About a month ago, I was watching television when an ad aired showing a white man on a public bus. At his command, various people on the bus perform for his amusement. When he comes to an ample-bottomed black girl, he tells her to "shake your junk." On cue, she jumps up, grabs the bus pole and pops her booty up and down to the beat. The tag line for the commercial, for Amp'd Mobile, says "Have the power to entertain yourself."
I was stunned. Watching a black woman being reduced to a tool for sexual gratification, much in the same way female slaves were used by their white masters for sexual pleasure, made me sick to my stomach.
It's an image I haven't been able to shake during the barrage of news coverage of the Duke lacrosse scandal, in which a black exotic dancer has accused white members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her.
Initially, I felt angry toward the white men in these incidents, but I soon realized that the real culprits are the performers and purveyors of hip-hop music, who have legitimized and popularized the degradation of black women.
Black women are the writhing wallpaper in the ubiquitous rap videos, gyrating and panting, decorating the borders of hip-hop like living blow-up dolls. We are the props in the thug fantasy, a symbol of sexual subjugation that shows the world that black men have arrived.
You don't seriously think it is only black women who are their only targets.
Initially, I felt angry toward the white men in these incidents, but I soon realized that the real culprits are the performers and purveyors of hip-hop music, who have legitimized and popularized the degradation of black women.
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Exactly, I think this whole incident began to go wrong when the kids started repeating some of the language of the music they grew up with.
The most offensive part, more offensive than calling someone a name is having words African-Americans are allowed to say, to sell on CDs to whites, but no one else dare say in public. Durham police were willing to send out a patrol car on the basis of such words being shooted at Kim "walking by." Think how outrageous that is. Because she claimed someone called her a "racial" name, they sent the police out.
Thanks for the ping.
Just got home a few hours ago,after being gone since Wed. and trying to catch up.