While listening to "America" one of the tracks off Nas' New Album Untitled (formerly known as N*gger) it was brought to my attention that Nas' perspective on womens place in todays society mirrors that of one John Lennon. In the song Nas pays homage to John Lennon's highly controversial but often forgotten 1972 song "Woman is the Nigger of the World" with these lyrics:
"Y'all don't treat women fairIn John Lennon's "Woman is the Nigger of the World" he writes:
She read about herself in the bible
Believing she the reason sin is here
You played her, with an apron
Like bring me my dinner, dear
She the nigger here"
"We insult her every day on TV
And wonder why she has no guts or confidence
When she's young we kill her will to be free
While telling her not to be so smart, we put her down for being so dumb"
The above video is of John Lennon on the Dick Cavett Show as he offers his explanation for the controversial song. WATCH THE VIDEO. At the time when the song was released, it was banned from radio and subsequently swept under the rug by mainstream media, who maybe weren't ready to explore such such progressive concepts . The record was truly years ahead of its time. Co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus / Current Mayor of Oakland Ron Dellums’ definition of the word Nigger helped strengthen Lennon’s defense of the song:
“If you define nigger as someone whose lifestyle is defined by others, whose opportunities are defined by others, whose role in society is defined by others, then I have good news! – You don’t have to be black to be a nigger in this society. Most of the people in America are niggers”
To bring this topic full circle my friend Tony's mom (who just to put in proper context is a white woman and without a doubt one of my favorite people; kind, genuine and honest) said to me after Obama won the Democratic Nomination that Barak's nomination shows that white men (even racist southerners) would rather vote for a black man then a white women; symbolizing womens place in society. At the time I said in response, "If that was the only basis for them voting for Obama over Hillary (which it clearly wasn't) then I can definitely see where you're coming from".
From a purely race/sex standpoint the "concept" that even racist white men put black men (whom they are supposed to hate for no reason) above a white women would imply that sexism in and of itself supersedes racism. Definitely SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT whether you agree with it or not. But rather than try to make an argument for or against (and you know I could), I'm actually more curious to know, what are thoughts on the matter?
Is woman the Nigger of the world?
Does sexism supersede racism?
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Let me know your thoughts on the matter.
1 comment:
Interesting that you have no comments here. I just found this blog by accident. I am a 43 year old white female democrat. I agree with Tony's mom. I said the same to my female coworkers when Obama was running against Hilary in the primaries. I told them Obama would be our next president and when one of my coworkers (a black lady) expressed her doubts, I said "I promise you that a black man will be president of this country before a white woman" and I was right. You see prejudice between races is acknowledged and talked about but most people do not want to admit that women are considered second class citizens, not even women. Sexism is rampant and much more prevalent then racism maybe because people will not even acknowledge it.
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