Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur of AllHipHop.com is calling for Hip Hop to apologise to all women especially women of colour for “bold misogyny and rampant sexism” – I would add to that an apology to the LGBT community for rampant homophobia which is conspicuously absent from Creekmur. Creekmur uses the analogy of the US Congress considering an apology for the enslavement of millions of Black people and the consequential institutional racism in American
society. White people benefited economically by oppressing Black people and in the same way Black men have benefited economically by oppressing and denigrating Black women and preventing them from having equal access to the industry.
With rap, you have the men – typically Black men – who are using this art for economic gain and then you have the women – typically African American women or women of color who are relegated to the most base role in the culture.
The question is can Hip Hop (and Dancehall, Ragga – ) continue to sustain itself through a culture of abusive lyrics directed at women and the LGBT community. There is also an element of self-abuse within this culture of violence, bling and nihilism and again Creekmur uses the following analogy
When you eat your typical fast food for an extended period of time, you experience a number of adverse affects. Initially, you might simply gain weight, something remedied with exercise and change in dietary habits. However, if you continue to ingest the bad food, you will begin to suffer ailments that are much more difficult to fix. (Think high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease).
Although an apology for slavery would be welcome, what is more important, as Creekmur points out is, if people “would just stop practising racism” misogyny, sexism and homophobia then I think most people would wavier the apology.