, speak, and lead. The weight of racism and sexism was ever present, but not immobilizing. When they weren’t invited to help solve or speak about the problems of the day, they crashed the party. More importantly, they were not only pro-active in standing for their right to be free and live well, but for that of their communities too. Tubman, for example, was one of the first social entrepreneurs in our ancestral line. She owned 27 acres of land in upstate New York that she acquired for the hospital and other properties that she built for her family and her community.

Truth and Tubman are sacred models of woman leadership, a legacy of power that is our ancestral golden inheritance. Though from over a hundred years ago, their examples are eerily relevant today. 

Fast forward: modern models of leadership range from Camille Yarbrough to Sonia Sanchez to Fannie Lou Hamer to Shirley Chisholm to Afeni Shakur and countless others. Our models also include the millions of unrecognized Black women in this country alone who have made a hard decision to combat hate—from within and without. So we need not dig so deeply into our bloodline to be encouraged and empowered, but we need to pull from something…and now! If you are a writer, write on our behalf. Let some of your stories be about helping us heal from this often loveless world. Or heal…with us in mind. Dance with us, sing about us…more. If you are a mother, nurture and discipline the children with our longevity at heart. And if you are without a means to support yourself at this time, or without a loving partner to ease the burdens of the day, keep pushing anyway. Never mind about finding fault, find another way, as my mother says. In every single aspect of our lives, we must be self-permitted to tell the truth about our lives and stories that shape them.

Somebody, quite naturally, is going to be offended in the process. Invariably, someone is going to tell us how wrong we are, but that’s not anyone’s call to make but ours. And I strongly believe that we should partner with Black men, especially, but with anyone else who stands in principle support. But the battle for the respect of Black women, however, is ours to lead.

© 2007, April R. Silver

 

Here’s a simple but powerful reaction in the midst of this Imus whirlwind. Write and call… 

General Manager

WFAN-AM

34-12 36th Street

Astoria, NY 11106

718.706.7690

“Central to the success of the station is legendary morning man Don Imus. The Imus in the Morning program is now syndicated to over 90 stations across the United States with an audience in excess of 10 million. It has become a regular stop on the circuit for Washington insiders, the liberal media elite, best-selling authors and the occasional presidential candidate. In September of 1996, MSNBC, the cable/Internet venture of Microsoft and NBC, began a simulcast of the Imus in the Morning show for their own morning programming.”

 –Excerpt from wfan.com 

CBS Radio (owns WFAN)

1515 Broadway

New York, NY
10036

212.846.3939 

MSNBC TV (airs Imus’ show)

One MSNBC Plaza

Secaucus, N.J. 07094

More importantly, a first step toward enlightenment on issues of sex and race— related to and from the minds and souls of Black women—is reading up on Black women writers:  

Angela Davis

Audre Lorde

bell hooks

Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Joan Morgan

Johnnetta Betsch Cole

Lori S. Robinson

Sister Souljah

Sonia Sanchez 

Imus, Part V: Enabling Imus: Newsies Back Cowboy Don

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Ah…..truth tastes so good sometimes.  🙂

Enabling Imus
Newsies Back Cowboy Don

By Richard Muhammad

MSNBC and CBS Radio have seen the light and suspended talk show host Don Imus for a whole two weeks. Time to pack the protest signs and go home? Not exactly. While the venom-spewing old cowpoke may be unseen for a bit, the new question is what to do with the apologists for Imus insults aimed at Black women and media peeps who contend he really isn’t such a bad guy.

Like a troubled wife living with a nasty drunk, and sharing a raggedy filthy couch, some white journalist-types just can’t seem to kick the Imus habit, or get a healthy divorce. They have stepped forward to vouch for his character and need to embrace this “teachable moment.” Led by Tom Oliphant of The Boston Globe, they see redemption deep in the soul of the man who called Rutgers basketball players a bunch of “nappy headed hos.”

Seems like whenever a Black person allegedly does wrong, the lesson to be taught is accountability, responsibility and facing the consequences of one’s actions. Just ask teenager Shaquanda Cotton, who was recently released from a Texas facility where she was sentenced to seven years for allegedly pushing a white teacher’s aide.

Or ask actor Isaiah Washington if white gays saw a teachable moment when he made the mistake of using the f-word to say he didn’t call a fellow white cast mate a homosexual. There weren’t a lot of discussions about him teaching anyone anything, expect to avoid angering what one African American gay rights activist called “the gay mafia.”

Some media folks feel Imus’ “nappy headed hos” slur regarding play during the NCAA tournament presents America with an opportunity.

But when Michael Ray Richardson, coach of the Albany Patroons, of the Continental Basketball Association, talked about hiring “big time Jewish lawyers” to handle his contract negotiations last month, it wasn’t a teachable moment. Richardson was quickly suspended pending an investigation by the playoff-bound team. He won’t be back this season.

Richardson reportedly said in a late March interview with The Albany, N.Y.-based Times-Union, “Listen, (Jews) are hated all over the world, so they’ve got to be crafty … They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they’re run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they’re run by Jewish. It’s not a knock, but they are some crafty people.”

