Monday, July 27, 2009

Skippy Gates The "Rosa Parks of Racial Profiling" Says Black Men Are Naturally Misogynistic

The interesting part of life is that it is not the set of circumstances that you are given that matters, but your response to them. Give the same pressures and same type of opportunities to ten people and you will get ten different reactions. The pressures and opportunities may be identical, but the responses will differ, and in that sense, by living life, you learn quite a bit about yourself. ---Susan Miller

Yeah I'm tired of Skippy by now but this dust-up has been so revealing on so many levels. Soon he may wish he'd just kept his mouth shut. Thank goodness the readers of this blog are such an intelligent group and the ones who respond usually provide a wealth of knowledge. I appreciate the challenge at keeping up with you. I think we should start our own critical thinking/social criticism school or something, but I digress. A blogger reminded me of Skippy's support of 2 Live Crew during their obscenity trial. I know viewing it from a distance without any analysis it may have appealed to the typical African-American emotional reaction of the "white man trying to take the black man down" but it was in fact one of the last ditch efforts at policing aberrent behavior.

If you recall that trial was in 1990 and it was before the onslaught of the filth to come via the gangsta rap and other perverted music with their accompanying videos that would then be played during the day when kids could watch them instead of being listed as adult content and relegated to midnight airings as they had been. It would have affected retailers being able to sell their music and would have given all record labels pause about what type of music acts they would be able to sign. I am also reminded of the fight C. Delores Tucker put up to stem the tide even while she was vilified.

I find it very telling that the RIAA, the same one that cries foul of the "illegal downloaders" actually DEFENDED them and filed a Friend of Court Brief on their behalf. This LA Times article states it was the argument between ANYTHING GOES vs. ENOUGH ALREADY. The group was acquitted but the jury's contention was their lyrics were akin to parody because that was how black people communicated. There was this rush to defend this group or dismiss their lyrics as part of the larger "black culture" of the "black community". The argument they are quintessentially black, that black women exist solely to satisfy violent sexual desires or that their lyrics are funny is part of the reason why African-Americans have lost their moral compass and will form a permanent underclass in this country.

If some still question how young boys aged 14 and under could be socialized to become rapists (like the ones in Arizona) if they hadn't had any previous mental defects then here's your answer. Yes media does ABSOLUTELY have an affect on the minds of people, particularly CHILDREN who have fewer filters in place. If you've parked your child in front of the tv as a babysitter and offer NOTHING to counterbalance the negative images consumed you are training your children to adopt a depravity mindset. Especially when that child is parked in front of the likes of BET.
  • MISOGYNY is defined as: HATRED OF WOMEN AND GIRLS. No ifs, ands or buts. When I stated in an earlier post about DBR (damaged beyond recognition) behaviors prevalent in a majority population of African-American males (and many females) and how they hate AA women I got a LOT of denials. Misogyny is directed at women as a collective group. Of course there are nuances where a man might hate women of one group but be able to fawn over women of an entirely different group. Or parse it to like some while still despising others. Other variants include the Madonna/Whore complex. Honor killings, rape, violence and skin shade racism also fall under this.
In the Legal Response to Violence Against Women Karen J. Maschke contends "many do not bust out laughing" like Gates does while listening to 2 Live Crew and she details specific lyrics. I decided against displaying the lyrics here because they're NSFW and also they're disgusting. We have to be careful about immersing ourselves in filth when analyzing it. You might like to review the court transcripts along with this essay.

So in his defense of this (what used to be thought of as) explicit rap group, Skippy is saying ALL black men naturally HATE women. Now if we look at the actions from the general population of black men, especially African-American men from the past 45 years what has emerged is the trend of their abandonment and abuse of BLACK WOMEN. If someone can point to another ENTIRE GROUP OF WOMEN this would apply to feel free to keep looking and I'll wait for you to fall off the Earth since it's flat. There is no misinterpretation of this. Anyone who wishes to dispute this can do so at their own forum because there will be NO misdirection of this point. Now whether an individual male DECIDES to recognize it and redirect it or squash it is up to that man, but Gates wasn't offering that caveat. He was using it as an excuse to EXPLAIN AWAY THEIR DEPRAVITY.

