Saturn in Cancer: Take Back The Music

The problem, said Davis, is that the image of the black woman portrayed in many hip-hop videos has become the pervasive image of black women. And, according to Essence research, the main consumers of hip-hop are young, affluent, white men. She fears that society as a whole is getting a "sick" image of what black women are all about.

I heard this as I journeyed to Spelman College. This statement comes from Michaela Angela Davis, and editor at Essence Magazine.Her statement is part of the campaign called Take Back The Music that is being led by Esssence Magazine and some Black women who are fed up with overly sexualized and demeaning images being presented of Black women in hip-hop and American society in general.

This is going to be explosive. Thirty years after the attempt to get the ERA Amendment to the US Consitution, this movement will most likely have a lasting impact.

The series of articles, articles and dialogue taking place is not shying away from the hard acts and ugly truths. This is a woman's movement of significance. The fact that the main consumers are younf, affluent, white males opens the door to acknowledgement that this is how and why Black women are not seen as competent in the professional world and the workplace in general. These same Caucasian men get put into the hiring nad decisionmaking positions that judge who and who is not fit for a job, especially a high-paying high power job. If these men are spending their youth and young adult age viewing Black women as whores, prostitutes, sleazy dancers, strippers and purely mindless big breasted, nearly-naked and always primed for sex, they are NOT going to let them have equal opportunity in the business world/workplace.

Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News makes it clear that this is hurting U.S. Black women, who are, as a result of the sick lyric and images of hip-hop, apporached outside the U.S. as though they are global prostitutes.