Baby Got back, but Baby needs backbone/Get off the video screen and put some
clothes on…
Brother Khamisi (Revolutionary Son)
Back in tha day, a radio program director told me that heavy metal was marketed
to 16 year old white boys who were mad because they couldn’t get a girlfriend.
Fifteen years later, we must ask what is the marketing
scheme behind Sex Guns and Hip Hop.
I’m not saying that some Brotha with a bad
rap is somewhere sitting alone in his bedroom pumpin’ G-Unit
while throwing darts at a picture of his ex-girlfriend screamin’ ‘Take
that you s###…Westside!!!!!’ But we do have to look at the way sista’s
are portrayed in videos today through the eyes of marketing executives who spend
millions of dollars psychoanalyzing Brotha’s in order to pinpoint our weaknesses
and find ways to exploit us.
Now be honest, Brothers, if you had to choose
between looking at a centerfold of the sista from the Outkast
video and reading this article, which one would you choose? (That’s what
I thought) So they are experts at
appealing to our attraction to our Nubian Queens. Instead of denying our attraction
to beautiful black women we must learn to discipline our natural urges. In other
words we can’t let the size of the booty blind us to the beauty of Afrikan
Brothers and Sisters working together to ensure the future of little Black children.
Also, we can never look at any issue concerning
Black folks without putting the discussion in the context of the battle of Afrikan
people against the agents of white supremacy. Since the Hip Hop Nation has all
but called a truce with the white power structure, this issue will not be raised
from those who view reality from a purely ‘hip hop-centric’ point of view.
Many of the videos today feature a beautiful
black woman prancing around while 20 Brotha’s are rapping, ‘Get off
my block before I shoot, you, fool!’ Those of us who are not sleeping while
standing up must pose the question’ what in the world does a half naked
sista have to do with drug dealin’ and Brotha’s blastin’ Brotha’s?’
This is an obvious attempt to kill two birds with one stone; a case of cross
promotion of negative stereotypes.
Historically , it has always been a goal of white
America to portray the sons and daughters of Africa as animals lacking souls,
culture and moral character. So Black women have been portrayed as disparate
over sexed, Ho’s and Black men have been portrayed as blood thirsty rapists
and sexual predators.
So when a diabolical tool of oppression meets
with a billion dollar marketing scheme the result is what you get gyrating across
your favorite music video channel 24 hours a day.
Back in the day when the 2 Live Crew had Sista’s
‘movin’ sometin’’ to the sound of ‘Me So Horny’ the excuse was ‘Well.
What about them white girls that be all up in tha videos, HUH?’ But in 2004,
the white video vixen is more or less, a thing of the pass. While Heather White
has long since traded in her G-string for a government job, Shorty Doo Wop is
still holding down her 9 (PM) to 5 at tha strip joint.
The reason being that the entertainment industry
has found their niche market and will exploit it until the well runs dry, until
there is no such thing as a normal relationship between a Black man and a Black
woman.
With thousands of Black men in jail , the future
of the Black family is in danger. Most black men live everyday of their lives
with the fear of winding up in jail before night fall, whether guilty or innocent.
The music industry has capitalized off of this fear by manufacturing the ‘we
don’t love them Ho’s mentality.’ For the Brotha who is looking at
twenty years in the slamma a Sista becomes nothing but a quick hit while he
is out on bail. Why market a video concept about long lasting caring relationships
when you have created an environment where most of your market will be spending
20 years of quality time with Big Bubba in cell block D ?
Where the saying that made a Sista’s blood
boil back in tha day was ‘women are only good for two places; the kitchen
and the bedroom;’ in Hip Hop, for the ride or die chick, they are also good
for hiding a crack stash and working the strip club. (How many children out
there who have to visit their incarcerated mother once a week because she caught
a conspiracy charge for being in the car with drug Dealin’ Darrell?)
What would happen if we turned this Mother’s
Day into Black Queen Restoration Day ? What if Afrikan Brothers and Sisters
across the country joined with sisters like those of Spelman College or LaFonda
Jones (Operation ’hood Freedom, Durham NC) and demanded more positive images
in videos.
What if an army of Angela Davis/Assata Shakur,
kente cloth head wrap wearing Sisters rolled up on rappers like Trina and ‘made’
them understand the damage done to the self esteem of young Black girls through
songs such as ‘Big Ole D@### ?’
As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step. Isn’t it time that we started steppin’ in the
name of love for Black women?
