Alternative/Suggestion

The more community accepted role for a man as provider and protector of their family, is hard to find in the hip-hop industry, because of several misguided roles that we need to examine including misogyny. Will most women only engage in a relationship with a man that fits certain criteria in terms of masculinity?  In the common debate of good guy/bad guy women responses are not always what they seem. Although most women will say they want the good guy, often times they will end up with the bad guy. There are very few men in hip hop that are willing to lean-to some of these images of being a player, or gangsta instead of just being a strong male figure that understands and have people relate to the actually struggles that life has to offer. Trylates, the writer of Why Children need fathers, discusses some of these rationales as possibilities for why many children are growing up in todays’ family without fathers and the impact on society (n.d.).  Child abuse and neglect staff (Rosenburg and Wilcox) concur that good fathers are absent from the home. With 75% of our children in the United States growing up in fatherless home there is a high potential that their role models and development of expectations for the father and manhood would be in the mainstream populations. Hip hop Lyrics produced could have a different meaning one day causing chaos when that little girl the male refers to as princess (their own daughter or relative) is being considered.

Communities of color must also begin to value fighting misogyny and violence against women as a crucial issue and one that is inseparable from racism and other power imbalances. It's not just simply calling a woman out of her name it is mostly reducing the woman into objectification; it is relegating a woman in hip-hop to a sex object. Buying the hip hop records and condoning the acts of misogyny sends the wrong message. Promoting self-love, refusing to accept the messages of misogyny and educating the public in the recognition of unacceptable practices is the route. Misogyny is still rampant because too many people still buy the hip hop, listen to the talk shows, worship the artist or promote the popularity of those who engage in this degradation of the black female. Stop buying the records, stop going to the concerts, boycott the radio and the newspaper that condone misogyny and expect a change.