Woke up this morning...wrote myself a blog...wrote myself a blog

“We’ve got to air our dirty laundry” I’ve heard this comment surface by numerous Black professionals during the course of the last two weeks regarding the accountability of misogynistic lyrics in hip hop. Is that really OUR dirty laundry, or just the colored clothes in a hamper full of dirty laundry? I have been so fed up over the entire Imus situation because I know that we are not ready to hold the correct parties accountable for the sake of being politically correct. We see the effects of historical white privilege and racism in all institutions today but will not make a direct correlation between it and the music industry...mainly hip hop. We acknowledge that most commercial rappers (the ones who Imus listened to calling women “nappy head hos”) were most likely raised in improvised neighborhoods, educated in an inferior school system, in a single family household...etc. We can clearly see their childhood is consumed with the results of institutionalized systems that produce racially disparate outcomes with ideologies of “Get Money” by any means necessary.

“My mother gave birth but she really never had me
Left to the hood to play daddy
Raised by niggaz named Butch through the bay bay”
- Common

"They say my ghetto intrumental, detrimental to kids
As if they can't see the misery in which they live
Blame me, for the outcome, ban my records - check it
Don't have to bump this but please respect it"
-Pac

Hip hop and it’s environment are mutually exclusive. We can’t demand a change of the lyrics when it’s a direct reflect of a racialized environment. But oh, I forgot...racism ended after the Civil Rights Movement. Riiight. And let’s not make the connection between the American Identity and the historical accounts of the attack on the Black female body. Dorothy Roberts sums that up in here
I’m not as offended by racial/sexist slurs when I know that their are systems of institutions that have systematically neglected to include me. Not saying the words don’t hurt but I’m a big girl and I understand the sticks and stones cliché

"In time I learned a few lessons
Never fall for riches
Apologizies to my TRUE sisters
Far from bitches
Help me raise my black nation
Reperations are due
Its true
Caught up in this world
I took advantage of you
So tell the babies how I love them
Precious boys and girls
Born Black in this white mans world"