Now to be certain there are plenty of women-hating men in the world but again we come to discuss survival and domination tactics. No group can survive without women. So it comes down to other men to police the behavior of the men in their group to maintain a workable model. There is NO such policing going on in the "black community". Not when you have the "premier" African-American scholar who's a refugee from his blackness, reveling in his 56% European heritage, married to an average white woman and crying victim when hitting the third rail of white male authority saying it's okay that these men embody every racial stereotype ever visited upon black men because it's in their nature to be that way.

I found this great essay by Kimberle Crenshaw (whom I'd like to see nominated for the Supreme Court before Obama leaves office) discussing this case. I don't agree with everything she has to say - namely the knee-jerk inclination for black women to defend black men who are working AGAINST them - but this was written more than a decade ago. Like many of us who've seen the aftermath of the depravity women must resist the urge to think of themselves by race first and gender second in these situations. It should be every woman for herself. Yes, in a very selfish looking out for one's own interests FIRST way. The antithesis of what most black women do NOW where they GIVE IT ALL AWAY FOR FREE AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN. Or worse are left to fend for themselves when THEY need help.
Thus, Gates concludes, 2 Live Crew and other rap groups are simply pushing white society's buttons to ridicule its dominant sexual images. I am deeply skeptical about the claim that the Crew was engaged--either in intent or effect--in pursuing a postmodern guerilla war against racist stereotypes. Gates argues that when one listens to 2 Live Crew the ridiculous stories and the hyperbole make the listener "bust out laughing." Apparently the fact that Gates and many other people react with laughter confirms and satisfies the Crew's objective of ridiculing the stereotypes. But the fact that the Crew are often successful in prompting laughter neither substantiates Gates's reading nor forecloses serious critique of its subordinating dimensions. Gates' use of laughter as a defensive maneuver in the attack on 2 Live Crew recalls similar strategies in defense of racist humor. Racist humor has sometimes been defended as an effort to poke fun at, or to ridicule racism. More simply, racist humor has often been excused as just joking; even racially motivated assaults are often defended as simple pranks. While it may be true that the Black community is more familiar with the cultural forms that have evolved into rap, that familiarity should not end the discussion of whether the misogyny within rap is acceptable. Moreover, we need to consider the possible relationships between sexism within our cultural practices and the problem of violence against women.

Violence against women of color is not presented as a critical issue in either the anti-racist or anti-violence discourses. The "different culture" defense may contribute to the disregard for women of color victimized by rape and violence, reinforcing the tendency within the broader community not to take intra-racial violence seriously. We must determine whether the practices and forms of expression are consistent with our fundamental interests. Although collective opposition to racist practice has been and continues to be crucially important in protecting Black interests, an empowered Black feminist sensibility would require that the terms of unity no longer reflect priorities premised upon the continued subordination of Black women.
Since I know so many take issue with a black woman criticizing a black man (hello Miss Ogyny again) I'll add some criticism from other black men. Scholar Martin Kilson refers to Gates as the master of the "Black put-down". Indeed. You are also free to research cultural critic Harold Cruse. During the trial Gates referred to 2 Live Crew as "astonishing and refreshing" and compared their works to that of Shakespeare, Ella Fitzgerald or James Joyce. They were not pushing the envelope of social discourse like Lenny Bruce or George Carlin. They were out to make money by denigrating black women.

In Master of the Dodge: A Reply to Henry Louis Gates, Martin Kilson critiques an earlier Gates' project but it seems his warning could apply to anything by which Gates endeavors or even perhaps to the man himself.
So I try to advise my progressive Black intellectual peers especially to be wary of "King Gates" strategic offerings - his fish-hooks, if at all possible. And I'd like to address this especially to the up-coming younger generation of African- American intellectuals and scholars, particularly those who seek to fashion a progressive outlook for themselves. Finally, we progressive Black intellectuals especially do indeed have to perform the scrutinizing task in regard to establishmentarian and/or conservative Black intellectuals like Henry Gates, because no one else will. Above all, we progressive Black intellectuals still have a serious Black people agenda to attend to. Namely: Protecting, advancing, and redeeming Black folks' honor, both here in the United States and elsewhere in the globe.
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10 comments:

Karen said...

