Published: Friday - April 13, 2007
Words by Wise Intelligent
Don Imus (Photo: n/a)
Yes, I do believe that Don Imus and his buddies should have their old asses kicked, but, I'm more concerned about the "black" American "leaders" (Jesse, Sharpton), "black" TV/talk-radio personalities, etc. saying "dumb" shit like hip-hop is the reason for Imus using the term "Nappy-headed hos," etc., etc.
While driving my seed to school earlier this week, I heard Steve Harvey, a very intelligent brother whom I admire, say, while addressing the "Imus-issue," that the hip-hop community has to stop disrespecting our women by calling them bitches, hos and the like.
This INTELLIGENT point of view is not to address the erroneous assumption that hip-hop is responsible for terms like "nigger," "bitch" and "Nappy-headed hos" being in the American vocabulary, Davey D (DaveyD.com) has already written a MUST READ article entitled "Is Hip-Hop Really the Blame for this Don Imus Thing?, dispelling this baseless idea.
The purpose of this article is to say that, yes, there are rappers who use such terms as bitch and/or nigger in their recordings, but, for every rapper that uses these terms their are 10 who don't! I'm asking the question, why is it that all ten of the rappers we hear on mainstream radio, and see on mainstream video, ironically, are those who use such language? And why is the view represented by these "TEN" rappers made to be the view of the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY?
I challenge Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Don Imus and any one else on radio and/or television who subscribes to the idea that hip-hop is to blame, to take these 10 names (Little Brother, Wise Intelligent, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Public Enemy, Brother J, NYOIL, Talib Kweli, The Coup, or Paris) to the program directors of the stations that you work for and ask them why are we NOT playing ANY rappers with messages that oppose the nigger, bitch, gangster ideology that dominates mainstream music media outlets including but not limited to radio and video?
It was BET who unashamedly told us that Little Brother was "too intelligent" for BET's target market? The target market of "Black Entertainment Television" is, as far as I understand it to be, the BLACK community. So, in the opinion of BET, the black community is not "intelligent" enough to understand the views of a group of young black males who decided to go to college while pursuing their careers as rap artists simultaneously. But, the black community is ignorant enough to understand the story of a stripper named "Diamond" who dances at "The Players Club" to pay for her collegiate education, a movie where "bitch" and "ho" is the primary dialogue (This movie gets as much rotation as Young Jeezy on BET).
It was from white America that we get the word "nigger," it is from white America that we also get the term "nappy-headed wench." All of these terms have been kept alive by Hollywood in movies like "Mandingo," "Drum" and or "Farewell Uncle Tom." But, today you're telling me that black rappers taught old ass Don Imus these words? Don Imus' old ass got these words from his father's father; not hip-hop!
Hip-hop is not responsible for the diffusion of negative portrayals of Black people in America, Hollywood, the music industry, major radio/video broadcast stations have been, and continue to control the images responsible for shaping the attitudes and lifestyles of Americans for decades now. If, the major outlets for hip-hop art are not controlled by the "hip-hop community," well then the hip-hop community does not decide what does or does not get played, and therefore, cannot be responsible.
Thus, we have TEN rappers signed to and in rotation at any and all of the aforementioned major corporations and all of them represent the same view of the black male in America; the drug-dealer/gangster/convict-turned-rapper. Never do we hear those views that represent the anti-thesis to this destructive image; views that are in great abundance in every "hood."
I challenge Steve Harvey, Michael Baisden, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, etc., ad infinite, to demand that the media corporations who write your checks balance their radio/video playlists by adding 10 rappers into the rotation whose views are uplifting and motivate black youth toward positive attitudes and lifestyles. Until you find the fucking balls to challenge this MACHINE, your views on the symptoms created by the MACHINE are NOT welcome!
Failure to confront the root causes of the problems we face as a people is really the true FAILURE!
Please pick up the book. The Name Negro It's Origin And Evil Use by Richard B. Moore.
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