black…MYstory

In the midst of the Don Imus flap, I heard one thing repeated in the media that showed critical thought and intellectual curiosity don’t exist in the media. We heard the refrain, time and time again, that it was contradictory for black folks to be offended by Imus’ statements and not speak out about the disrespect in hip hop. We even heard black folks repeating this mess.

Well, some people took offense to this notion. They are the activists who have, for years, taken up this issue without getting needed attention from the press or support from so-called black leadership.

Look at the following, read the names and ask why the press didn’t seek out some of these individuals:

But Joan Morgan, former executive editor of Essence magazine and author of “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost,” said she was angry because some celebrities garnered all the media attention in the wake of the Imus affair, while informed hip-hop activists were ignored by mainstream media.

“I really do resent Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey,” Morgan said. “All of these people who now want to pretend that hip-hop has not always had a critical base of people who come from this culture, who come from this generation, who love this music, and are critical of it at the same time.”

The campus-directed discussion was part of a 10-city national tour to draw attention to the misogyny embedded in popular culture and especially in best-selling rap music.

In addition to moderator Bakari Kitwana, author of “Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop,” others on the panel included: Tracy Sharpley Whiting, director of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University, and author of “Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip-Hop’s Hold on Black Women” and Mexie Wilson, an activist with the Cleveland-area Hip-Hop Congress.

…

Another panelist, Byron Hurt, spent two years filming “Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” a documentary that criticizes the anti-black women and homophobic messages in rap. He said many black Americans have condemned the music and videos for excessively depicting women as sexual objects.

So, I find it interesting that such blanket statements are made without actually finding out if they’re true but, I can’t say I’m surprised.

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