It's About Freakin Time

MONDAY, JANUARY 3 The week begins with a burst of righteous anger from a heartening source: Essence, the black women's lifestyle magazine, whose editors have announced a long-overdue war on hiphop misogyny. Explicated by writer/scholar Stanley Crouch in today's New York Daily News, the Essence campaign was launched after editors held a group listening session. "We found the rap lyrics astonishing, brutal, misogynistic," said editor Diane Weathers. "So we said we were going to pull no punches, especially since women were constantly being assaulted." This assault is well illuminated by Crouch: "The elevation of pimps and pimp attitudes creates a sadomasochistic relationship with female fans. They support a popular idiom that consistently showers them with contempt. We are in a crisis, and Essence knows it." After last spring's demonstrations at Atlanta's Spelman College--where a campus full of young women (supported by their male peers at Morehouse) cancelled a performance by Nelly over his standard-issue "gangsta" treatment of women in songs and videos, "we realized that… it was time," says editor Weathers. "Women were no longer going to sit still." Praising Essence as "the first powerful presence in the black media with the courage to examine the cultural pollution that is too often excused because of the wealth it brings to knuckleheads and amoral executives," Crouch closes his editorial with tempered hope: "Things are getting hot. This is a beginning that has been a long time coming, and it is good to see it all forming naturally with the women in the lead."

From Last Days by David Schmader