A few weeks ago, in response to Don Imus’ honest moment, instead of doing a show on the history and impact of gender-linked insults (e.g. “b*tch,” “hoe”) or race-linked ones (e.g. “nappy,” “ghetto”), Oprah aired a “town hall” discussion on rap. If you missed it: Common looked like rap’s golden boy. Some ladies from Spelman College declared rappers should never ever ever use the words “b%tch” and hoe, regardless of artistic license. Diane Weathers subtly supported censorship. Jason Whitlock made more dubious, unsubstantiated claims on his way to quickly becoming YT’s favorite pet commentator. (Since when are sports journalists heavily sought after as social critics?) Stanley Crouch revealed he’s the real life version of Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. Oprah looked genuinely pleased that she had “opened up dialogue.” In short, you ain’t miss much.
Presumably, the point of the town hall meeting was to discuss racism and sexism in the context of hip-hop, but that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, that discussion never took place. Instead what transpired was a moral trial on hip-hop’s content with beloved Oprah as judge; Kevin Liles, Russell Simmons, Common, and Dr. Ben Chavis as the defense; Stanley Crouch, Diane Weathers, Jason Whitlock, Bruce Gordon, Asha Bandele, and seven Spelman students as the prosecution; and Oprah’s predominantly White, female audience as jury. (Did anyone else notice Russell and ‘em were outnumbered?).
The show, which appeared in two parts, was so empty and superficial it didn’t even explore the difference many people have drawn between Imus’ bigoted insult and rap’s excessive verbal abuse of Black women. On one hand, Don Imus made a generalized racist, sexist remark about a group of obviously talented, upstanding young women whom he didn’t know. On the other hand, rappers are supposedly talking about females whose behavior they know well. The second case is as inexcusable as the first, but for a very different reason.
Rappers and their defenders poignantly ask, “Why can’t rappers talk about b*tches and hoes, if there are b*tches and hoes in real life; if they really know women who fit those descriptions?” Though there’s a great answer that feminists, including many unheralded Black ones, have worked (and suffered) tirelessly to answer, Oprah’s shallow program couldn’t even provide it because of the courtroom format. There was no spare time during the attack on rap to explain why the sexual double standard, the centuries-old idea which is the root of rap’s misogyny, is anachronistic, malicious, foolish, and hypocritical.
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