One of my "core values" as a AA women is that I will not accept being disrespected - PERIOD. I stopped listing to rap/hip-hop when it turned ugly and never listened to gangsta rap.

If more of us (read Black Women) had taken this stance when it mattered, this type of "so-called" music would never have established a foothold.

Secondly, every man on this planet can thank his life to a woman. As it pertains to black men with black mothers who spew this kind of filth, it is the ultimate form of hatred against women and I would go so far to say it is also self-hatred.

Now getting back to old Skippy, it is clear that he has "issues" and based on his actions (which always speaks louder than words), he obviously has issues with his mother and being black. How else can one explain his behaviour of defending that group with lyrics against black women. Would he have been so quick to "justify" it if it had been against Buffy or Becky. I doubt it.

I know what my core values are and based that, I am able to very quickly judge who will be in my life and who will quickly be dismissed and what situations to avoid or to raise an issue about... Ole Skippy would never have been one of my "acquaintances".

One last note, when Skippy made the statement of " Black Men Are Naturally Misogynistic" are we sure he wasn't actually just projecting his his true feelings on the subject....

Faith at Acts of Faith Blog said...

Karen: I agree! Now the interesting thing is to find out how so many so-called "good" black men are of NO VALUE to black women. I've also noticed how often people tend to follow outside influencers to base value on other people or situations instead of doing there own evaluation.

Khadija said...

Foul, foul, foul. I didn't know about these details before. [By the time of this trial, I had long since stopped listening to Black/urban radio. And had tuned out EVERYTHING connected to hip-hop/rap.]

Faith, you said, " Now the interesting thing is to find out how so many so-called "good" black men are of NO VALUE to black women."-

Yes, this is another type of "silent majority." The type who sit back and remain silent while Dunbar Village, Hovey Street Murders, an 80% OOW rate, gangsta rap, etc. go on under their noses.

The silence of the majority of AA men confirms something that other bloggers have said in the past: This "silent majority" of AA men BENEFIT from the status quo. That's why they're not saying or doing anything.

And the masses of AA men are only silent when it comes to AA women and children. They know how to get loud, and get some bass in their voices when wailing about the tribulations of themselves and other BM in their losing dominance/patriarchy struggle with WM. This losing/lost patriarchy struggle is ALL most AA men care about. Period.

The sooner more AA women wake up and smell the coffee, the better for them and their children.

Peace, blessings and solidarity.

Faith at Acts of Faith Blog said...

Khadija: I think we can safely presume to write off so many who are thought to be "prominent" and "decent".

Evia said...

The silence of the majority of AA men confirms something that other bloggers have said in the past: This "silent majority" of AA men BENEFIT from the status quo. That's why they're not saying or doing anything.

My bm cousin first pointed out these "benefits" to me a couple of years ago. Here's a fact of life about anything and everything: NOTHING continues unless it's being fed or supported. Without food, fuel, or some type of continuous support, EVERYTHING dies.

Another thing is that lots of AA women are missing a key ingredient in some of what I say because women in general don't tend to think the way men do about sex--AT ALL. For ex., my bm cousin says that SEX is seen by many AA males as being the GREAT equalizer between themselves and wm because getting WOMEN (sex) are THE driving desire behind many of the actions of ALL men. Therefore, to a typical AA male who is angry at de evil wm on some level, getting WOMEN is like getting currency. Being able to easily get lots of sex is the equivalent for many AA males to wm getting/having lots of money. So expecting even the "good" AA males in general to do something to change the current dynamics is like expecting Bill Gates to throw all of his money into the Pacific Ocean.

