Rappers Delight

Here's another article debunking the notion that Imus and others like him should get a pass because of what rappers do.

Rappers Delight: You're Not Imus Scapegoats

To defend radio shock-jock Imus' comments regarding Rutgers University's girl's basketball team as meaning little because "rappers regularly use those words, so why is it wrong from Imus?" is to reveal how deep-rooted the stereotypes are that plague black people.

Was it OK for Imus to stereotype a specific group of black women simply because rappers have used those same words? No. Those who excused Imus' remarks based on the rap of gangsta rappers, such as Snoop Dog and 50 Cent, are forgetting that Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and others do not specifically rap about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Imus' comments were directed specifically at that group of women and only those on the team who were black. To say that a comment specifically targeted is OK because others use the words "nappy" and "ho" liberally ignores Imus' direct assault through the use of stereotypes on a specific group of women.

At issue with Imus' comments are two things: a lack of diverse images and a lack of context. Rap music and hip-hop culture, believe it or not, are not just rife with gangsta artists. Hip-hop culture and rap music include groups as varied as Snoop Dogg and The Roots and 50 Cent and Talib Kweli. What is revealing is that most everyone knows Snoop and 50. The Roots and Talib Kweli are less recognizable and that's because rap's gangsta image is marketed more than its introspective, self-aware, thoughtful image. Is that black people's fault? I think the answer is more no than yes.

People tend to gravitate to what they see will provide them income. If record companies sought out more conscious (socially aware) rappers, then we'd see more conscious rappers. But instead, record companies, which feature mostly white leadership, focus on marketing stereotypical gangsta images to a rap-consuming public that is also mostly white. And that's not to say that gangsta rap is not legitimate. It is as legitimate as conscious rap, but we hardly hear conscious rap.

It's true that too many black people buy into the stereotypes, but when those stereotypes are mostly what is aired on radio, television and the Internet, it becomes easier to believe you have to mimic the stereotype to succeed. Whites don't just have Paris Hilton, Eminem or Kurt Cobain, and no one would believe that all white women are self-indulgent heiresses who have sex on camera, mother-hating rappers or heroine-addicted, angst-ridden, flannel-wearing, irresponsible 20-somethings.

The problem with Imus' comments is that they were said by a white man who failed to give them historic context. Let's be honest. White men created the word "nigger" and created a system where being closer to white is considered more advantageous than being closer to black. Had Imus, after saying what he said, explained his comments were satirizing that social dynamic, then he probably wouldn't be going through his public flogging. Instead he said, "Black people say it, so why can't I?"

Rappers, those who are gangsta and those who are conscious, rap about their reality. We still have the reality of high unemployment among black people. It is still a reality that stereotypes and racism keep black children in under-funded schools and keep black people from high-paying jobs and from reaping the same rewards and benefits as do white people. Some rappers will wallow in the negative images that are a product of those realities and others will try to focus a light on how they can be overcome. But why is it that radio and the music industry appear to put more money behind gangsta images than conscious images? Perhaps it has more to do with their idea that being black is gangsta and about making money any way they can than it has to do about being conscious and trying to show the diversity within the black community.

In truth, the black Rutgers University girl's basketball players are great byproducts of the black community as educated, black-female athletes. But Imus chose to describe them according to what he saw: dark-skinned athletic women, which his comments and the comments of his producers revealed equal "nappy-headed hos," "jigaboos" and "wannabes."

Those words coming out of a white man's mouth and without the benefit of explaining an understanding of where they came from can only be based in stereotype and are a product of racism. Those words uplift Imus as a white person who is assumed to be educated and upstanding and imply that the Rutgers women's basketball players are not educated, are ugly because of their black attributes, and are sexually promiscuous. So it's not rap's fault. It is Imus' fault for not being aware enough to explain that his "joke" truly was not funny at all.

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