http://wa****ngtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/22/wetzstein-on-family/
Rap music perpetuates stereotypes of women
Cheryl Wetzstein
Sunday, June 22, 2008
A few years ago, I was looking over one of my favorite federal studies
for data on American families. As I started pulling numbers for a
chart, I slowly became aware of a gut-punching pattern.
Compared with women of other ethnic or racial backgrounds, black women
were
- Least likely to marry by age 30.
- Least likely to marry a long-term cohabiting partner.
- Most likely to have marriages end after 10 years.
- Least likely to remarry within five years.
- Most likely to see their second marriages end after 10 years.
How can this be, I wondered. Don't these women want a stable love life
and family? And if black women do want such things (and I'm sure they
do), how do we reconcile those desires with such stark federal
statistics?
How did we get to this place, where literally millions of wonderful,
worthy black women are waiting to exhale?
There are many answers, but let's focus on one - black men's
perception of black women. Uh oh, some may say. Here comes the rap on
rap, which we've been hearing at least since 1993, when the late,
great C. Delores Tucker went after vulgar and misogynistic lyrics.
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