These days, many typical AA men are easily getting ALL the sex they want from a variety of women and with no or few strings attached. This is why many of these AA males feel they don't need education, a job, or to stay out of prison. They can come right out of prison and hop on a woman and even hop on women in prison through conjugal visits and such.

AA women are even fighting each other to give sex to AA males. There are women (of all groups) standing in line to financially feed, clothe, and houses AA men. I'm sure we hear about the ww sugarmommas that some AA males have and when you go to larger cities, you see these clearly older ww with their young bm "boyfriend" in tow. Bw too are doing this and these women cutely call themselves "cougars." LOL!

Many AA males (at all rungs on the socioeconomic ladder) can and do DICTATE the terms of these encounters/relationships with many AA women of all ages AND increasingly with women from other groups who have low/lower self esteem or those who want a younger boy-toy/sex machine.

Also, since so many AA women are constantly and publicly vexing about "why AA men this or that" or about why won't AA men "come back home," it continues to push up the general demand for AA men. It's low self-esteemed, indoctrinated AA women who are so fixated on AA men ONLY who have made AA men across the DBR and ABC--spectrum a highly desirable commodity. These women have become AA men's in-built Madison Avenue ever-churning advertising/marketing machine AND the AA male's security force. AA women are in every little nook and cranny of this system, like spies, watching out for any slight or attack against the AA male.

Evia said...

Part 2 (And Pls excuse my loonnnng comment, Faith.)

IMO, AA men, by and large, do NOT particularly like each other. They don't value each other. They may give lip service about supporting each other, but they do NOT stand up for each other, don't come together and pool their resources (not even the wealthy, so-called "conscious" ones of them), and frequently beat each other down or kill each other over practically nothing. They definitely don't trust each other to have their backs. So they will continue to smooze AA women to perform that role to watch their backs and to support them.

Actually, I have grown to the point where I don't blame these males for taking advantage of adult/older bw because these adult women CAN walk away. They, at least, have a CHOICE and a fighting chance. Also, the fact is that IF you can be preyed on and easily so, someone IS going to prey on you. That is guaranteed in the world we live in where the laws of nature are continuously operating. Actually, as we know, many of these bw (the prey) are a part of the "Be Kind to Black Male Predators" squad. They may as well be wearing tee-shirts with that emblazoned on the fronts and backs. LOL! AA women simply need to get shrewder. People who are not shrewd in a world full of sharks ARE going to be devoured.

However, I have NO mercy on these adult black males who prey on young, unsuspecting and frequently underage female children and model these predator ways for other bm. I don't think there's anything that's too bad to do to them because they're destroying bw and their children and spreading pain and suffering across GENERATIONS. Whereas these males blast de evil wm for having done that with slavery, barely anyone blasts da po' bm for doing the same and it's even worse because he's doing it to his so-called OWN and yet continues to scream about what de evil wm is doing to him. PLEASE! No one forces you to victimize another person. Any adult of reasonable intelligence KNOWS when they're causing pain, and when you question them, they're conscious of it, yet they're simply self-serving. Actually, even young children know when they're causing others pain. This is why I stopped being interested in pity parties re mysogynist AA males a LONG time ago.

Having said all of that, I think that instead of doing a post mortem on where things fell apart for AAs or AA women--as many of us who can desperately need to fix our minds on stepping away from this mountain of poop and focusing on ways to engender TRUST between interested AA women. Note that I'm NOT talking about ALL AA women> So, if you're an AA woman who's not interested in this or don't think it CAN succeed, then you can just trash this idea and be on your way. LOL! I'm only talking about those who see clearly that their survival and ability to thrive hinges on developing trust and better communication skills with other similarly minded and likeminded women. This is the "intentional community" idea once again. I keep bring this up as well as the RUCOSS (reasonably uplifting culture of some sort) idea because I know that band aids are not going to stop the hemorrhaging. I think we really need to focus almost exclusively on ideas such as these at this at this point. Other comprehensive (not band-aid type) ideas are of course also WELCOMED. The worst that can happen is that we will fail. LOL! If we succeed on any level, however, many of the fence-sitters and detractors will copy our model and will CLAIM that they always agreed with us--LOL!-- because most people are attracted to SUCCESS because success=LIFE.

