Anderson@Large

Rush Hour for Cultural Polluters

Today, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing, "From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images."

The hearing will focus on "the impact of racist and sexist language and images transmitted via interstate commerce and telecommunications modes, the perpetuation of damaging stereotypes and how best to protect consumers from the increasingly coarse and vulgar language and images that have the effect of undermining important moral values in our society. This hearing will explore these issues in the context of commercial hip hop music and video games, and their impact on popular culture and young people." 

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bobby L. Rush said:

I respect the First Amendment, but rights without responsibility is anarchy, and that's much of what we have now. It's time for responsible people to stand up and accept responsibility.

There will be three panels: industry, artists, and women advocates, activists and academics. The witnesses include:

Panel I
Philipe P. Dauman, President and CEO, Viacom International
Edgar Bronfman Jr., President and CEO, Warner Music Group
Doug Morris, President and CEO, Universal Music Group
Alfred C. Liggins III, President and CEO, Radio One

Panel II
Percy Miller, aka "Master P"
Levell Crump, aka David Banner
Michael Eric Dyson, Ph.D.

Panel III
Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
E. Faye Williams, Ph.D., Chair, National Congress of Black Women
Lisa Fager, President, Industry Ears
Karen Dill, Ph.D., Lenoir-Rhyne College

The hearing is happening because the Women for Dignity and Diversity in the Media Coalition made it happen. For months, activists worked behind the scenes with Rep. Rush's staff to put racism and sexism in the media on the congressional agenda, as well as help identify witnesses.

The hearing will begin at 10:00 am EST in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. To connect to the live webcast, click here.

National Woman’s Day of Outrage

With VH1, BET and corporate hip hop (and here) running amok, what’s a woman to do? Take to the streets, of course.

On Tuesday at 12 Noon, women, men and youth will rally in 20 cities nationwide for a call to action. The cities include New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and Washington, DC.

The National Woman’s Day of Outrage is being organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. Their goal is clear:

Mount public pressure on the entertainment and music industries to adopt a universal standard of respect for all people.

To get involved, contact Tamika Mallory, national director of the Decency Initiative, at 212/690-3070 or send an email here.

May It Rest In Peace

The NAACP’s 98th annual convention (and here) is underway in Detroit.

Today’s program includes a ceremonial funeral to bury the N-word:

Delegates and supporters of America’s largest, most respected, oldest, and most effective civil rights organization will convene at Cobo Hall for a march led by the casket containing the N-Word to Hart Plaza where there will be a funeral service for the most vicious of all racist insults – the N-Word!

Just as in 1944, when Jim Crow was put to rest in the city of Detroit, we’ve come back 63 years later again in Detroit at this time to bury and put to rest once and for all the N-Word…

There will be no tears, except tears of joy, as we gather to say goodbye and good riddance to this unwanted and unwelcome interloper in our community. The N-Word is the most well-known example of racist language by others and self-hatred by African Americans. The NAACP believes the time has come to celebrate the end of its wretched, destructive life.

The public burial is part of the NAACP’s “STOP! Campaign,” a youth-led initiative to promote respect for black women and the African American community.

Meanwhile, in the City of Brotherly Love, Fox News anchor/investigative reporter Tom Burlington apparently is in love with the racial slur.

Burlington has been suspended for reportedly using the N-word multiple times during a staff meeting “as he argued that doing so was not such a big deal.”

Since Burlington didn’t know when to stop, he’s now resting at home.

Sisters Taking Care of Business

A number of readers have asked what, if any, action has been taken since the Dignity, Decency and Equality Task Force protest at Viacom shareholders' annual meeting.

I’m pleased to report sisters are taking care of business.  Task Force members, including the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Organization for Women, National Congress of Black Women, National Council of Women’s Organizations and R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop Coalition, have co-signed letters to executives at BET, MTV, Disney Media/ABC, CBS, NBC and Time Warner requesting a meeting “to discuss how we can work together to end misogyny and racism in the media.”

At Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s recent annual conference, Rep. Bobby L. Rush, who serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which has jurisdiction over the broadcast and cable industries, announced he will push for hearings on the disrespect of women in the broadcast industry.

For more info or to get involved, send an email to Janice Mathis of Rainbow PUSH here or Nancy Harvin of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation here.

Make Some Noise

Today, the Dignity, Decency and Equality Task Force of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, the National Congress of Black Women, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation , the National Organization for Women and others will hold an informational picket prior to the 2007 annual meeting of Viacom stockholders.

Task Force leader Janice L. Mathis, Rainbow/PUSH Vice President for Legal Affairs, said:

We’ll be present to let the heads of CBS, BET and MTV know how concerned women are about the corrosive effect of negative media images on young people.

We have attended prior shareholder meetings and were advised that the negative images were supported by ratings and ad revenues, and that we should not expect change.

To help make change happen, concerned citizens are invited to join the picket line at 9:00 am ET in front of the Millennium Broadway Hotel, located at 145 W. 44th Street in New York City.

And later today in California, the Respect Me Coalition will protest outside the offices of Interscope Records.  Coalition members are calling for a meeting with the label’s co-founder James “Jimmy” Iovine “on the use of negative lyrics” by some its artists.

The press conference will be held at 11:00 am PT at Interscope Records, located at 2220 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica.

For more info, call 323/846-1645 or send an email here.

The Kids Are Alright

At the National Action Network’s youth town hall meeting, I was impressed with a group of young sisters who are making a difference in their lives and their communities.

Like their elders, they are concerned about the degradation and commodification of African American women in gangsta rap lyrics and videos.

But as Syreeta Gates of Team Revolution Life Camp observed:

The hip hop culture has been an influence on our generation. We feel that it's time that we show how the culture gives back information that is positive and conducive to us as young people. Being that we have a love for hip hop, we knew we had to show how to use it as a tool to provide a service for the community.

Later this week, the group will hold its first annual “Team Rev’s Hip Hop Life” conference, which will include workshops and discussions about the history of hip hop and its current state.

The event will be held on Saturday, May 12, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the AC Academic Core Building at York College in Queens.

The conference is free and open to the public. But you must register in advance by sending your name, age and email address here.

For more info, call 718/978 3942.

Walk This Way

Run DMC’s mash-up of Aerosmith’s classic, “Walk This Way,” is one of my all-time favorites.

Today, I will put on my high-heel sneakers (Don Imus notwithstanding, I’m not wearing a wig-hat on my head) and join the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy and Tamika Mallory, director of the National Action Network's Decency Initiative, in the March for Decency.

Mallory said:

I am leading this march as a mother and as a young black woman who is part of the hip-hop generation. We must reshape the positive culture in music, and redefine images of women in media. We will no longer tolerate misogyny and racism as a mainstream form of entertainment for our children.

Glen Ford, executive editor of the Black Agenda Report and a pioneer in hip hop radio programming, observes:

Hip hop music is also a product, produced by giant corporations for mass distribution to a carefully targeted and cultivated demographic market. Corporate executives map out multi-year campaigns to increase their share of the targeted market, hiring and firing subordinates - the men and women of Artists and Recordings (A&R) departments - whose job is to find the raw material for the product (artists), and shape it into the package upper management has decreed is most marketable (the artist’s public persona, image, style and behavior). It is a corporate process at every stage of artist "development," one that was in place long before the artist was “discovered” or signed to the corporate label. What the public sees, hears and consumes is the end result of a process that is integral to the business model crafted by top corporate executives. The artist, the song, the presentation - all of it is a corporate product.

Hundreds of women are expected to protest sexism, racism and homophobia in corporate hip hop. The march steps off at 5:30 p.m. at Sony BMG Music.

For more info, click here.