Richardson is also accused of using the word “faggot” in an attempt to quiet a heckler during a game the same day. Within a couple days, he was suspended for the rest of the championship series and not allowed in the team facility. Richardson apologized a couple days later. Unlike Imus, he made no attempt to downplay the pain caused by his words, or cite previous good works that make him worthy of a pass.

I wonder if those comments have the same “lack of animus” Oliphant saw in Imus and put forward in a defense mounted April 9 during a PBS NewsHour broadcast segment with writer Clarence Page, and in his column the same day.

Newsweek editor Howard Fineman went on Imus’ show April 9, appearing before Oliphant. “Just before I came on the show, I was coming upstairs and my cell phone rang, and it was some listener who called me out of the blue. I’d never heard of the guy before. I’d never heard his name. He called me and he said, ‘Are you going to go on the show and finally confront this Imus guy? Are you going to quit enabling him?’ ” said Fineman.

“And, you know, I thought about that, and I said to the guy, ‘You know, I’ll puzzle that through on the radio.’ And I would like to continue to enable you to do a lot of the good things you do. Including, you know, talking about stuff happening in the world, which you do a very good job of on this show. …

“You know, it’s different than it was even a few years ago, politically. I mean, we may, you know – and the environment, politically, has changed. And some of the stuff that you used to do, you probably can’t do anymore,” said Fineman. He described Imus’ remarks as “a big mistake” and “a teaching moment.”

Newsweek columnist Mark Starr came out against kicking Imus out on the street, saying the old coot was just an example how far things have swung in the name of entertainment. In Starr’s view, we’re all responsible.

Not from where Black folks sit.

Imus is so bad that even Page, the leveled-head, non-threatening Chicago Tribune columnist, argued that it’s time for Imus to go. Page recounted having Imus take a pledge on-air several years ago to refrain from the racially-charged diatribes, including an instance in which Imus reportedly referred to Gwen Ifill, a respected African American journalist, as a “cleaning lady” allowed to cover the White House.

“To the 10 young African queens who have been disrespected and violated in public, keep your heads up high,” said conservative darling Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries in a prelude to his Easter Sunday sermon. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was in attendance at the service in Somerset, N.J. According to a report in The Star-Ledger, Soaries called for Imus to be fired. “When I listened to it myself, I thought the guy is too ignorant to be on the air. … We would like Imus off the air,” the article said.

How often do the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Page and Rev. Soaries, a former secretary of state under Republican Gov. Gov. Christie Whitman and Bush administration political appointee, agree a firing, protest and potential advertisers’ boycott is in order?

The widespread anger in Black America was also apparently lost on a public radio reporter who covered an April 9 demonstration in Chicago by the Rev. Jackson, saying only about 50 protestors showed up. The report downplayed the way Blacks have responded, implied the protest numbers signaled a lack of interest, and had no reactions from Blacks about the controversy. The reporter also apparently missed the hours of hot conversation on Chicago’s WVON-AM radio, starting at 6 a.m. April 9 with “The Roland S. Martin Show” and rolling on through three hours in the afternoon with the nationally syndicated “Keeping It Real With Rev. Al Sharpton,” and columns by sports writer Stephen A. Smith, out of Philadelphia, Deborah Mathis of BlackAmericaWeb.com, Black bloggers and writers. Analysis came from white media observers.

What’s going on here? Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is found in the title of Starr’s online column, “Imus Is Us.” The “us” here consists of White America – white men in the media, in particular – unable to admit insults to Black folks actually mean something. It’s as if we are soulless beings and whites are always allowed to explain away, ridicule away, or ignore away the constant assaults on our dignity and psyche.

This bond of white attitudinal perception and brotherhood may also explain why the numbers of Blacks in newsrooms at daily newspapers and within the news industry continue to dwindle.

When the ugliness of American racism is exposed, there is always an apologist, a defender. So Michael Richards, who played Kramer on TV’s “Seinfeld,” can go on David Lettermen with Jerry Seinfeld to vouch for his goodness, despite Richard’s n—-r-laced, racial barrage against Blacks in a comedy club audience. And Imus can find comfort in the bosom of his brothers, who just can’t bring themselves to condemn him.

“You know, all of us who do your show, you know, we’re part of the gang. And we rely on you the way you rely on us. So, you know, you’re taking all of us with you when you go out there to meet with them (Rutgers basketball players), you know,” said Fineman on the Imus show.

“Good morning, Mr. Imus, and solidarity forever, by the way,” Oliphant said. He voiced support for Imus, called the racial broadside an accident and talked about his moral imperative to stand with the broadcaster as a member of the Imus “posse.”

“But to me, that only means that those of us who, through an accident, were scheduled (on the show), who know better, have a moral obligation to stand up and say to you, ‘Solidarity forever, pal,’ ” said Oliphant, in his closing words.

Imus walks and talks with America’s giants, and if he suffers from the disease of racism, what about his companions? Well, we don’t have to wonder. Just listen to what they actually say.

Richard Muhammad is editor of StraightWords E-Zine and is based in Chicago. He can be reached at straightwords@sbcglobal.net .