Home > parenting, raising boys, raising girls, reflections on race > Video Vixens, Hip Hop Honeys & Ghetto Booties: dear white folks

Video Vixens, Hip Hop Honeys & Ghetto Booties: dear white folks

October 16, 2009 curlykidz Leave a comment Go to comments

This is an open letter to my people… particularly white women.

Do you know Saartjie, birth name unknown?

Perhaps you know her by her slave name, Sara Baartman?

Maybe you know her by her freak show name, Hottentot Venus?

Every white woman should know Saartjie’s name too.

 

You may ask why in the world I think this has anything to do with you… maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But some of us are the mothers of Hip Hop’s White Audience, which is largely young white men & teenagers.  Some of us are mothers of young men and women of color.

When our children buy this music, when we allow them to watch these videos, and when we fail to talk to our children about sexual exploitation of women, particularly women of color, we are part of the problem.

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it ~ George Santaya
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner’s, 1905, page 284

What Tami Said: Please remember Sara.

via What Tami Said: Please remember Sara.

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  1. uglyblackjohn
    October 16, 2009 at 11:26 PM | #1
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    But these women chose to be in the videos – Sara didn’t choose her life.
    Most of the women are attractive but I wouldn’t date most of them just based on their ghetto accents.

    • curlykidz
      October 17, 2009 at 2:41 PM | #2
      Reply | Quote

      Sarah didn’t choose to be a slave, but it’s my understanding that she did choose to go to Europe, and that she was promised money. Whether she had any idea what her tour would include and whether she got all the money promised to her is unknown. I realize that there’s a big question about whether one can actually give consent when she is enslaved to another. While the women in the second video are much more in control of their own destinies, they are still marginalised in a society that values them only for their sexuality, and are also living in a society that praises the almighty dollar. I see similarities between the two videos that are disturbing; the focus on the “back” is only one of them.

      Who you date is obviously your discretion, but generally speaking, an accent reflects where a person lives or where they grew up. I don’t think it’s a good representation of who they are as people.

  2. realitysurfer
    October 17, 2009 at 10:04 AM | #3
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    Please take a moment to check out my documentary film BLACK HAIR

    It is free at youtube. 6 parts including an update from London, England.

    It explores the Korean Take-over of the Black Beauty Supply and Hair biz..

    The current situation makes it hard to believe that Madame C.J. Walker once ran the whole thing.

    I am not a hater, I am a motivator.

    Plus I am a White guy who stumbled upon this, and felt it was so wrong I had to make a film about it.

    self-funded film, made from the heart.

    Can it be taken back?

    Link

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