April 24th, 2007
All Healthy Children Act
Several prominent blacks, including black bloggers want to go after black rappers for disrespecting black women. Oprah Winfrey is taking up the cause.This is misguided and troubling. Let’s gang up on the hip hop community America despises them. I have news for you. Hip Hoppers are now mainstream. P Diddy, Ice Cube, Ice Tea, 50 cent, Jay Z, here in Chi Town Common and Kanye, In St Louis Nelly, are all respected men.
Oprah is respected for many reasons but also for her broadway play. Her Color Purple play sheds a very harmful light on the behavior of blackmen and reinforces some of the worst stereotypes for black people. Yet the Theater in New York was filled with women from around the US, many black and down on black rappers.
Why not protest the white own record companies? Let’s line up, line one, Warner Brothers records offers you 1 million dollars to call black women bitch and ho and God forbid use the n word , and in another line we have people who would take the high road and turn down the money to show respect for black women. A million is a lot of jack! As Pryor used to say I know what line I will be in . The long MF.
We have bigger fish to fry and you can help by having your congressmen and Senators support the All Healthy Childen Act. The act wii provide Insurance options for health, directed to the 9 million children, 2 million of whom are black. Black America web.com has a way to discover who your congressman is and will provide contact information.
I was just made aware of a 12 year old who died from a toothache and a 75 dollar pulled tooth would have saved this life. Oprah and black bloggers, let’s put this one out there.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:27 am
JD, you’re right on! I’m no fan of the record industries. If you see who the RIAA is suing for downloading music, it’s absolutely ridiculous… their latest targets are college kids.
An artist has the unique perspective of visualizing the world around them in words, movies, sounds, songs, etc. If you really want to change the words to those of respect, happiness, peace, etc. then we have to work on changing the environment. Anything less is censorship.
Don’t forget the ‘mother of all censors’, Tipper Gore, fought rappers like Ice-T and rockers like Twisted Sister in the 80’s. People seem to have already forgotten how close she got to a censored society.
We’ve been around the block on this before. It was useless then and it’s useless now. You’re absolutely right… let’s fix what the words are about instead of trying to censor the words themselves.
(This topic really gets me going!)
April 25th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Doug, thanks for your valuable contribution. I hope this will start the debate. Some of the most respected black bloggers and highly rated authors of blogs disagree with us on this issue.The entire Bill of Rights could be at risk under the current big brother mentality.
Let’s insure the children for health insurance.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I respectfully disagree. What difference does it make if you and the ppl around you have no respect for themselves or each other. A mill doesn’t buy respect and self-esteem. Morals can’t be taught…they have to be part of your consciousness.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I agree with you, except on 1 point. The Color Purple (and similar stories) is a fictional story that shows the strength of the human character. You don’t see the strength of the women degraded in these lyrics. I believe in education, not censorship.
I’m with you all the way on the health care for children. I’m headed over to Black America Web now.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Berry, you are an honorable person that can turn down a hypothetical million dollars to cuss.This is an easy test to pass because the money is hypothetical. Let’s do a what if, what if you had no money, no hope and no health insurance. What if your child would die from a tooth ache? What if the million dollars was real? How about the child first suffering and then die so you can respect yourself? Do we have bigger fish to fry or not? People have done a lot more harm for less.
Berry thank you for having the courage to debate. Enjoy the short line. Keep hope alive!
April 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Ebony, Russell Simmons took a leadership role yesterday and called for less cussing in hip-hop.We will get by this and as blackmen we should worship blackwomen, they are our wives, sisters, mothers, aunts and friends.My concern is with the timing and the bigger fish to fry aspect. Thank you so much for your comment. My position has not been a popular one. You are helping me understand that this is an important issue to women but not at the expense of losing freedom of speech
April 25th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
I agree with you and Imani Perry that that we need to focus more on the role of white record producers and corporations that really are sponsoring insulting rap lyrics.
Thanks also for reporting on Ron Pettaway. His community down in Georgia seems determined to protest that police execution of Pettaway, who was unarmed and was shot in the back of the head at the same time that his unarmed older brother was shot in the back by the same police.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Esq Holland, thank you for your comment and bringing Imani to our attention. You are doing a great thing by networking us black bloggers together. There are some important stories under reported in the mainstream.
Mine is a business blog but do to the unique perspective in the black community, I touch on many topics. I read your back ground profile and your success is an inspiration for me and when I post about you, my readers will be inspired as well.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:54 am
As a long time fan of hip hop it does start with the artist. They can choose the lyrics that they write songs about so they are partially responsible.
The record companies are also at fault becuase they have chosen to promote these same artist that push negativity into our community.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Glen, well put, the record companies can end this issue by not signing artists.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:57 am
Many of you are missing the point - instead of debating the gangsta rap thing to death, we should be debating the important legislation that could cover all uninsured children, many of whom are black.