"She was workin like foreal..."

‘She was workin like foreal’: critical literacy and discourse practices of African American females in the age of hip hop written by Elaine Richardson focuses on a study based on racial, gender, and other social identities and expereinces encountered by four African American females. In correlation with these experiences, the author primarily calls attention to the portrayals of black folk via pop culture and mass media. One of the sentiments two interviewees expressed particularly caught my attention. The first girl stated that a lot of lyics in songs feautured in the hip hop community are degrading to women. In reference to tip drill, she stated that the artist was essentially saying that he and all of his friends were “down” for “running a train” on this particular girl. The second interviewee responds: “But that’s not degrading if the girls is wit it. It’s some girls who wit dat. I don’t think its degrading. It’s girls who is like that and they down for the git down, just how the boys is” (Richardson 799). I feel as though this remark attempts to justify the behavior on both parties’ parts. I dont agree with these sentiments because I feel as though who is to say that these girl are “down wit it?” Who is to say that these girls are not taking part in the action because they have to? And so what if the girls are “down wit it?” Does that make it right? I feel as though the male who takes part in this is in no way, shape, or form uplifting her. On the contrary, I feel as though he is not only degrading her, but he is disrespecting her. I have heard people say before, that these men in videos are not only disrespecting that particular featured girl in the video, but he is disrespecting the black race in general. This sentiment, however, I do not agree with. I believe that one singular artist cannot be responsible for acting as a personal representative for his entire race in that artists are their own people and their own individuals. In essence, I do not believe that it is fair to blaim the negative portrayal of black folk on these hip hop artists.