Just heard a disturbing bit of news about online Hip Hop mag XXL and rapper, Too $hort. Apparently, the magazine was offering "Fatherly Advice" videos from your favorite rappers.Too $hort thought it would be a good idea to tell middle school boys how to sexually assault their female peers. After being told about the video, editor Vanessa Satten had it removed immediately.
My question though, how did this video make it online to begin with? Obviously as editor in chief, I'm assuming Ms. Statten doesn't see everything that gets published to the XXL website, but she has to be responsible for her staff members and the trust she's placed on them.
Supposedly, this was a spoof about what advice rapper dads would give to their boys about picking up girls, but is it a good idea to do the spoof with a man who was arrested for battery after fighting with club guards who wouldn't let him bring underage females backstage to his dressing room? A rapper known for sexually explicit rhymes?
Too $hort states he was "in character" when he made the video and it got out of control. I don't think this is a very good excuse for using your fame to be totally and utterly irresponsible and promoting sexual assault among early teens.
There is a petition being signed requesting Ms. Statten's firing and the editors behind the video have been suspended, but it doesn't seem like enough. Seems to me some serious staff overhauling needs to be done as well as some mandatory rape/abuse awareness classes.
I'm honestly sick to my stomach that this kind of harmful rhetoric was in public view for even a small window of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment