Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Chris "Ludacris" Bridges has a song that came out about 4 years ago entitled, "Hoes In My Room". In the song, he and Snoop Dogg rap about how disappointed they are that fat and ugly "hoes" keep coming to their room after a they perform a show. The words "hoe" and "bitch" are uttered so many times, that after awhile, you basically go from cringing to being desensitized to it all, all in a matter of about 4 minutes. I must admit when I first heard the song(ironically enough, on my way to my grandmother's funeral), I laughed, became as a rap fan, I have become conditioned and desensitized to the misogyny of it all. Even my condition is conditioned. Eventually I started to cringe when I heard the song, because even though it can be justified as anything from humor to a satirical song, it still comes off as just plain mean and offensive. No one on God's green earth called for Ludacris to stop making music, or to give up rapping for two weeks, and Al Sharpton damn sure didn't get up in arms and ask him to come on the show, and the white men who print, distribute and profit from Ludacris' CD didn't release a statement saying how shocked and awed they were at his word. Why? because he's a rapper...who just so happens to reach a more culturally influential(but less powerful..go figure) segment of the population than a Mr. Don Imus..

Speaking of Imus, I dont think he should be suspended at all, because these things tend to cause the opposite of the desired effect. When he returns, he'll be stronger than ever, and the very day he gets back to the show, he'll make a joke that pokes fun at the situation and people who love him will exhale, and people who can't stand him will move on to the next offender. So as my friend Janelle alluded to yesterday, there is a better solution. Imus should be made to help out the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, and he's what he should be made to do. Since Imus is a wealthy man, he should purchase a substantial number of tickets for the 2007-2008 Rutgers women bball team. And then he should stand somewhere on their fine campus, and hand out tickets for free. He should stand there and be made to greet the women who support the women's game, the kids who enjoy watching, the young girls who aspire to play bball, the parents of the kids on the team, and most importantly, he should be made to speak to and run his hands through the hair of the "nappy headed hoes"--all this while handing out free tickets. I mean sure Imus would probably be laughing and joking with everyone, but you'd best believe it would be a two way street. That way the group he offended would benefit, and Imus, for a day or two, would have humility. Imus is an older man, so giving him sensitivity bullshit classes won't work; suspending or firing him wont' help, because somebody will employ him the day he becomes a free agent; so my solution works.

I hate writing about stuff like this, because on one hand it has beaten to the ground already..but its on my mind and in the news, so I thought it would be mighty black of me to speak on it.

Oh, and go here and read and comment on my article.

You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse and Ghostface

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was with you until you said he should have to run his fingers through the hair.
having him run his fingers through our hair serves to reinforce the idea of negativity-- that our hair is some kind of punishment.
and have you learned nothing about black womanhood, rashad?!
we don't like yt in our hair!!

Jo said...

That was a good blog Rashad . . . they are getting more serious by the day . . .;o)

Jo said...

PS. You know I get to add that song "Hoes in My Room" to your playlist now, right?! LOL! Schitzo is right! LOL!

Miss Black River said...

Make sure you send some of your comments on up. It's crazy to me all the other commentary that was going on during that broadcast. Those women did not deserve to be disrespected like that. If Al Sharpton wants to make an impact he really needs to be more creative and make the guy do something serious. I'm so sick of all the lipservice.