Debaters Question if Hip-Hop Hates Women

[Foxfire]

Apr 28, 10:32 PM EST



A panel discussion titled "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?" drew more than 400 people Saturday — a sign that the furor that erupted over Don Imus' comments isn't over yet.

As Imus struggled in vain to keep his radio-host job earlier this month, he claimed that rappers routinely "defame and demean black women" and call them "worse names than I ever did." That led to some music-industry navel-gazing, but too little action, some panelists at the University of Chicago said.

Some criticized music executives failing to make a strong statement against violent and demeaning language in mainstream rap music when they met earlier this month in New York.

Others blasted hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons for not doing enough when he called this week for the recording and broadcast industries to ban three words — "bitch," "ho" and "nigger" — from all so-called clean versions of rap songs.

"How is no one saying to Russell, 'Yo, we already bleep out those words'?" said Joan Morgan, an author and commentator on hip-hop and feminism.

Others at the event said hip-hop shouldn't be made a scapegoat for what's wrong in America.

"We allow this language to go on," said Amina Norman-Hawkins, a Chicago hip-hop emcee and executive director of the Chicago Hip-Hop Initiative. "As a community, we aren't responsible for our children. So we don't teach our little boys how to grow up to be men and respect women. We allow them to learn from the street what's acceptable."
Some said Imus' April 12 firing by CBS Radio over a slur he used to describe Rutgers University's women's basketball team has provided a new opportunity to galvanize public opinion on the issue.

"Sexism is too convenient within the black community for black men," said David Ikard, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee.

"This issue of Imus came up and I asked the black men in my hip-hop course what were their stakes in it. They were like, 'Well, we don't really have any stakes in it. It seems trivial.'"
He called on black men to do more to speak up for black women.

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[Karma]

this is something that REALLY needs to be addressed because Hip Hop has LONG been disrespectfull to WOMEN and especially black women!

its pathetic how over the last few years, Hip Hop has become almost CLICHED with the words "bitch", "ho" and "get that money" mantra.

what is equally annoying is how at these "meetings" everyone seeks to shift the blame to someone else. everyone involved in the process needs to own to their accountability to the matter because this is ultimately ANOTHER example of how sexism and degredation of women remains acceptable in America. it's not cute, its not funny and yet somehow it still SELLS

and these ARTISTS who play into it need to be denied a microphone and recording studio. there are OTHER ways to get a point across without playing a montage of scantily clad women in bikinis and making them look like nothing more than mindless objects of pleasure...all the while calling them bitches and ho's.

 

[Rampage]

The key is to change the society and to deal with the truths lots of these artists deal with. I find it funny when people get angry at what these guys say when I hear worse every single day from everyone from regular people to political pundits such as Anne Coulter or Rush Limbaugh.

The other lamentable thing for me is that the Black community has gotten caught up so much with labels that many issues of consequence to Blacks (high juvenile unemployment, rising college costs, affirmative action, minimum wage, the inequities of the criminal justice system) are being lost in the din. I would rather see our political leaders spend more time on how my people are treated and less worrying about what they are called.

Oh, and I wish Imus hadn't lost his job. That is going to hurt Blacks MUCH more than anything he said as he was the most powerful white radio personality that ever had Blacks on or seemed to give a damn what they said.

 

[Karma]

Ann Coulter and Rush Limbough arent the issue though. BOTH of them have become more and more reviled by the public and THEY are not apart of the hip hop genre which is what the debate was about. no one that i know (including myself) would suggest that those two are any LESS repugnant than what passes for hip hop these days....hell if i saw Ann, i'd love to hit her in her MOUTH one good time.

as a woman, i feel this is a feminist issue and that hip hop..or what currently PASSES for hip hop today has gone unchecked for TOO LONG.

"moguls" like Russell Simmons need to have MORE to say about this issue for it is people like HIM who moved up with their success and left the void to be filled by these pathetic excuses for artists today like 50 cent...who exploit women through lyrics and imagery. is it any wonder that young men (black AND white) have the tendency to think that black women can be defined simply by what they see in the videos and hear in the lyrics?

i can't speak as a black person obviously, but as a WOMAN i can say that the current trend (which as far as i can tell has been in the making since the mid 90's) of what passes for hip hop today is not only ruining that genre but is direspecting women as an entire gender and its not hard to see that black women are getting the short end of the stick worst of all.

 

[Rampage]

I can definitely see that aspect of it but my issue is that this is a societal problem, not simply a hip-hop problem. If women settle for scapegoating hip-hop, the larger question of how women are treated in society will be missed. Hip-hop lyrics are influenced by society, not the other way around.

Similarly, it has to be added that rap lyrics, like poems and books are FICTION. These guys selects a fake name and write lyrics influenced by reality but not real. In my opinion to censor them would be like burning Mark Twain books because the N-word is in them or censoring Stephen King's IT because it depicts several young boys having sex with a young girl in succession. I realize that they do not occupy that high a standing in terms of expression but they should be no less protected.The reaction of the public to them indicates how we accept or do not accept what they say. So far, they're widely accepted by society and that fuels the portion of the genre that engages in that.