The abuse of black sexuality

Last night's debate was about the stereotyped image of the black woman that continues to beam through TV screens, hollywood movies and, with the advent of streaming media, youtube. The argument at hand had to do with the real lack of opportunity that female black artists face, forcing them to stick to the brand of music (and it's portayal) as dictated by corporate America. What seemed to me to be an open and shut case, was not evidently so.

Hip-hop culture, as we know it today, didn't start off with skimpily clad black women swinging to songs laced with profanity specifically targetted at the women themselves. Hip-hop had it's origins as a social movement, a form of cultural expression used by the black community to give vent to their fears, their frustrations, their political opinions ...an expression of the emotions a community of people. But in it's current popular form, this history is buried. As Dr. Jared
puts it in an article expressing his views...
"Given the societal need and function of mass media and popular culture, all that is popular is fraudulent. Popularity is in almost every case an intentionally constructed fabrication of what it claims to represent. Too few who comment on the lamentable condition of today’s popular hip-hop seem to grasp this, the political nature of the nation’s media system, nor the political function that system serves. Hip-hop is often taken out of the existing context of political struggle, repression, or the primacy of a domestic/neo-colonialism in the service of which mass media play a (the?) leading role."
Further reading - Selling the Political Soul of Hip Hop

The accepted profanity in hip-hop/rap music has an interesting story behind it. When music labels began promoting hip-hop music, they discovered that the largest section of consumers for this style of music was in the age-group of 11-13. The abusive language, that is mostly disrepectful of the opposite sex, that was infused in to the music was a clever ploy to connect with an audience coming to terms with sexuality through the means of agression. More reading can be done here.

In an excellent piece of gonzo journalism, Matt Taibbi lambasts the establishment for the continual hypocrisy of the music industry. Written about the time that the Don Imus affair erupted (Imus referred to black members of a female basket ball team as nappy headed hos'), Matt says that there is no difference between Imus and Snoop Dogg, both make ethnic slurs against the black community, only that one gets punished for announcing it out aloud and the other gets rewarded. Even worse, Snoop doesn't realise that the joke is on him. ( Read here)
Further Reading - A ‘Ho’ By Any Other Color: The History and Economics of Black Female Sexual Exploitation

The issue facing black artists, both male and female, is about choice. The way that the popular commercial music industry sees black artists and how they can most effectively be used to feed the profit engine, almost always implies that the artists have to work under the dictates of the powerful music labels. Choices in this industry are existent only if they have the blessings of the power houses. Artists choosing to walk a different path, walk along a path of obscurity. As Dr. Edward, when speaking for the black community, says,
"It is a painful reality that the lack of real opportunities can sometimes tempt us to be co-facilitators in our own cultural demise, as we engage in endeavors that aid in the buttressing and reinforcement of pernicious and racist stereotypes."