Phone. Home.
In the aftermath of so many black male celebrities interviews we are seeing a lot of our favorite artists display complete cognitive dissonance. They’re never even close to grasping the concept to actually answer the journalist’s question. I almost feel bad for the journalist because they have a job to do and for whatever reason the people who are supposed to be good with their words, for a living, can’t seem to put together a sentence that makes any sense. There’s a strange and weird hesitation I’ve been noticing as they do their album roll outs and promoting their upcoming shows. As they sit in those chairs across very respectful and intentional journalists there’s one word that we keep hearing and I’m tired of it. I blame it for giving black men in the industry and men in that realm with any kind of success the false sense of reality where their behavior can be harmful as long as there’s a “greater" good. The word is legacy. For some reason you can shoot a black woman, you can stomp a woman in a hotel hallway, you can pee on an underaged black girl, you can sex traffic a young woman to the point of dehydration and hospitalization but lets zip all that up because this person has done “so much for the culture”. It’s absolutely insane to value someone’s “legacy” and race over any sexual, domestic or psychological abuse they commit. Especially against black woman We all watched security footage of a woman running from a hotel room only to be thrown to the ground, stomped on repeatedly, dragged around by a half-naked man in a towel and yet when you ask other black men in the industry about the same man they want to talk about the culture and the Legacy of it all. Nobody cares. You can’t watch that footage, have a functioning brain and fully believe that was the only time he put his hands on her. He did that with no hesitation because he had done it before and she reacted that way because she had been through that many times before. They were in public and anybody could have seen them. He really did not care. We continue to tell women to speak out against their assailants, we encourage them to involve the legal system and then in the same exact breath spew hate, negativity and throw out conspiracy theories to discredit them. Famously, A black woman can post her bullet wound, have a doctor testify in a court of law, under oath, Infront of a jury and judge that she was indeed shot, and you still have people online saying it’s all made up and unreal. Men perpetuating violence is not shocking and unheard of. It’s very believable so when it’s said and done, why do we want to hear about a legacy, or a “vibe” or about how good music samples are interloped when we’re talking about violence against women. This isn’t propaganda or an agenda. This is real harm. Real people have been hurt and isolated because they chose to not be quiet about what they endured and sometimes that’s after trying to protect the people who caused them harm. Sometimes men are just too sick and depraved to realize it is their own fault, so they taunt and re victimize. They’ll release statements filled with lies when they know there’s evidence on top of evidence of their harm. They’ll tell blogs it’s all about sex and money, even jealousy. What good does it do to be sitting on podcasts and radio shows defending these terrible people. Your children are watching you, your black daughters and sons are seeing what you believe is acceptable for women and in 20 years when your little girls are telling you their boyfriend is hitting her, has stomped her out in the middle of a hotel lobby will you tell her she should shut up because of his legacy, because he is important to the culture. When your daughters tell you their spouses are drugging them to sexually exploit them are you going to tell her she should shut up because he can produce a beat?. There’s a lack of integrity and self-respect for themselves and their families because for weeks I have watched many of these “top rappers” embarrass themselves and their families to no end. Defending predators for what?. It’s very clear none of them actually care about women, about victims, or about black women at all. How many rappers and artists talk about watching their moms get abused as they grew up just to become someone else’s worst nightmare themselves. Instead of committing to being a good person with the proper tools to express themselves they continue the cycle themselves. I promise you showing empathy for extremely terrible people does not grant you a special place in heaven or seat at a special table. It does not make you more holier than though. You get no special favors. It does not matter what your experience has been with anyone because when you are well aware of what they have done. It is not your job to try to reshape or reclaim their life story or to try to preserve their reputation. You never have to experience the abuse yourself to make it valid.
I’ve learned a while ago that men need to decenter men as much as women do. I’m tired of the legacy talk. Some men chose to destroy theirs and that is something they will have to rectify with themselves from a jail cell, or hell. The protection of violent predators must end.
