Imus, Flavor of Love Charm School, Norbit’s Rasputia: these giant leaps backward have sent our womanist ancestors roiling in their graves. A relentless media assault on Black women marks 2007. Time to help the spirits rest easier, as sisters lash back at the Culture of Black Female Degradation, as sisters insist on the celebration of Black womanhood, as sisters insist on all our diverse glory.
Now we have a Hot Ghetto Mess to contend with – and I’m sure we’re all about to get burned. Wendi Jackson Smith just told me about the chair of the Roger Williams University board, Ralph Papitto, an 80 year old benefactor of the Rhode Island school with 40 years of board membership, who was forced to retire after using the n-word during a meeting. Ironically, members were discussing ways to diversify board membership.
Despite the uproar over Imus, sisters became even more vulnerable targets of racist and sexist attacks this year, as an atmosphere of permissibility is a key component of the Culture of Black Female Degradation. Now, everyone thinks they can use the term Imus used on air, many think to make jokes about the incident. But it ain’t funny. The fetishistic desire to denigrate women of color, to call us terms that express socio-sexual power over us as a way to titilate and amuse, can now be expressed more openly – and more dangerously. The entire community comes under assault when sisters are so easily attacked. Board chair Roger Williams mentioned Imus, stated he had never used the n-word before, and claimed he heard it “on television or rap music or something.” Again, he’s 80.
Sisters, what do we do? Beyond expressing our outrage, providing a counter-narrative to the language of Black female degradation, what concrete actions can we take toward our own liberation? Brothers, what actions do we take together to free our mothers and daughters? How do we free ourselves?
Should we boycott BET and urge additional advertisers to pull away from the network? Should we abolish use of the n-word, b-word, and other reappropriated terms in our homes and communities? What’s the plan, ya’ll?
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Why is there a double standard?
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur34424.cfm
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Hi there,
I just tagged you. Hope you can play! (Sorry to leave such a silly comment on such a thoughtful post!)
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Possibly it feeds a vicious circle, as Cora Daniels touched on in Ghetto Nation. We put the sassy/loud/nasty/hyper sexual/cursing stereotype out there, white producers/writers/record company execs/editors pick it up and reflect it back, skew it, saturate us, and we in turn shoot it back at them in the vicious circle?
The thing that bothers me the most is some black men, some black women, too who poo-poo this kind of debate. I actually heard one dude (one of my friends, unfortunately) who said women who complain about this (and video vixens, etc.) don’t have men!
We had the mammy stereotype but we did not perpetuate that. Tht was whitefolks propaganda. The more insidious thing here is we have self-perpetuating stereotype and the effect is the same, though we somehow delusionally think it’s empowerment!
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thanks for including information on the controversy around hot ghetto mess. i’d read on a site recently about the boycott of the show, but never got a full understanding of what the show was about (although i did surmise that the premise seemed to be just one more outlet for making black folks look bad). after reading the attached cnn article, i took a visit to the website that inspired the show. what did i find? the pictures that many of my friends and i send and fwd to each other with notes attached like “can you believe this?” or “my people, my people :)”. i had to dig deeper because the cnn article mentioned that the creator of the site was a black, female lawyer. i was just wondering why she created it.
long story short, she says the site and its contents are to “hold a mirror up” to the images that we as black people create and reinforce as representative of who we are as a people. she said we need to work toward a “higher standard” in terms of what we put out there. the site was divided into many subcatagories including “not ghetto” where she lists black people who are doing the damn thing without being ghetto about it. each article begins with “so and so you are not ghetto.” well thanks. that means a lot coming from a person who to be exploiting people as far as what it means to be “ghetto”.
one of my main problems with this site is the mean spiritness of it. i must admit that i am guilty of this too because i often laugh and shake my head in disgust as i fwd it on to a friend. there is a part of me that looks down on “those people” and accuses them of helping to bring down the race. but what does it say about me when i fwd it? or watch it on tv? or buy it in magazines? or not take an active role in doing something about it? the creator of this site says that she doesn’t offer any suggestions or answers, so why reshuffle the questions? we know what the problems are in our communities, in our culture, and in our race. so why promote something that shows us in a negative light without offering suggestions or possible answers?
so now that i know, i will not be watching hot ghetto mess as i think it is important to clean up our messes, not put them on blast. my favorite quote from the sopranos last season was when brooklyn mafia kingpin phil decides to have tony soprano offed. he says, “…there are no scraps in my scrapbook.” not the best analogy, but it’s time that more of us start thinking the same way.
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Board chair Roger Williams mentioned Imus, stated he had never used the n-word before, and claimed he heard it “on television or rap music or something.”
Now, this I have a hard time believing. An 80-year-old white man who needed rap music to teach him about racial slurs? Mmm hmm. Right. He didn’t need any help being a racist any more than Imus did being racist and sexist and homophobic.
As for BET’s “Hot Ghetto Mess,” last time I looked BET was a hot ghetto mess. I think we do need to start holding them responsible and if that means an organized boycott then so be it. The truth is we should have begun the process of holding them responsible years ago, before they turned into such a mess. But it’s never too late to start cleaning up. Great post, sis. Insightful.
much love and peace,
Gwen
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Professor Ulen,
This is unrelated to the post, but I spent the two days between the summer sessions reading your book, and I just wanted to congratulate you on publishing such a thoughtful and well-written novel! Your poetic writing style fit beautifully into the context of the story, and the mourning process evokes such a universal emotion that I was able to follow along with Crystelle in her journey. I truly enjoyed reading.
Please keep writing!
Enjoy the rest of your summer,
Kayla McCaffrey
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Let’s face it: there’s a certain segment of the black community that has no filter with regard to their behavior. People like this have always existed. But when black became beautiful amid the growing pervasive presence of media reflecting negative images of black people, it spawned a generation of loud, vulgur, arrogant black people who gladly parade their obnoxious behavior for all the world to see. I don’t think we’re going to be able to do anything about people so egocentrically predisposed to acting this way. But what we’re going to have to do, like it or not, is to get off the monolithic slave ship and distance ourselves from people who simply aren’t doing the race any good. And that includes a lot of people who have ‘made it.’ People like Monique, for example. As long as anonymous women in the black community see themselves in the image of someone like her who is earning big $$$, there’s no way you’re going to get them to understand that their behavior is wrong. Again, we have to face the fact that a lot of famous black women have been elevated to celebrity status who probably shouldn’t have been so annointed. We are going to have to move into a mindset contrary to the UNITY MINDSET, which the late 60’s advocated. Sure, I hate the thought of doing that, 60’s person that I am, but sadly, there is no other way. If we don’t, then they will become the dominant force in the black community and seize ownership of black authenticity. Actually, they’ve practically seized it already and the effects of that kind of black authenticity can be seen in the way young people denigrate and disparage the importance of education. This is NOT a good thing and certainly will not empower us. As other ethnic groups make their moves toward inclusion in the economic, politcal mainstream, we will be BACK THERE complaining about racism. Our love affair with black stereotypes and outlandish behavior, our need to laugh at these types, these things are killing our relevancy. We’re also insulting our ancestors. It’s common knowledge that a drowning man will take you under, if you let him. I say: Save yourself!
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I was surprised to hear about the debut of “Hot Ghetto Mess” considering that filmmaker/director Reginald Hudlin is now head of entertainmnet over at BET. Thought he was more progressive, and hipper, that that. Of all ways to uplift the race…