COMMENTARY: ART IMITATING TRIFE

http://www.vibe.com/blog/vc/2006/08/art_imitating_trife.html

Urban Wildflower asks: Does this picture make you want to say anything? Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:31:10 +0000

It certainly does. However, not so much about the young women who have chosen (or have been coerced) into exploiting their bodies for Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.'s benefit, but rather the pitiful response to the photograph by "powerful" media moguls. Whether these women know it or not, they are at the helm of a long "gravy train", no pun intended, and I'll bet that they didn't even get a dog biscuit or doggy treat for allowing themselves to be exploited by Broadus, Jr., MTV and Viacom.

While I can understand the argument that this is so called "social satire", which pokes fun at Broadus, Jr. by making him clean up dog shit, it's who's doing the shitting that angers me. As a matter of fact, this whole notion of feces and black women appearing within the same context of do do, is beyond crass, bordering on evil, and indicates a whole new low in the construct of the "black bitch out of control" stereotype. Now the media posits that the black woman's body is so out of control that she chooses not to go to the bathroom, preferring to shit on herself or in her own space (an indication of an infantile mentality or an animal that has no respect for itself). This lack of self control points to the need to beat her, take her out to the country and leave her in a field, or euthanize her for her own good. Furthermore, her body stinks up the place, and should she be kept at home, chained and locked away from the rest of society--invisible. The question is why? Can it be that our society is so afraid of the power of African American women that it is now necessary to equate her with a turd? Think about the strides that black wmen have made throughout history. Think about the African American female intellectual community. It's powerful. But is it so powerful to necessitate the creation of a new and more vicious stereotype? Damn.

(I am remembering the women of the Congo at this moment).

What I find most appauling (besides MTV's lame excuse for the creation of the cartoon) is Christina Norman's defense of this poop. This just demonstrates that people will do anything for money including kicking their own asses. The bottom line is that whether she knows it or not, she is the one "socially" associated with the image of the defecating out of control black female and Viacom will take her to the country and leave her with the first wrong move, including supporting crap (again, no pun intended) if it suddenly becomes unpopular. Perhaps this is why she is playing the Condoleeza Rice role, shuffling down the corridors of Viacom, happy to accomodate all those "high powered" execs, in whatever manner they choose, including support of this cartoon.

Furthermore, Mr. Clock Man (or should I say Father Time) allowing the network to air the piece on the sister who supposedly defecates on the set, is just as disgusting as Norman. Father Time does not realize that by agreeing to this fiasco he may as well have inserted his mother, grandmother, or sister in the place of the woman because they too will be factored into the stereotypical image equation. And what about the sister who went along with this-- hairweave flying, smiling from behind the bathroom door. "I couldn't hold it" and in a later interview justifying her actions. We've all had incidents where our bodies have chosen to do what it wants to do and our brains have no control, but do we allow it to be exploited. This kind of filth and greed is beyond me. Some old white man said something about "all the world is a stage" (don't worry, I know who) but does this mean that we as a people must continue to be shit on the floor or shitted upon in this performance.

There was a time when we would let "the other" exalt in this kind of madness. There was a clear and definitive line of self respect. "They acted like that", we didn't. But that was in the "olden days", no more. Welcome to the world of assimilation.

I really hate it when people take my life and my self-image into their hands. Damnit I know who I am. Give me a break. Moreover, I am just plain old tired of the bullshit (last pun, I promise).

ll