Hip hop has a vagina. - Brown University

CR: Given that personal responsibility may not be to blame for the situation of black people, how
much of the solution will be institutional reform or an attack on capitalism. How much can be solved
by a fundamental shift in our society and how much is just reform?
MD: Both. Given the fact that we’ve backed off of both, I’ll take either one. I don’t have to go
for the radical reconstruction and redistribution of wealth along an axis of progressive and creative
realization of social goods and civic democracy. I’m down with that but I’ll just take the reform. Of
course, my ultimate is the radical distribution but even reform has been backed up off of now. In
reference to this notion willy-nilly that personal responsibility can solve all your problems. Now we (the
rich) don’t have to be responsible anymore. The dictators of social responsibility no longer have to
pony because, after all, it’s your fault you’re poor. It’s not structural features. It’s not political decisions
made by elites, distributed through the system. No, no, how convenient! It’s your fault you’re not rich.
Minimum wage has nothing to do with it. The depression of wages has nothing to do with that. The
persistence of revolution to Black men in the marketplace has nothing to do with it. Other sociologists
have determined that stereotypes about Black men’s disinclination to work have no bearing on
this at all. That’s ridiculous because we live in a society where stereotypes alter people’s behavior
towards vulnerable poor. Structural pieces play a big part in that. You can see that it’s very seductive
to conclude that it’s the responsibility of the poor for lifting themselves out of poverty as opposed to
pointing the finger at those of us who put them there or the structure that reinforces their position to
be dealt with. Poor people didn’t invent the circumstances by which they’re poor, over one, two,
three generations although most people would believe that they did. Although most people would
believe there’s something destructive about their behavior or cultural values that is transmitted over
space and time that explains why they’re there- in poverty, in the ghetto. I would never deny that
there are traits that are self-destructive, that there are pathological features of any peoples’ culture,
community, tribe or tradition of social organization. I would never deny that but that’s true of every
class value, but now some people have enough money to absorb the pathology or to be able to not
allow their deficits to overrule them or they got mommas and daddies with big enough checkbooks
that they can cancel them out.
One of the reasons I’ve embraced hip-hop culture over the years is because this is one of the arenas
where the ugly truths and bitter realities are articulated that others would rather sweep under the
carpet. Having said that, there’s enough social criticism that blows through the rhetoric and the lyrical
intensity of the best rappers that reminds us of the lives of the poor. Some of the lyrics that testify to
poverty, long before America came to grips with it (and it still hasn’t), is found in rap music. This is
informal ethnology. Radical reconstruction is the ideal but even social reform would be preferable
to the utter disregard for the conditions of the poor. The refusal of those of us who benefit from social
inequality, because even charity which is given to the poor is a result of economic inequality. If we
had radical social justice, charity would no longer be necessary. Charity is possible when a Bill Gates
or an Oprah Winfrey gives money, which is beautiful when they do, but the very realities allow certain
people to acquire enormous amounts of wealth. The reality is that economic inequality allows the
accumulation of wealth by individuals who then because of that radical economic inequality chose to
give some of that back. Charity rests upon radical economic inequality. Ironically enough, the radical
economic inequality that creates the possibility of charity to address radical economic inequality is
a failsafe program generated within the logic and lure of capitalism to maintain the inequality while
creating the appearance of helping the less well off. It’s not all about cash but that’s important.
CR: In your speech, you mentioned a breakdown of four types of oppression women face:
femophobia, sexism, patriarchy, and chauvinism. That was fascinating. Can you break down these
issues a little further?
MD: If we see sexism as the sentiments against women because they’re women. If we see misogyny
as the hatred and revulsion at the idea of women and the sustained effort to subordinate women in
social relations. If we see patriarchy as the conscious or unconscious belief that men’s lives should
set the norm by which others are judged, then femaphobia, for me, is the fear of women’s lives, the
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