April 19, 2007 - Issue 226

 

The door of intolerance to racially offensive commentary shut pretty quickly on Don Imus last week. As quickly as he piled to his producer’s “tough hoes” comments with a “nappy headed hoes” follow-up, activists and opinion leaders piled on with a feeding frenzy, reminiscent of a hog call at dinner time. Imus was mush by the end of the feeding, and repentant, and fired from both his media groups (NBC and CBS). In the dialogue however, was a conversation about how the Black community could be so unforgiving with Imus’ language but so unscrutinizing about the lyrics of dozens of rappers that use the same language. A whole lot of people have been waiting for the door to crack on this conversation about degrading rap lyrics. I thought it would have happened last year when “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” won an Oscar. However, Black people were so obviously conflicted (happy or shocked) that the real conversation about what the song was really saying never took place. But it’s taking place now and the rappers are already on the defensive (or offensive, depending on how you look at it).

Russell Simmons, for whom I have a great deal of respect, is advancing his “regulating rap could lead to censorship” argument. The “free speech” cry is an argument that comes up at times when there is a call to regulate radio and television stations that use public airwaves to promote offensive lyrics. Lyrics that incite violence, promote rape and hyper-sexual activities, and degrade the humanity of a person or any group of people, is not covered under free speech. Public ignorance allows most to believe that this is “protected (free) speech,” but nothing that disrupts the public order, or endangers the public is covered under free speech. Vulgarity and extreme verbal assault is a permitted restriction or unprotected (as Imus found out), so we really ought to stop allowing rappers to hide behind the free speech shield. Then there are those who don’t get it at all. The unrepentant rappers, who either don’t understand what they’re doing to open the door of hatred and racial casting of African Americans, or act as true capitalist mercenaries who put money before everything, don’t care about the racial backlash created when they “keep it real.” For instance, when they asked Snoop Dogg about his use of the language for which Imus got fired, his response was that he’s not talking about all women when he uses the word, “just the ghetto hoes.”

Uh huh. I’m sure that when Imus’ conversation started out, saying that the Rutgers girls had tattoos…tough demeanor…and of course, nappy hair…his inference was that they were from the rough side of town, or as Snoop would call them, “ghetto hoes.” What’s the difference here? There is none. And for the past twenty years there has been a constant twisting, even defending, of this type of irrational justification. Before there were “shock jocks,” there was “shock rap.” But shock rap, the so called “keeping it real” street life, like “shock” talk radio to follow, have only been able to attack the despised and defenseless. When rap attacked the powerful and complicit, it was repulsed and restricted. Ice T’s “Cop Killer” and Public Enemy’s “Who’s Criminal” are just two instances of rappers who tried to attack police and political corruption on the airwaves, only to have their music “censored” as not in the public interest. But any music that assaulted the dignity and imagery of African Americans has had an “open mike.”

Twelve years ago, a group in Los Angeles (of which I was a part) waged a series of protests and boycotts against radio stations that played music with the words, “Nigga,” “*itch” or “Ho” in the lyrics. One station, which is now out of business, was recalcitrant in complying with the community’s desire to take these songs off the radio, and even used Black people to defend the station’s policy (the free speech argument) and used the airwaves to personally attack activists, including myself, who were calling for the elimination of offensive lyrics in rap music. What followed was that the radio station colluded with the record companies and began running “promos” thanking 92.3 “The Beat” (I can call their name because they’re no longer in existence) for “Keeping it real—fo’ shizzle, my nizzels" (rap code for “for sure, my Niggas").

Competition (for audience ratings) being what it was, once one station started playing gutter rap, they all started playing it. Everything went downhill from there. Now we’re looking at a whole generation of rappers who came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s, from Jay Z to 50 Cent to The Game and some I probably don’t even know, who are more raw than the generation before them. And more successful. We’d be foolish to think rappers are going to leave all that money on the table to restore “Black dignity” in rap music. Yet, that’s what we’re asking them (and expecting them) to do. The Black community is now back at that same tipping point, inspired by reactions to the likes of Michael Richards and Don Imus that show racism and ignorance isn’t dead. But the conversation from the rap community is still the same, uninspiring and unrepentant.

How do you convince a whole genre that you can be good and not vulgar or demeaning to the race? How do you convince a whole genre that the censorship argument is a false one, because the real issue here is one of exploitation—not of just the rapper’s desire to overcome economic oppression but of the community that is still trying to overcome the effects of racial stigmatization.

The community is trying to reject the stigmas of racism and genocide at the same time. Where we once thought we were winning the fight against racism, we now know that our own narcissistic attraction to violent and self-degrading behavior has become the sword in the hands of our enemy. Gangs have literally put the Klan out of business on the violence front, and the radio has become the torch for which hateful furry now spreads. Who lights the flame? You could say its the programmers. You could say its the record companies. You could say its the rap artists. One thing is for sure. Like the Don Imus situation, it will be a lot easier to shut down the record companies and programmers than these rappers. They don’t understand the genocide to which they’ve become the host. They think it’s just music, or just a song. Imus knew better and still fell into the trap. He’ll resurface on satellite radio.

The real challenge now is to help the rappers know better. Can we help bring this understanding without causing a further divide in our community, or perpetuating the genocide even further? That’s where we now are in the discussion, to convince a generation (maybe two) that they’re not Niggas, Pimps and Hoes, and its going to take plenty of “piling on.” Like the kind that got Imus fired last week. And the kind that makes us get on the same page on this vulgar lyrics tipping point.

BC Columnist Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to contact Dr. Samad.

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