So here I am to put my (unsolicited) two cents into the pot. Imus, Imus, Imus. Sigh. That’s about all I have to say about him. I mean really, people – are you surprised that he could make such comments? To me the issue is not that Imus said the things that he said. To me, the bigger issue is the type of cultural climate that preceded him thinking that it would be ok for him to say what he said.
The fallout from the Imus fiasco is… that there won’t really be a fiasco.
Whatever do you mean, Incogshegro?
Basically I’m saying that until my people stand up together and stop condoning, excusing, rationalizing our own people using these words – then we really don’t have much credibility when we hold hands singing “Let My People Go”, because a white person says it.
Now we can go all deep into the history of oppression, and how white people don’t have the privilege to use words that we’ve turned around on the oppressor, and blah, blah, blah. And please don’t note me, thinking that I am in anyway excusing Imus. All I’m saying is…
Where were my brothas when this story first broke???
Why does it seems as though my Black men are the only group of men who manage to keep mute when their sistas are disrespected? Is it because they are only capable of opening their mouths to utter endearing terms like “bitch” and “ho”? Why is it that the most brothas leave the dirty work of protest and resistance to the usual suspects, Sharpton and Jackson? What is going to happen to my people when those two brothas transition to the other side??? Is our collective muteness trying to tell me that the rest of us don’t have the required backbone to take up the mantle?
Call me wrong, but it seems to me that no other ethnic group sits around creating witty little names for their sisters, mothers, daughters, nieces, wives, girlfriends, etc… WHY do my brothas insist on doing it? And why do we all (well most of us, anyway), Black women and men alike, insist on defending or at the very least tolerating Black singers/rappers who spew that sort of venom in the name of Hip Hop and R&B? There is something that a lot of Black folks just don’t want to face. Our habit of supporting any no-talent so-called hip-hop artist – ignoring their substandard lyrical prowess and defending the ignorant things they say – has made this sort of speech ‘cool’. And since Hip-hop’s appeal now crosses both generational and cultural divides, guess what? Other folks now think that ‘we’ are ‘cool’. They bump our music in their town cars, emulate our styles of dress, use snippets of rap songs in their tv ads, and now – surprise, surprise – try to speak like ‘us’. The result is suburbanites like Imus thinking that it is perfectly acceptable to call young Black women ‘nappy-headed hos’. Don’t get mad, y’all. All it is, is a sort of cultural spirit-lash. I mean, would you like me to start posting and breaking down some of their lyrics, so that you can see exactly how much talent they truly lack? How’s about if I asked you to read the same lyrics out loud, without the catchy beat? Would you think that Fifty Cent is a lyrical god then???
Need I go into the whole notion that “brothas” who continually call sistas Hos, Bitches, etc are nothing more than race traitors who are playing into the oppressors divide and conquer tactic? That Fifty Cent, Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule, et al do NOT possess the capability to represent me in any forum? That by me shielding them when I defend the sh*t they say, I am actually buying my oppression as a woman of colour – wholesale? Hence I usher in the Incogshegro Challenge: google the names of some of the most popular Hip-hop and R&B artists, requesting lyrics to some of their hit songs. Read the lyrics out loud of say, Masta P, Ja Rule, Fabolous (jackass can’t even spell his own name), Fifty Cent, etc… then ask yourself if you really admire this artist, or were you just blinded by his style, his clothes, his riches – in short, all of the smoke screens his record label threw at you to disguise the fact that he has no talent. And then, I implore you, please click here. Maybe after seeing this, some of y’all who indulge in that self-hatred might be moved enough to stop making excuses for using the term ‘nigga’, and (equally irritating) trying to explain the subtle nuances that are the perceived differences between niggah and nigger. We can split hairs over this word and its various spellings, but one thing remains true throughout all of the bullshit. My ancestors didn’t hang from trees, suckle the massa’s babies, and drink from designated fountains so that I might now live to thank them for their sacrifice by spitting on their memory. Don’t fall for the okey-doke, folks.
