Blacksmythe

One of my younger fraternity brothers, in the wake of the Imus scandal, made the following Whitlockian move:

In realtity, what ever parts of our culture become mainstream will affect their preceptions of us and their interactions.

How we treat each other sets precedent for how others will treat us.

In response to my request for data, my younger fraternity brother cited The Black Image and the White Mind by Entman and Rojecki…and also the recent poll conducted by Cathy Cohen out of Chicago for her Black Youth Project. What I’m going to do here is respond to him…minus the smackdown. The bottom line? There is a difference between blame and responsibility. We have the responsibility to carry ourselves with dignity and honor, regardless…but we are not to blame at all for what Imus said. (more…)

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How many of you have seen this?

I take a fairly aggressive stance on Net neutrality. I believe that broadband networks should be free of restrictions on both equipment and nodes of communication. If indeed this neutrality would diminish innovation…then ok. I don’t think is what will happen, but I am ok with it if it does. Without net neutrality I’d argue that what passes for a digital divide would increase.

Now the article above notes that black state legislators across the country are beginning to move against net neutrality. But what the article does not say is that many of these same legislators are being paid off financially supported for doing so.

Gotta love it.

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These two tidbits just in:

Russell Simmons is having a closed door meeting with hip-hop execs and urban community members.

Kevin Powell oversaw a conversation on Power 105.1, which has announced that it is changing its format significantly:

KEVIN POWELL, noted writer, political activist, and hiphop historian, has been invited to lead a live radio discussion on the aftermath of the Don Imus situation AND the state of hiphop today, on New York City’s number one radio station, Power 105.1 FM. In an historic move, Power 105.1 is eliminating advertising for one day to open up its airwaves to highlight the changes the station plans on making in its content and presentation.

Monday, April 16, 2007
8AM-10AM EST
Power 105.1 FM radio in the New York City metropolitan area
OR you can listen on the web at www.power1051fm.com, keyword LISTEN OR LISTEN LIVE

“This is a bold move,” says Kevin Powell, “and a very necessary one. The people at Power 105.1 recognize how influential radio is for young Americans. For Helen Little, the Program Director, to do this says that there are some of us in the entertainment industry who are taking seriously our responsibility to our society, and to our young people. The time for change is now. This movement is not about censorship. It is about balance and diversity and not adding any further to the violence, excessive materialism, and sex and sexism already present throughout American popular culture, including hiphop. And we need radio stations, magazines, video shows and networks, websites, and record labels around the country to follow the Power 105.1 model and have the courage, too, to say enough is enough.”

(Thanks to Angela Garreston for the passage above, and thanks to the NHHPC list on yahoo as well.)

So much for thinking that MCs wouldn’t go unscathed.

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I was in Chicago for the past week (some of you contacted me to see if we could get together, and I’m sorry I was not–I was so busy that instead of being at the office at work, I’m decompressing at home, still exhausted) for the Midwest Political Science Association. So I heard about Imus getting jacked, but I didn’t get a chance to write about it. To be honest I didn’t think I would originally, because so many others had gotten a crack.

But I think this neatly fits within my research interests, so I’ll take a stab and see what type of response I get.

I’ll start off with a question. What if the women that Imus talked about were identifiable, and were both “nappy-headed” and “bad-ass girls”/”sexually promiscuous women”? We would probably have to take them out of college for them to fit the stereotype perfectly, but let’s not. What if when the girls got on television, they performed down to stereotype, wearing afros, and talking massive shit? (more…)

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