With Don Imus now out of the way, for the time being, the on going fight against the defamation of black women in media has now shifted to the misogynistic themes in rap. Prior to his firing, Imus argued that rappers “defame and demean black women” and call them “worse names than I ever did.” This argument was repeatedly made up until and now after the dismissal of the radio personality.
Possibly the most avid critic of Imus for his remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, Rev. Al Sharpton is also pointing fingers at entertainment’s slandering of women. “We must deal with the fact that ho and the b-word are words that are wrong from anybody’s lips,” he said. “It would be wrong if we stopped here and acted like Imus was the only problem. There are others that need to get this same message.”
Leslie Moonves, CBS President and Chief Executive Officer, realized the problem when he announced Imus’ firing, “The effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in society… has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.”
The Rutgers side did not go unheard in this fallout. Rev. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., pastor of Rutgers’ women’s basketball coach, Vivian Stringer, and fellow mediator of the Imus conflict claimed, “We have to begin working on a response to the larger problem.” He wishes to tackle the source that “has produced language that has denigrated women.”
Prominent figures in rap and hip hop culture today have also spoken out against the correlation between Imus’ remarks and the hip hop culture. Russell Simmons on Friday said, “Comparing Don Imus’ language with hip hop artists’ poetic expression is misguided and inaccurate and feeds into a mindset that can be a catalyst for unwarranted, rampant censorship.”
In a comment to MTV.com, Rapper Snoop Dogg remarked on the situation by stating that, “(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about hos that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing shit that’s trying to get a nigga for his money.”
by David Dennis & Robby Uppal
RELATED CONTENT
• Imus’ Producer Joins Boss in Unemployment Line
• Russell Simmons Gets Heated On NPR
• CBS Fires Imus For Racist Remarks
• T.I.: ‘Worry About Bush, Not Hip Hop’
• Indiana U Students Form First Hip-Hop Frat [allhiphop.com]
