First, let me say that nobody should get a pass to diminish, disparage or degrade black women—not Imus, Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly or any of the popular male figures in the entertainment industry. While I neither deny nor begrudge the Rutgers women’s basketball team their right to be offended and outraged by Imus’ crude comments about them, I refuse to participate in our community condemnation of him unless we are willing to also collectively condemn what our brothers in the entertainment industry have been saying about and calling us for decades.
If we look at this from the standpoint of what is “the greater evil”, Imus’ remarks degraded eight black females, while rappers have degraded a generation. I live in New Orleans—birthplace of bounce music, p-popping and the Rest In Peace t-shirt—and I’ve seen the impact of the chickenhead/bitch/ho image of us that is perpetuated by our brothers in the entertainment industry. After 20 years of being inundated with music and images that portray us as gold-digging, morally-challenged, aesthetically-lacking beings whose only purpose for existing is to meet the immediate physical needs of black males, we now have MILLIONS of girls and young women who are comfortable with degrading and compromising themselves in order to attract and keep the attention of black men and boys.
Where were the complaints when Tupac referred to Faith Evans and the late C. Delores Tucker as “bitches” and “sluts” in his songs? Who in our community condemned Dr. Dre when he attacked Dee Barnes and pushed her down a flight of stairs? Who amongst our black leaders spoke out against the “Tip Drill” video and stood in solidarity with the young sisters at Spellman who warned Nelly to not show his face on their campus after it was released? While each of these sins of inaction are affronts to black womanhood, the fact that the vast majority of the black men either overlooked or defended R Kelly and his “golden shower” video featuring various sex acts with a 14 year-old—not an 18 year-old or 21 year-old, but a child barely out of grammar school—is the most egregious affront I have ever seen. Not only did brothers defend R. Kelly, many of them either had viewing parties of the video or passed it around amongst each other like it was a tape of Ali or Tyson's greatest fights. Worse, after the video was leaked to the public one of our oldest and most esteemed black organizations nominated this child molester for an “image” award. To this day, brothers in the music industry are still lined up to work with R Kelly, with his latest "collabo" being a "guest appearance" on the remix of Fat Joe’s song titled “Make It Rain,” which includes lyrics bragging about making it “rain on these hos” and a video that features money being thrown at scantily clad women dancing like strippers.
The vociferous demands by the black community to censure and punish Imus, while refusing to admonish black rappers and the behind the scenes entertainment professionals who produce and promote misogyny directed towards black women, are both hypocritical and shortsighted. Unless we are willing to work towards changing a community culture that accepts and supports the degradation and disrespect of one half of our race by the other half, we don’t have a leg to stand on in demanding severe reprimands for people outside our community who do the same thing.
