When Least Expected™

Message To Men Making Misogynistic Music

April 17th, 2007 at 11:57pm Manchild

“A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold.”(emphasis added)

Proverbs 22:1 NASB

For the past few days, my heart has been grieving for all the beautiful women that are hurting because we, as men, refuse to “begin within so we won’t have to do without our women.” As evidenced by my previous posts, I honestly believe that

“a woman is a man’s most valuable resource.”

The women from Spelman College need to know that we, as men, heard their passionate cries for our help more than they need our excuses and justification for the “dehumanization of an entire generation” of great people. The question that’s still lingering in the hearts and minds of one too many of the women who participated, or watched, the Oprah Winfrey Show, “After Imus, Now What?,” that aired on ABC this past Monday and Tuesday is

DID YOU HEAR ME?

There’s no sweeter sound that the power of a wise woman’s words. When was the last time an entire generation of women felt safe and secure in the presence of our generation of men? Sad isn’t it. It’s our responsibility as men to fix what we all played a part in killing, stealing and destroying the women God commanded all men to love.

The word “destroy” means to “render utterly useless.” How can we as men defend an industry that continues to condone and justify the destruction of an entire generation of women who deserve nothing less than the best we have to give?

Can we honestly look our women in their tear stained faces and say with a straight face that we’re giving them our best, doing our best, loving them with the best that we, as men, have to give? If you believe we are, then you deceive yourself. I have to respectfully disagree with any person, male or female, who believes that we, as children of God “can’t dew no better.”

The denigrating, degradating, and demoralizing words that are coming out of our mouths are killing, stealing, and destroying the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of entire generations of great men, women, and children. Do you agree or disagree with me?

Please don’t get this message to men making misogynistic music a socially acceptable art form twisted. I’m not blaming, bashing, judging, condemning, or scapegoating you. Nevertheless, I am challenging us as men to face our biggest fears, to shed tears in the dark, to remember all the years men raped women for fun.

Come Sunday morning, praise God for the women who didn’t leave us, who didn’t kick us to the curb, who birthed us and our children, and stood by myopic men who failed to love, honor, respect, and protect their dignity, their honor, their womanhood.

Come Monday morning, let all the women we, as men, meet on the street how much we love them as we witness without words. Let our actions show our women that we can raise the level of our thinking. Let our action show our mothers, sisters, and wives that we can clean up the lyrics we choose to use to tell our stories. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No.

“Impossible is nothing but a word to God.”

Let our actions, as men, show all women that we are ready and willing to spend more time listening to the pain in the voices of our “sheroes” than we spend trying in vain to defend men making misogynistic music. Let the women, who are still standing tall on the shoulders of our ancestors, know that we hear them and that they have no reason to fear us.

No good can come out of any neighborhood that would allow any man making misogynistic music to make money and profit at the expense of any woman. Since no person can correct what one isn’t willing to admit, it’s time to quit making excuses for why we, as men, made our women cry, sigh, and die a slow spiritual death. The women who live in fear need to know that we hear them loud and clear.

Racist, sexist, dehumanizing words have stripped our women of their self-respect and dignity and ripped gaping holes in the severely wounded souls of women for the last time. I’m sorry that myopic men making misogynistic music have grieved the hearts of women who believed in us when we didn’t have enough money to pay attention.

Surely, we, as creative men, can devise an innovative way to show our appreciation to every generation of great women who stood by our side until the day they died and cried for the last time.

Quick question. What would our great grandmothers and grandmothers say today if they could hear the words we’re defending and pretending are just artistic forms of expression? The choice to begin within so the next generation of men won’t have to do without our women is yours alone to make.

Enough Is Enough!!

In closing, I beseech each of the racist, sexist men making misogynistic music to choose the battles you fight and the paths you walk wisely before you lose a lot more than just your good name and money. I can’t begin to imagine a world without our women. Can you? I hope not.

© Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Add bookmark to:

Entry Filed under: Inspiration, Leadership, Male-Female Relationships, Proverbs, Wise Words