Thank you Oprah and that Self-Hating Stanley

You have to applaud Oprah. I mean, really, there is not a single person who can catch hold of something and give it such force and such a sense of urgency. No matter if the topic at hand has been the most pressing issue within the hip hop community for the past few years. Thank Don Imus, too. He was the catalyst for America to help hip hop strengthen its own internal struggles with the issue of sexism and misogyny… a war we have independently waged within our own culture. So, thanks to Oprah for co-signing an issue that has been campaigned, examined, pontificated, and dialogued extensively on list serves and blogs for at least the last six years.

Her two-day town hall meeting was a moment for all of America to watch as hip hop took the brunt for society’s most grave ills. While the basis of the conversation was very clear: hip hop has a problem. The use of demeaning and degrading misogynistic language is atrocious within some of hip hop’s lyrics. And I agree wholeheartedly that this type of expression must be balanced if not done away with.

Yet, I’m not too confident that the very real underlying issues were addressed. And that is the mentality that effuses such lyrics and expression is the result of the persistent and vulgar social conditions of an entire community in America. So in essence, we can take the tongues out of mouths, but the mentality and mindset will never ever change if the factors that produce them still exist. If there is no balance in how black men in particular see themselves or their female counter parts, then they will speak to the one-dimensional exposure. When America begins to delve into its own sexist practices and its own economic disparities and injustice then we can expect more from the voice of the youth.

Among the panelists on Oprah’s Town hall were Asha Bandele, an author, human right’s activist and former editor for Essence magazine; Diane Weather, former editor-in-chief of Essence; ben Gordaon, former NAACP Director; Ben Chavis co-founder of Hip Hop Action Network Summit; India Arie; Kevin Lyles, VP of Warner Brothers; Russell Simmons; Sisters from Spelman College; and Stanley Crouch among others. Now those names are fairly recognizable. These people are definitely popular. But my argument would be, are they really able to speak to the issue and the fight that has been waging on the issue? Are they really on the ground facing the experience of the realities directed to the very small segment of hip hop who were discussed in the dialogue? Not.

I was particularly disheartened by the evident self-loathing Stanley Crouch has. Just as brutal and dangerous as some of the lyrics and behavior he spoke against, his total disconnect from the subjects at hand, black boys and men, manifested in a hateful tone. Reverting to name calling, he proved himself no better than Don Imus or the rappers he held at the stake ready to lynch and hang individually if he could. Where this innate self hatred stems from needs a critical analysis. But from the looks of him, he has a lot of pent up bitterness from childhood slights handed him in the black community. Stanley’s very vocal loathing for rappers and those “clowns” is more than likely what attracts mainstream media to him.

In fact, a major perpetrator of the problems that lie within hip hop culture and ultimately American culture is this, from the executive down to the producers in media, the folks who are responsible for framing media images and placement are by and large out of the loop. There, I said it. All throughout the program Oprah praised Common, admitting that she considered him a poet. He was a “good rapper.” As a Chicago home-girl and super Common fan I couldn’t be more ecstatic for him. Receiving Oprah’s blessing is right up there with meeting God at the pearly gates. Still, I wonder if Oprah ever listened to the lyrics from Common’s sophomore album Resurrection. I wonder if she ever heard him rap about gang banging on Chicago’s south side, or ni%$s rolling on his third release. Doubt it. And I’d bet her producers never have either.

I say all of this to say that whenever we engage in a dialogue, if we hope to really effect change, we must really take a critical and honest look at it and not the pretty picture of it. At the core of this entire conversation is young black boys are taking the hits for some things that grown men engage in. I have personally heard national commentators refer to a woman as a bitch or hoe. I’ve seen nationally recognized and revered men make sexually explicit comments about women. It has been no secret of the challenges women in the civil rights movement had to face dealing while organizing. So why are hip hop artists being the scapegoats to our country’s ugly truth. We are a repulsively sexist, racist, flawed nation. No wonder those with the least would illustrate our lowest quality.

Does that make the filth that some rappers produce right. Heck no. But what it does say is that if given the right direction, the right grooming and varying life experience, growth happens naturally. That is what viewers watching should have surmised from Oprah’s Town Hall if anything at all.


The real issue, though, would have required more ground work and research on the matter. Because there are quite a few within hip hop who have no shame in saying to corporate America, media, rappers, children, youth, college campuses, etc. that there is a problem and we must fix it sooner versus later. This is why I’d like to direct America’s attention to a few articulate folks who can speak to the issue at hand, some folks who have stood and fought this battle without an audience of millions. While watching the town hall meetings, there was a nagging inside of me. Messages that have surely been expressed before were messing from the discussion. Very valid viewpoints were discounted. For no other reason than they are not the go to folks for producers who are so far removed from the issue.

I present to you Rosa Clemente, Joan Morgan, YoYo, MC Lyte (or any female artist). Allow me to mention Talib Kweli, Cathy Cohen, Afrika Bambaataa, Davey D, Jay Woodson, Dawn Elisa Fisher, Dead Prez, Bakari Kitwana, TJ Crawford, Mark Anthony Neal, Chuck D, Cherryl Aldave, and members of any National Hip Hop Political Convention LOC or the Hip Hop Congress or staff writers for The Ave. Magazine.
All of these people listed would be able to tell you how this discussion has long been heated and effecting change, slowly but surely. I won't list bios here. Hopefully some out of touch producer takes time to google each name and add to their contact database.

I’ll repeat this one fact. There needs to be balance to everything. That balance only comes when power is equally given to decision makers. Balance is the answer…if I only saw Aunt Jemima every morning as the only famous black woman sans Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, etc. well I would be sitting here with a scarf on my head shuffling to figure out my place in the world beyond a kitchen.

The same holds true for rappers, and Don Imus, and all others suffering from limited perspectives. It is up to us to force the media to be windows exposing the light in every culture that makes up this self-proclaimed home of the free. Freedom first begins in the mind and unfortunately our country’s collective mind is enslaved.