House Negroes, Super-Fly "Playa" Uncle Toms and Hollywood Exploiters award Oscar to "It's Hard to be a Pimp"!
Tonight’s Bamboozled Award for being the Most Loyal N-----s on the Plantation goes to... the idiots who wrote, produced, sang, voted for and cheered “It’s Hard to be a Pimp” for the 2006 Academy Awards!Hell’s bells, this shouldn’t need explaining to anyone, but pimps are just about the lowest form of life in the world (ranking somewhere with arms traders, blood diamond merchants and booze dealers and tobacco manufacturers).
Pimps exploit girls (and sometimes boys), emotionally crippling them, virtually enslaving them, frequently assaulting and even raping them. Pimps are the people who make profits after the pedophiles inflicted the “gateway abuse.” Pimps are the people who will happily exploit and destroy to the last tear your sister, daughter, cousin or mother if it’s in their interest. Pimps are monsters. Vampires. Filth. Sociopaths.
Somewhere in the last few years, some people took it upon themselves to employ the word “pimp” as a compliment, and “pimpin’” as a description of desirable or admirable behaviour. What’s next—using the word “pedophile” that way? Kool Moe Dee rapped on the 1988 song “Self Destruction,” “I never, ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan/And I shouldn’t have to run from a Black man.” Moe Dee was right then, and his words apply now, and to this topic, in light of the disgusting celebration of violent, economic, psycho-sexual exploitation of some of society’s most vulnerable people that was performed on the Academy Awards last night.
No, idiots, it is not hard to be a pimp, not compared to how hard it is to be a sex-trade worker (as opposed to a sex-trade boss).
The worst form of enslavement is psychological. As Malcolm X said in his “House Negro/Field Negro” speech, the Field Negro identifies with his master more than his master identifies with himself. We have been thrown into a planetary concentration camp and some of us sing in admiration the “virtues” of the internment, speaking of those who prey upon us as if they were heroes. They’re not. They’re our enemies. The Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazis and their ilk couldn’t be happier than for us to save them the trouble of destroying us.
Oh, and while I’m furious at our own people who contributed to this sickness, I have nothing but contempt for other Academy voters and the big-money power-brokers who ensured that this song would get as far as it did, including by its being performed in a ceremony broadcast to (although thankfully not watched by) a billion people.
Darthmo on Idol Forums.com wrote: “right now I am not feeling the whole pimp thing. And how we have to play roles that degrade us just to get Oscar buzz. Denzel training day. Halle Monsters ball. Now this.”
Some more comments are here.
Some right-wingers are already using the song’s prominence to attack multiculturalism. Multiculturalism isn’t the enemy. The enemy is racial exploiters who employ racial stereotypes to advance the idea that Afrikans are scum... feeding a self-fulfilling prophecy along the way.
Here’s another commentary:
"A report on veteran entertainment reporter Army Archerd’s web site tells a sad and revealing tale about the state of American culture. According to Archerd, portions of an Oscar-nominated song, as it’s currently written, wouldn’t pass network clearances to appear on the awards broadcast scheduled for next weekend.
"The name of the song is 'It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp' – and yes, that’s the title that will be announced during the telecast and performed live. Original lyrics to the song include 'f--k,' 's--t,' and a variation of 'the n-word,' which will be replaced with the cooperation of the songwriting team. Those in charge of the Oscar broadcast, however, have permitted the terms 'bitch' and 'ho' (likewise in the lyrics) to remain. The rationale, according to the Oscars producer Gil Cates, is that the latter two epithets are heard regularly on network shows.
"What a sad moment for America – and a profoundly distasteful one, too. In itself, the fact that 'bitches' and 'ho’s' apparently surface on network programs with some regularity is a disgrace. It’s hard to believe that the creative well has run so dry that writers are forced to resort to misogynist vulgarities in order to elicit either a laugh or a frisson of shock. But even so, at least families can avoid programs that employ such lowbrow devices. Should they be turning off the Oscars, too, before the inevitable questions begin: What’s a 'pimp,' Daddy? Mommy, what does 'ho' mean?"
And don't forget--the child may also ask, "Mommy, why do those Black people like pimps? Why does that Black lady singing love her pimp so much? Why do all those Black people in the audience cheer for pimps?"
And if I could be that child, I'd ask, "Why does rich White America hate us for the very thing they make millions telling the world that we supposedly are?"
Comments
Peace,
V
I also disagree with the racial aspect, as recording companies are just as willing to distribute music from white people who make fools out of themselves on national television. Not all recording companies are owned by “rich White people” (for example Sony BMG, Death Row Records, P. Diddy etc.), many of their stockholders are probably not rich, and they represent only a very small percentage of American (or World) population of any race.
Bad Boy Entertainment is, by the standards used by Black Enterprise Inc. not a black owned company. It has a black founder and CEO but is not 50% owned by blacks. I don't know about Death Row. Sony BMG has a black CEO, it is not a black owned company by any measure. Most black labels (Bad Boy for example) are actually wholly owned (pimped) subsidiaries of one of the big three. None of these "black" labels can get a record into the stores without the distribution channels of the big 3. Itunes and the likes may change that in the future. Time will tell.
Lastly, Clear Channel and thier Ilk along with the FCC determine what is permissible to broadcast on the public airwaves.
Most media outlets where the material is purchased are not run by black people either.
Being Canadian, I am not very familiar with Clear Channel or FCC, but I do know that Canada has much stricter broadcast restrictions than USA. I am personally against any restriction to freedom of speech on a matter of principle.
As an aside, I have observed that most Black Americans consider themselves as only Americans and
are quite patriotic. They don't seem very interested in African nations, just as White Americans don't
care about Europe and feel no national connection to it. Biggest example of this is the fact that they
don't lobby America to support African countries at nearly the same level as other much smaller ethnic groups
lobby for their countries of ethnic origin.
There's a whole lot that can be said of how black Americans identify, along with a reading of "The Souls of Black Folk' by WEB Dubois I suggest you follow the writings at www.blackcommentator.com.
Kwame Toure said: Africans in America identitfy totally with thier masters in every respect.
Also Americans are very self centered,. it is not surprising to see Af-Am's being similarly centered in general.
To be honsest this comments section is not the appropriate place for a decent discussion on the topic. Perhaps the good minister would post at length on this from the perspective of a Afrikan in Canada.
Still, as black people, we have to be very careful about the image we portray to the majority popultation. Especially when they are so quick to try to jump on all of the negative stereotypes that they percieve about our culture.We just can't afford to be cooning and preening in that environment. Not when so many actors of color -Denzel Washington, Sidney Potier,Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, comes to mind- worked so hard to perfect their craft and to become respected by that academy.
This topic definitely needed to be discussed and written about by those of us in our community who care about our direction.