| Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, professor of Humanities and an ordained minister, was in town October 24. He spoke about the hip-hop culture before a packed audience at the Wisconsin Union Theatre. I came to know Dyson some years ago after he wrote and published "Race Matters: Navigating the Color Line (1997)." Since then, Dyson has written many books, including "Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion," "Holler if you Hear Me," "Between God and Gansta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture," "Making Malcolm: The Myth and the Meaning of Malcolm X," and "Is Cosby Right?" Familiar with Dyson's lectures and his promotion of the hip-hop culture, I expected Dyson to recite from memory hip-hop lyrics and he did. Black, Latino/a, Asian and white young adults "rapped" along with him. A good number of young Black women also "rapped" along with him and others in the audience. Dyson asks that we consider the poetics of the lyrics and their intricacy as many of them that could outshine a Shakespearian sonnet. But I worry that what "shines" from some of these lyrics are detrimental images of the Black woman. Dyson's apology for sexist lyrics in hip-hop seemed to acknowledge and dismiss the images of "bitch" and "ho" to describe Black women. A man from the audience asked Dyson about those lyrics. He said he grew up with hip-hop but he was concerned that his young son could take from these lyrics an idea of masculinity that does not promote a positive self-image or a positive image of Black women. Dyson repeated what he said in the last 20 minutes of his hour-long lecture. Hip-hop artists did not invent misogyny. Misogyny could be found in White lyrics, in White cooperate halls, in White bedrooms. And? This means what? The Master's mega-narratives are misogynist and chauvinist and, therefore, don't blame hip-hop if its lyrics imitate theses narratives? Skip over the words, "bitch" and "ho." Unfortunately, the young Whites I have encountered in the college classroom here in Madison don't skip over those words. If I could have talked with Dyson, I would have tried to tell him the hell some of us Black women enter when we enter a classroom at predominantly White institutions. We are already, as Black women, a target of hostility in part because we are isolated and we receive little support. After all, there is not racism, so it is difficult to express how different it is for a White woman to enter the classroom as professor from a Black woman who enters and is immediately seen as someone out of place. I would have told Dyson, in one of my classes, some White male students began chanting "Janet Jackson," "Janet Jackson," while I was lecturing. Finally, when I asked about the meaning of the chant, I was asked if I remembered Janet Jackson that day her breast was made visible at a Super Bowl game. I would have told Dyson of two White women students who questioned my ability to teach Introduction to Literature at a two-year college here in Madison. It was the lowest numbered literature course I had taught in years given my specialty in African Diaspora and Women of Color courses, taught for upper-level students and at four-year institutions, including three UW institutions. Yet, these students informed me not long after the term started that they worried that I would "water the course down." They had to "get to the UW-Madison." Students now are "clients" and they know their concerns will be heard while my concerns about a rude and racially hostile atmosphere will used against me. I would have told Dyson of the White male student who told me to shut up. I was talking with students in one group and heard this voice from the back of class. When I asked the young man to repeat what he said, he did. He said, "Shut up." The lyrics that include the words, "bitch" and "ho" do a better job of teaching some White students (and some Black students too) to dismiss and condemn Black women teachers than anything that can be done or said in the classroom to counter this form of "education." The very commitment to undoing this damage is denounced and vilified. And what of the Black women students who have found the campus atmosphere stifling? Someone on the local Mic 92 told a local host that most Black students do not remain in Madison after they graduate from the UW. "I know why they leave here, but it is unfortunate that the campuses don't make an effort to question these Black students and find out why they choose to leave Madison. Yes, White America has historically degraded Black women for a long time. Only now, they have help from within the Black community. Nothing shines when the lyrics of hip-hop denigrate Black women -- no matter the poetic genius of the artists. |
| Voices/Dr. Jean Daniels Dr. Michael Eric Tyson |
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