Lecture tackles hip-hop, feminism
Emily Welsh
News Writer
Joan Morgan, a leading feminist and journalist, visited Saint Mary's Monday to discuss hip-hop culture, an art form that includes break dancing and graffiti art.
According to Morgan, hip-hop culture has developed its own cultural identity and has had an affect on relationships.
Morgan, senior editor for Essence Magazine, is a part of a new wave of women and men that believe hip-hop culture's infiltration of the media promotes sexism. This realization is causing many black women to work toward abolishing the sexism and stereotypes encouraged by the hip-hop culture.
"They must reject the historical tendency of women to stand behind the downtrodden black male. Women must assume the responsibilities of their lives so they can become self-empowered," said Morgan.
Morgan's lecture was an extension of her exploration of hip-hop's influence on black women in her book, "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist."
"Bringing Joan Morgan to campus is encouraging the women at this campus to confront the objectifying of our bodies that occurs in music videos, magazines, and media in general that we are bombarded with. Look at what the women in videos wear and how they act and the image that is relaying to us," said April Davis, Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs.
Morgan's informal lecture started a discussion of relationships on Saint Mary's campus. During the lecture, she shared excerpts from her novel and then invited questions.
First, Morgan read the section of her book dealing with her redefinition of feminism for today's black women, which states that women must stop defining themselves by the oppressions of sexism and racism that they live with everyday. Community was a reoccurring theme in the discussion of redefining hip-hop's relationship with women and feminism.
"Feminism and hip-hop are not at war. It is my community [of journalists] that is at war," said Morgan.
As a journalist covering hip-hop artists, Morgan said she has an appreciation for the artists that she interviews, but she said that does not reconcile the degrading, violent images and words found in hip-hop music and videos. She sees the lyrics of these rappers as the only key into the black man's mind and heart.
In analyzing the words of the hip-hop artists, Morgan found that the men hide their pain and anger behind words like "hoes and bitches." She said that these young men cannot love the women in their lives until they learn to love themselves.
The black-on-black violence cannot be curbed until the anger in young black men's lives turns into love.
The hip-hop listener has to hear the reality of the lyrics "instead of just shaking their booty to the beat."
According to Morgan, her concern is one that is shared by many African Americans in the United States but is not acted upon, evident by the financial prosperity of the current hip-hop culture.
"Joan Morgan possesses a perspective on the lives of blacks today that many people agree with but do not voice because they are forced to assimilate to the popular culture of the majority," said Apryl Underwood, a sophomore at Saint Mary's.
All News Stories for Tuesday, April 3, 2001