Faith at Acts of Faith Blog said...

Evia: Again THANK YOU for giving us vital information: your clear and accurate observations straight from the horses' mouth!

Seriously though if we're going to talk about values and bring some type of spiritual/religious context to this then this means MOST of this suffering is because people are disobeying God (from the not having premarital sex tenet of most "Christian" religions say is biblical).

If AA women STOPPED having sex with people they were not married to (and I can't answer where that leaves LGBT women..committed monogamy?) then it would all change.

If AA women STOPPED supporting the deadbeats and making excuses for them suddenly these men would have ambition? Or would they just try to find other groups of women en mass?

This is another angle to consider.

I also agree with the trust building and other alliances we need to have and how fractured it is now. Is it really so much more prevalent for other groups to work better with themselves than AAs and other blacks?

I think evaluating the points of disintegration can still be useful to many as some are still figuring it out (it goes back to the trust issue as well) but that eventually we do need to work on the next steps.

As you already know you are much further down the path or on a different road entirely than many of us as far as your discernment and clarity goes. I'm still catching up but working at it furiously!

Evia said...

Seriously though if we're going to talk about values and bring some type of spiritual/religious context to this then this means MOST of this suffering is because people are disobeying God (from the not having premarital sex tenet of most "Christian" religions say is biblical).

Faith, I see where you're taking this, but I don't think that AA women disobey God any more than any other group of women. I don't think at all that AA women are suffering due to that. Plenty of AA women suffer for the single reason that they're these "any bm will do" type women or "nothing but a bm" type. I also don't think that AA women have any more sex than other groups of women that I've mingled among.

As a matter of fact, I don't believe that some segments, especially, of AA women engage in as much sex and are not nearly as broad in their sexual activities as some other groups of women who engage in a wider spectrum of sexual acts. We may be talking about different segments of AA women, however, because ALL AA women do not conduct themselves sexually in the same way.

IMO, MANY AA women DO tend to spend time with and have sex exclusively with males who, for ex., some African women consider "useless" and who I consider to be straight up DBRs. I and many other women have had premarital sex. Personally, I just knew not to spend time with DBRs.

If AA women STOPPED having sex with people they were not married to (and I can't answer where that leaves LGBT women..committed monogamy?) then it would all change.

We can't control enough of the variables to use this as a behavior mod tool in this integrated society.

Also, this is NOT ever going to happen even if having premarital sex results in a death sentence. Historically speaking, people in even the most conservative, religious, punitive cultures have always engaged in premarital sex of various types if they could even with very harsh penalties in place.

It's how the consequences of premarital sex and the circumstances around sex are handled that has made the difference.

If AA women STOPPED supporting the deadbeats and making excuses for them suddenly these men would have ambition? Or would they just try to find other groups of women en mass?

Actually, I think that it did put a big dent in some of it in the days of segregation, but I don't believe that withholding sex these days is going to turn a typical grown irresponsible, impulse-ridden, self-serving male into a disciplined, responsible, forward-thinking, ambitious man THESE days. It takes WORK, knowledge, and a lot of impulse control and delaying of gratification to be a disciplined, responsible man who can meet the challenges of life. These depend on habits of mind and VALUES that you learn that are reinforced by your surroundings over a period of years. This is called the PROCESS of socialization.

IMO, sex is too easy to get from a wide variety of sources (from other males and females) these days to use the withholding of it as a way to modify behavior.

Faith at Acts of Faith Blog said...

Evia: Yeah watching Sex and the City certainly exemplifies the model of sexual "freedoms" that white women enjoy, but they weren't dating ex-cons, babydaddies or perpetually jobless men! Alright then it's back to seeking quality liaisons!

bwdb said...

Finally! Colin Powell speaks some sense into this thing...I believe he has and would handle any racial profiling (if that was mr gates experience) properly....


http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/07/28/sot.lkl.powell.gates.race.cnn