Who you calling a B*tch?

15Oct07

By: Keli Goff

Long before her days as an Academy-Award nominated Cover Girl, Queen Latifah was first and foremost a rapper. Not just any rapper but one who helped re-define the face of hip-hop. With her 1993 anthem U.N.I.T.Y. she taught an entire generation of young women, including my friends and I, to ask “Who you calling a bitch?”

Now 14 years later it seems that if you’re a black woman being called a bitch is par for the course. In the time since this blog has been on hiatus a number of stories have served as potent reminders of the daily struggle black women must wage to earn respect in a culture that consistently devalues and disrespects them.

At the end of September there were Congressional hearings to discuss the post-Imus, state of hip-hop. At the hearing, hip-hop artist and “Dancing with the Stars” alum Master P apologized for some of his previously offensive lyrics. While everyone at the hearing seemed to be in general agreement that glorifying violence and calling women “bitches” and “hos” is not a good thing, little was actually accomplished. (Although the fact that tax dollars were spent and little accomplished is not all that that surprising on Capitol Hill.) I have a feeling that the entire hearing will go down in history with the same level of fanfare as Mike Gravel’s presidential campaign. (If you just said, “Mike who?” then you get my point). In spite of all of the scrutiny, outrage and protests sparked by the Imus brouhaha there is still no definitive plan of action from industry leaders within hip-hop or from government leaders on how to tackle the profound misogyny within hip-hop music and videos.

And then there was the Isiah Thomas trial. Where do we even begin? Sexual harassment cases usually boil down to a complicated formula of: he-said TIMES she-said + factual evidence DIVIDED by who is more credible. As Anita Hill learned the hard way this formula is far from perfect.

There were numerous similarities between the story of Anita Hill and the story of Anucha Browne Sanders, Isiah Thomas’s accuser. Both are extremely accomplished, strong black women. Both alleged sexual harassment at the hands of two powerful black men (who happen to share the surname Thomas.) Both women found themselves battling not only their alleged victimizers, but powerful, well-funded, professional and political networks comprised of those supporting their alleged perpetrators. But there were some key differences between the two. First there is the passage of time. When Anita Hill testified during the Senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, the words “sexual harassment” weren’t even in the vocabulary of most Americans. Now 16 years later you’d be hard-pressed to find any corporation that doesn’t have its anti-sexual harassment policies written in bold and underlined—just to be safe.

But the major difference is the behavior of the accused. Unlike the mystery that continues to shroud the he-said, she-said of the Hill vs. Thomas hearings to this day, the Browne Sanders vs. Thomas trial produced its very own smoking gun. Better than a smoking gun, Isiah Thomas provided his accuser with a smoking videotape in which he seemed to simultaneously insert his foot in his mouth with one hand, while digging a hole for himself with the other. Thomas delivered what has to go down in history as one of the most unbelievably damaging, and absurd statements in the history of sexual harassment cases when he explained that he draws a distinction between a white man calling a black woman a bitch (which is unacceptable in his book) and a black man doing so (more acceptable). For anyone who had any doubts about who was more credible in this case, Browne Sanders or Thomas, that statement seemed to single-handedly confirm that Thomas and his bosses probably couldn’t spell sexual harassment, let alone be capable of knowing or admitting when they had engaged in it.

And so 16 years after Anita Hill was called a liar, a whore, a bitch and more, Anucha Browne Sanders was awarded 11 million dollars in her lawsuit against Madison Square Garden (she and Thomas’ employers).

Maybe there were a few women on that jury who wanted to say to men everywhere, “Who you calling a bitch?,” because we’re not going to take it anymore.

www.keligoff.com

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