Urban arbiter raps on bad stereotypes
Urban arbiter raps on bad stereotypes
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Self-proclaimed feminist and “urban hip-hop fashionista” Michaela Angela Davis delivered a criticism of African-American hip-hop culture Monday, arguing at a Silliman College master’s tea that it propagates a negative stereotype of young black women despite its inherent artistic virtues.
After arriving 30 minutes late, Davis, sporting an impressively frizzy and omni-directional afro, spoke in an intimate setting to an audience of about 20 students, mostly female African-Americans. Davis served as fashion director at Vibe and Essence magazines and as a fashion stylist to Beyoncé, Prince and Oprah.
At a Silliman College master’s tea Monday, Michaela Angela Davis, urban style guru, discusses the state of hip-hop culture and its implications for young black women. The magazine fashion director lamented the sexist attitudes that misrepresent hip-hop’s broader meaning.
Davis is perhaps best known for her work in founding the “Take Back the Music” initiative, which promotes rising artists ages 15 to 18 and helps them serve as the next generation of the hip-hop movement. She said the campaign focuses on the musical and artistic value of hip-hop as opposed to the negative, sexist attitudes that some rap stars repeatedly exhibit in their music videos and lyrics.
Mentored by Susan Taylor, editorial director of Essence magazine, Davis early in her career became known as a staunch promoter of the art form of hip-hop. She described walking through New York in the 1980s, watching the “breakers” (or breakdancers, as the press would later label them) spin on their heads to “tight beats.” Davis said she has thoroughly enjoyed watching the hip-hop movement mature.
“I love hip-hop the way my parents loved the Civil Rights movement,” she said.
But Davis expressed regret that she was unable to stop the derogatory decline in hip-hop’s portrayal of young African-American women. She said she begins many of her high school talks by apologizing to the black girls in her audience for the seamy nature of modern hip-hop videos, a phenomenon which occurred “on her watch.”
“It’s one thing to have fun, but it’s another at the expense of your identity,” she said. “The sad thing is, this kind of behavior wasn’t even challenged. I believe culture comes from the ground up. I know I’m wrong, but it’s what I want to believe.”
Davis recalled working at Vibe magazine, owned by Time, Inc., for male executives who were for the most part very “old, waspy, and white.” She said she remembered Martha Stewart once screaming at one of the executives for claiming he knew what female readers would be interested in. Davis soon resolved to make room for prominent, female, black musicians through her work as an editor.
Aida Sykes ’07, a black student from Tanzania who listened to the speech, said her friends from home are often interested in the behavior of black Americans. The exposure her friends have to music videos portraying the culture has piqued their curiosity, she explained.
“[Davis] reminded me that hip-hop was a movement; it’s not just, ‘Oh, rappers, there they go again, disrespecting women,’” Sykes said. “That’s not hip-hop at its best, but it’s what it’s doing now.”
Albert Lawrence ’07 said he appreciated her insightful perceptions of popular culture.
“She honed in on some of the images that are being proliferated with hip-hop, which was nice because I didn’t feel as though it was condemning hip-hop itself,” he said. “Instead, it was promoting women with an active agency to combat what is being pushed in front of us on TV screens.”
Davis, who was raised in Washington, D.C., attended New York University and the New School and trained at the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. She currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her teenage daughter.
Comments
None 3 years, 11 months ago
"After arriving 30 minutes late, Davis, sporting an impressively frizzy and omni-directional afro, "
why were these details such a concern? Who was more impressed with the hair and why? That said and done, how does this become important as part of the article?
None 3 years, 11 months ago
most people who cannot agree with those they don't understand then turn towards hate and dismissive comments. Ms. Davis was brave in her comments even without the support of a community. Even when examples like her do not rise to the occasion anymore.
None 3 years, 11 months ago
To Silliman '10: Yes, it is possible to so fragment the issue that the lack of agreement paralyzes discussion. I am concerned about the accusation levelled against Pius V after WWII that he "knew" about the concentration camps and was silent. I am trying not to be silent by honestly registering my OWN concern that I may be complicit in a society which is taking human life and claiming it is a private matter protected by law.
My own position? I am not a woman so anything I say would be drained of vitality.
I recall a fellow div. student in the late 70's who wrote a heartfelt paper defending abortion for a course at YDS. Twenty years later when she was raising her own child she told me how intensely she regretted having had abortions.
My OWN detached opinion as a MALE is that only the potential mother knows whether she is having an abortion for medical reasons or for lifestyle convenience. Conscience is private.
Suddenly Ross's comment about Macbeth's bloodsoaked Scotland to Malcolm and MacDuff in exile in England takes on a double meaning: "It cannot be called our mother but our grave" (IV, iii,166) I would hate to wake up twenty years after the fact of an abortion as a woman and feel that way about my own body.
I am not surprised that a previous blogger chides me for opening the "entire" abortion debate here. It is tedious.
So is global warming.
PK M'Div. '80
None 3 years, 11 months ago
His was by far the best class I took at Yale. He was unbelievably smart and greatly enjoyed challenging the assumptions of many of the Yale liberals in his classes. He did this not in a mean spirited way, but just a direct, honest, and smart way that made conversation in his classes so much better than in any other class I took at Yale. He will be missed as a great professor and smart guy. It was so great that he was a general!
None 3 years, 11 months ago
What makes you so sure your conception of "life" has any value? That is, the prospect that anything from a clump of cells to a partially developed fetus matters morally. I assume its because your religion tells you so; I appreciate that fact, but sorry if you are therefore unconvincing. My religion doesn't, and not only does no one have a right to tell a women how to make medical decisions, but since when does your religion get to dictate policy?
Innocence has nothing do with it; a fetus isn't innocent or guilty. There isn't a charge; this isn't a court case. It's making decisions about how to live dignified lives of our own choosing.
Assuming you presume the existence of a soul, then I understand your consternation, if this soul is present from conception. But souls have nothing to do with legal doctrine in this country; people — living, thinking, suffering, hoping, crying, starving, imagining, loving people do.
None 3 years, 11 months ago
"What makes you so sure your conception of "life" has any value? That is, the prospect that anything from a clump of cells to a partially developed fetus matters morally. I assume its because your religion tells you so... My religion doesn't... "
I ask in all seriousness: why stop there? I argue that a "partially developed fetus" has no more value than fully formed adults (harking back to my thoughts regarding everyday killing). In your view: why does a human have any more value than a horse, or a broccoli?
Exclusive of the law (i.e., it is illegal under most conditions to kill another human, to litter, to exceed posted speed limits) why, exactly, is killing...bad? Asked differently, what value do you assign human life and how do you assign it?
Just wondering...
None 4 years, 2 months ago
self proclaimed feminist and fashionista is right. no one else is claiming this but her.
she is a disgrace to black women everywhere. she has diarrhea of the mouth. she is no one respected in the community. she is manipulative and arrogant.
get rid of this has been.
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