TO LETTER WRITERS: As someone who has written on the subject of hip hop misogyny and followed the social counter movement against it extensively, I find the notion that black people haven’t voiced their complaints against gangster rappers frightfully ignorant, if not delusional. Yes, a disproportionate amount of black people like to listen to Young Jeezy, 50 Cent and the Clipse torture their own people. To assume, however, that gangster rappers have a high place in Black America, and that thug mix tapes are being passed around in churches everywhere is insane. From a Newsweek poll showing that over 50 percent of young people having a negative opinion of hip hop, to the national census stating that only 23 percent of African Americans having a positive opinion of it, to study after study showing the primary audience of thug rappers being young white males, It is clear that black people are not buying this music, and that they are it’s most vehement critics.

I don’t care that much for Sharpton, but the subject of gangster rap has been an obsession for him, and he deserves all the credit in the world for his crusade against it. It has been also been a constant source of scorn for Jesse Jackson, no fervent firebrand conservative. And I cant tell you the hundreds of conversations that I have had with Black people that show an anger toward hip hop that would make Stanley Crouch seem like a staffer for The Source. To us, this music isn’t some talking point for white self pity, it’s a salted thumb in the jagged wounds we have. Suburban white teenagers might like to listen to a crack rapper brag about destroying his community, but to people who have seen their communities destroyed by the violence rappers talk about, America’s romance of them is tantamount to sadism.

And it’s really cheap for self-pitying conservatives to come on as paragons of virtue for African American women right now. Where the hell were you when 50 cent had a video with a black woman in chains? Where the hell were you when Ludacris had a video with a black woman in a cage? Where the hell were you songs about rape (The Whisper Song) and dismemberment ( What it Is, Ma) became huge summer hits in the past few years? Sharpton and Jesse and dozens of other leaders and intellectuals were voicing their anger. ALMOST NONE OF YOU WERE. Because to really stop this garbage you just might have to tell your children to STOP BUYING IT. And in doing that you might have to come to terms with how racist you and your children really are.

TO JOAN: Keep on keeping on