She was Workin Like Foreal Blog

Rap and black music videos have recently undergone major criticism. All at once, parents, students, professors and media personalities appeared to be concerned with the content used by these hip hop artists. More specifically I recall uproar at Spelman College. Rap artist Nelly visited the school to perform some of his latest hits and to find a compatible bone marrow donor for his sister. Spelman students used the opportunity to question Nelly face to face about his Tip Drill video. Anyone who has seen the video would definitely understand the concern these students had. He defended the video by explaining it was simply a form of entertainment. For obvious reasons the meeting did not go well and the situation spiraled out of control with news clippings bashing the Saint-Lewis artist. It is hard to pick a side in this story because both sides made convincing arguments.

I am certain that Nelly’s intentions for visiting the school outweighed the importance to bombard him with an unscheduled and inappropriate meeting about his video. How can we change the world if we are always going against the grain with inappropriate offensive techniques? My mother always tells me you can get more bees with honey than you can with vinegar. The all or nothing mentality will not work every time and in the end you are making enemies and not forming alliances for the future. Not only did we burn bridges with a major artist who could have helped our school make major changes in the presentation of hip hop but we made it harder to work with any other major artists in the future.

After the incident there was a small symposium at Spelman College. During this time we looked at pictures of black women to identify our ideas of beauty. We analyzed rap lyrics and videos that degraded black women. There was a Spelman student there who told us about a party she went to and her experience. She told us that while she was on the dance floor a guy pulled his penis out and attempted to have sex with her. Everyone in the room immediately turned in her favor without thinking about the entire encounter. I asked her how was she dancing and she looked at me and started laughing. My point to her was you cannot provoke a person and be completely surprised by their reaction. Sure he was wrong but at what point will women take responsibility for their own actions. The biggest issue is a lack of morals, priorities and self esteem among many of these women. We look at celebrities and expect them to be the role models and world saviors in our communities. Ok and that is fine but we should hold those same expectations for ourselves.