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From Imus to Industry—What Price Dignity?

Hours into viewing the live webcast September 25 of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection hearing, “From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images,” I asked myself, “What’s wrong with this picture.” There were no women. By the end of the following week—when the New York Times reported that the chief executive of the company that owns ABC Radio Networks said Don Imus “has more than paid for what he did,” and was apparently close to a deal to return him to the airways on his flagship station, WABC—it seemed like racist misogyny had won the day.

Representatives of the Women’s Coalition for Dignity and Diversity had pushed for the House hearing, but for nearly five hours, women took a back seat to a monochromatic panel of male media executives, followed by a panel of male hip hop artists. When members of the women’s coalition (disclosure: I’m a member) were finally called to testify, E. Faye Williams, national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, commented on women’s place on an agenda and said “we need to put [women] out front. . . . Listen to the voices of women who are saying, ‘This hurts me.’”

In opening remarks, Representative Bobby L. Rush (D.-Ill.), chair of the subcommittee, called for a “coalition of concern and compassion and commitment to address the issue of violence, hate and degradation that has reduced too many of our youngsters to automatons.” He said he respected the First Amendment and that the hearing is “not anti-hip hop,” but that “we must also take responsibility in our freedom of expression.”

Williams agreed. “We believe in the right to free speech,” she said, “but we also believe in decent speech.” She said women, “especially we black women and our children, have been bombarded with misogyny, violence and obscenity through public airways day after day.” Predictably, the industry executives insisted that artistic expression is paramount. Doug Morris, head of Universal Music Group, downplayed the societal impact of misogyny and racial stereotypes. He said First Amendment rights came at the price of “allowing highly charged words and images in our music even if they sometimes offend and cause pain.” But he added that the price was “insignificant compared to the ability to speak our minds.”

While the price of sexual exploitation may be “insignificant” to Morris, corporate sponsored hip hop is exacting a toll on women. Karen E. Dill, a psychologist at Lenoir-Rhyne College, testified that research revealed that “exposure to violent rap increases adversarial sexual beliefs, negative mood, and acceptance of relationship violence.”

Truth is, black men also pay a high price.

One need go no further than Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly’s recent comments about diners at a world famous black restaurant to understand the impact of the corporate construct of black culture. O’Reilly told his radio audience: “I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship [sic].” O’Reilly was ostensibly astonished that “there wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

O’Reilly’s racially offensive remarks beg the question: Why would he expect to find “craziness” in a “famous restaurant?” Two words: Gangsta rap.

In his testimony before the subcommittee, Andrew Rojecki, communications professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, described the results of his research on the black image in the white mind. White subjects, he said “spontaneously referred to media images of sexuality and violence that supported their negative views. These images substituted for the absence of sustained contact between whites and blacks, inevitable in a society that remains segregated by race.”

A generation ago, community outrage brought the curtain down on blaxploitation films. In the coming months, the Women’s Coalition for Dignity and Diversity will remain vigilant and hold the entertainment industry’s feet to the fire. Industry executives may hope to “wait us out,” but as E. Faye Williams makes clear, “They don’t know us. This is not a passing fancy. We are in it for the long haul.”



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