Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:25:01 -0400 From: Wynne_Kathleen-MPP Reply-To: Wynne_Kathleen-MPP Subject: RE: Ottawa Citizen - hate rap complaint coverage To: Valerie Smith Dear Ms. Smith, Thank you for including me in your mailing list. I am looking forward to raising this issue with Women's Caucus. Kathleen Wynne -----Original Message----- From: Valerie Smith [mailto:valsmith@fradical.com] Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 12:04 PM To: Undisclosed Recipients Subject: Ottawa Citizen - hate rap complaint coverage Ottawa Citizen Monday, 10 October, 2005 Rights crusader fights 'hate rap' She fought Bell over its 'PimpTones.' Now Valerie Smith is taking on HMV fo= r selling hip-hop music with language that degrades women, writes JOANNE LAUCIUS. Valerie Smith, the Toronto activist who filed an Ontario Human Rights Commission complaint against Bell Mobility over its "PimpTones" cellphone ringtones, has a new target. This time she's launched a complaint against music distributor HMV over "hate rap" - rap and hip-hop music by artists like Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem and Jay-Z that refers to women as "bitches" and "ho's." Ms. Smith's argument is that these lyrics - and video images such as the rapper Nelly swiping a credit card down a woman's derrière - contravene t= he Ontario Human Rights Code and the commission's own policy on sexual harassment and gender-related comments and conduct. Ms. Smith named HMV in the complaint because it's the biggest music distributor in Canada. "You have to start somewhere," said Ms. Smith, who several years ago targeted a couple of video stores for distributing 1960s slasher films that depicted women being attacked. Canada's hate propaganda laws protect people from being attacked because of race or sexual orientation, but not because of sex. Women lack crucial protection extended to other groups, argues Ms. Smith, an office manager fo= r a mining company based in downtown Toronto who has made several high-profil= e human rights complaints. She has had to deflect suggestions that an attack on rap is an attack on black culture. "It's not a black thing. It's a guy thing. Misogyny crosses all races," she said. "If the harm caused by gangsta rap was restricted to black women, that would be reason enough to try and get rid of it, but it i= s not. It affects all women of all races. Plus, white boys and men are the biggest market for this music, so it directly affects my particular group o= f society." Rap and hip-hop's gender trouble is a sprawling and knotty puzzle and it is playing out in the media, in politics and even in academic circles. Some have argued that gangsta rap music is deeply harmful to the black community and that it helps perpetuate racist stereotypes. Irony abounds. Some have charged that blacks have become the agents in selling racist images of themselves to whites - about three quarters of rap and hip-hop music is sol= d to white consumers. Calls to tame rap and hiphop have been around for more than 15 years. Those who have led the charge have risked becoming figures of ridicule, including black activist C. DeLores Tucker, who sued the estate of slain rapper Tupac Shakur over allegations his lyrics defamed her. New campaigns appear. Last January, Essence magazine launched a campaign called "Take Back the Music" that called for a debate on hip-hop's "toxic" culture. On one Ludacris album cover, the rapper appears ready to bite into a woman's leg. White rapper Eminem has rapped "Bleed, bitch, bleed" and refers to an old girlfriend as a "black bitch." "An entire generation of black girls are being raised on these narrow images," said Essence. Hip-hop journalist Jimi Izrael shot back that the hiphop culture is a reflection of culture at large. Nelly or Ludacris don't objectify women any more than James Brown did, he wrote. "The battle of the sexes has turned into an all-out war, with economics and feminist related issues taking precedence over building and fortifying the black family. Hiphop didn't create that -it just reports it," wrote Mr. Izrael. "Today's hip-hop music reflects this generation's frustration, but more tha= n that, it satisfies the curiosity and fetishes of its mainly white audience.= " Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University, said the "product" hip-hop sells is black hypermasculinity and hypersexuality. For more than 50 years, white men have seen black hypermasculinity as a way to live on the edge, he said. "Clearly, part of the appeal is that it's a way to be resistant, not in any complex and political way, but as a way to combat the status quo." Asking hip-hop to become anti-sexist or anti-misogynist would strip it of its appeal. It "may be asking hiphop to do something that it's fundamentall= y incapable of," said Mr. Neal. Rap and hip-hop are maturing and they're already changing the political landscape. Many major artists, including some of the most controversial figures, are already using their unprecedented personal wealth and personal magnetism to attract attention to their issues. Sean Combs, for example, who was charged and acquitted in a shooting incident in a nightclub, used his pop culture muscle to urge young voters to go to the polls in last fall= ' s U.S. federal election. Controversial hiphop producer Russell Simmons, whose memoir was titled Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money and God has used hi= s money and star power to attract attention to the "three strikes" mandatory sentencing laws. Ms. Smith believes the issue of rap music and its influence needs to be raised to the level of public debate. And she won't shy away from the issue of censorship. "I'm not so afraid of the C word that I can't say it out loud," said Ms. Smith, who points out that Canada already exercises censorship over some forms of expression, including child porn and hate propaganda. "This is our legal framework." Dudley Laws, who heads Toronto's Black Action Defence Committee, has battle= d Toronto police repeatedly over the shooting deaths of black youth. He has also been critical of the influence of rap music and its glorification of violence, gangsta lifestyle and disrespect for women. But rap music and its effects on youth are not currently among his most burning causes. "We're involved in more urgent issues," said Mr. Laws, who said there is no= t much that can be done about rap and its influence. "How do we correct it?" he asked. "The only thing we do is not listen to it, not buy it and encourage others not to listen to it." ----- End forwarded message ----- .