Another article at Townhall.com has caught my attention. It's hard to resist a title like "The Culture of "Bitches, Hos, and Niggas"" by Michelle Malkin.Basically, she says that it's a bit silly to get upset at non-black people for making comments degrading to black women (Let me make it clear, though: I think that Imus should never have said what he did!), when the top rap-songs in the charts for months in a row have very offensive terms in them, speaking about making women slaves of the desirable men.
I think I need to agree with her, insofar as to say that people should take their outrage further than just condemning Imus. While I don't think that white people or anyone else has the right to denigrate others, it's hard to respect a group of people (in this case, those who embrace abusive language; whoever subscribes to the rap culture embraces the disrespect expressed towards women) if they don't show respect for themselves, which is demonstrated in rap-music by the abusive language regarding women. I should make it clear, though, that this "group" does not include all black people or even the majority - just those who participate in the abusive rap culture.
I find it particularly hard to understand black women who like this abusive rap. I would hate for a girl to grow into a woman believing that she is nothing but trash for some man to do with as he pleases.
On the other hand, one asks, what is the solution? It's part of the culture, or at least the subculture, of many black people in America today. Is it part of their racial identification? Would they feel too white if they separated themselves from the abusive part of the Rap culture?
And on the other hand, there are plenty of black people in America who have nothing to do with the Rap culture. Perhaps they should be the role-models.
I don't have the answer. As a white person, I wouldn't want to be the one to suggest it even if I did. I guess I've been sufficiently indoctrinated to want to avoid racial/cultural imperialism.
(Should I even address the non-blacks who like abusive rap? I'll leave it, for the simple reason that the subculture doesn't seem as dominant among young whites.)
I guess I should say at this point that I think that music by white people that attacks the dignity of others would best be done away with as well. Can't we all just get along???
*disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with the rap beat or spoken word. It's the abusive language that I object to.
**another disclaimer: This has been a difficult piece to write, because it's much more complicated than black and white. There are other ethnic groups involved as well. I just chose to write about black rappers since they are the most visible group involved.
5 comments:
Somehow, I think Michelle Malkin's commentary on sexism/racism involved in hip-hop culture would be much easier to take seriously if she wasn't an apologist for the WWII concentration camps that wrongly incarcerated Japanese Americans.
If the devil himself were to tell me that water in the ocean is salty, I think I'd have to believe him.
I don't know enough about Michelle Malkin to say anything for her character. I would certainly disagree with any attempt to make the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII acceptable.
On the other hand, even an idiot sometimes gets something right, so it would be ignorant, I think, to simply disregard everything said by said idiot out of hand.
Ideally, we would listen to all arguments, weigh them against what we know, and then choose to accept or dismiss them. Unfortunately, we don't have the time to do this with everything and everyone, so we are often forced to pick and choose which arguments we will even entertain, based on who made them.
Whether or not the ocean is salty is a matter of fact, not moral judgement.
In the matter of moral judgements, I prefer to listen to people who I think have something to add to my view...people whose morals I respect. I wouldn't take counciling on adjusting to my sexuality in a healthy way from Ted Haggard, and I wouldn't take marriage advice from Rudolph Guliani, and I wouldn't take advice on how to relate to people from other races/ethnic groups from someone who advocates racial profiling, and wrote a whole book about how the Japanese internment camps were a good thing.
On the other hand, if Michelle Malkin wants to weigh in on whether the sky is blue or the sea is salty, that would be a refreshing change.
I also think Malkin frequently makes a common mistake that I see often at Townhall.com of mistaking "hiphop" culture for "black American culture" at large. I don't know if she does in this article or not, as I've been kind of "Malkined out" for a while and didn't bother to read this particular one.
This is perhaps analogous to the mistake the same people make when they mistake Evangelical Protestantism for "Western Culture".
Teresa,
I completely agree with you. It would be very difficult for me to take Malkin's views seriously. Also, I wonder if Malkin knows that the majority of hiphop sells come from suburban white kids...hmm
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