Hate, Rape, and Rap

Tipper Gore

Tipper Gore was born in Washington, D. C., in 1948, and grew up in Arlington,
Virginia. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in psychology in
1970 and pursued graduate studies in psychology at George Peabody College in
Nashville, Tennessee. In 1983, Gore helped establish the Parents’ Music
Resource Center (P. M. R. C.), a group which addresses issues of obscenity and
pornography in modern rock lyrics. In “Hate, Rape, and Rap,” which first
appeared in the Washington Post in January 1990, Gore contends that the lyrics
in some modern rap music inspire feelings of hatred among its listeners.

Words like "bitch" and "nigger" are dangerous. Racial and sexual epithets, whether
screamed across a street or camouflaged by the rhythms of a song, turn people into
objects less than human -- easier to degrade, easier to violate, easier to destroy. These
words and epithets are becoming an accepted part of our lexicon. What's disturbing
is that they are being endorsed by some of the very people they diminish, and our
children are being sold a social dictionary that says racism, sexism, and antisemitism
are okay.

As someone who strongly supports the First Amendment, I respect the freedom of
every individual to label another as he likes. But speaking out against racism isn't
endorsing censorship. No one should silently tolerate racism or sexism or
antisemitism, or condone those who turn discrimination into a multimillion-dollar
business justified because it's "real."

A few weeks ago television viewers saw a confrontation of depressing proportions on

the Oprah Winfrey show. It was one I witnessed firsthand; I was there in the middle
of it. Viewers heard some black American women say they didn't mind being called
"bitches" and they weren't offended by the popular rap music artist Ice-T when he
sang about "Evil E" who "f---ed the bitch with a flashlight/pulled it out, left the
batteries in/so he could get a charge when he begins." There is more, and worse.

Ice-T, who was also on the show, said the song came from the heart and reflected his
experiences. He said he doesn't mind other groups using the word "nigger" in their
lyrics. That's how he described himself, he said. Some in the audience questioned
why we couldn't see the humor in such a song.

Will our kids get the joke? Do we want them describing themselves or each other as
"niggers?" Do we want our daughters to think of themselves as "bitches" to be
abused? Do we want our sons to measure success in gold guns hanging from thick
neck chains? The women in the audience may understand the slang; Ice-T can try to
justify it. But can our children?

One woman in the audience challenged Ice-T. She told him his song about the
flashlight was about as funny as a song about lynching black men.

The difference is that sexism and violence against women are accepted as almost an
institutionalized part of our entertainment. Racism is not -- or at least, it hasn't been
until recently. The fact is, neither racism, sexism nor antisemitism should be
accepted.

Yet they are, and in some instances that acceptance has reached startling
proportions. The racism expressed in the song "One In A Million" by Guns N' Roses,
sparked nationwide discussion and disgust. But, an earlier album, that featured a
rape victim in the artwork and lyrics violently degrading to women, created barely a
whisper of protest. More than 9 million copies were sold, and it was played across the
radio band. This is only one example where hundreds exist.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who also appeared on the
Oprah Show, voiced his concerns about the antisemitic statements made by Professor
Griff, a nonsinging member of the rap group, Public Enemy; statements that gain
added weight from the group's celebrity. "Jews are wicked," Professor Griff said in an
interview with The Washington Times. ". . . {Responsible for} a majority of
wickedness that goes on across the globe."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center placed a full-page ad in Daily Variety calling for self-
restraint from the music industry, a move that prompted hundreds of calls to the
center. Yet Rabbi Cooper's concerns barely elicited a response from Oprah Winfrey's
audience.

Alvin Poussaint, a Harvard psychiatrist who is black, believes that the widespread
acceptance of such degrading and denigrating images may reflect low self-esteem
among black men in today's society. There are few positive black male role models for
young children, and such messages from existing role models are damaging. Ice-T
defends his reality: "I grew up in the streets -- I'm no Bryant Gumbel." He accuses his
critics of fearing that reality, and says the fear comes from an ignorance of the
triumph of the street ethic.

A valid point, perhaps. But it is not the messenger that is so frightening, it is the
perpetuation -- almost glorification -- of the cruel and violent reality of his "streets."

A young black mother in the front row rose to defend Ice-T. Her son, she said, was an
A student who listened to Ice-T. In her opinion, as long as Ice-T made a profit, it
didn't matter what he sang.

Cultural economics were a poor excuse for the South's continuation of slavery. Ice-T's
financial success cannot excuse the vileness of his message. What does it mean when
performers such as Ice-T, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and others can enrich
themselves with racist and misogynist diatribes and defend it because it sells?
Hitler's antisemitism sold in Nazi Germany. That didn't make it right.

In America, a woman is raped once every six minutes. A majority of children

surveyed by a Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center thought rape was acceptable. In New
York City, rape arrests of 13-year-old boys have increased 200 percent in the past two
years. Children 18 and younger now are responsible for 70 percent of the hate crime
committed in the United States. No one is saying this happens solely because of rap
or rock music, but certainly kids are influenced by the glorification of violence.

Children must be taught to hate. They are not born with ideas of bigotry -- they learn
from what they see in the world around them. If their reality consists of a street ethic
that promotes and glorifies violence against women or discrimination against
minorities -- not only in everyday life, but in their entertainment -- then ideas of
bigotry and violence will flourish.

We must raise our voices in protest and put pressure on those who not only reflect
this hatred but also package, polish, promote and market it; those who would make
words like "nigger" acceptable. Let's place a higher value on our children than on our
profits and embark on a remedial civil rights course for children who are being
taught to hate and a remedial nonviolence course for children who are being taught
to destroy. Let's send the message loud and clear through our homes, our streets and
our schools, as well as our art and our culture.