Crackerjacks

I coulda told you,
in the old days,
in the park,
or skating down some hill
what it was all about.

I coulda sat next to you
on some stairway
and gave you half my bubblegum,
and, in between the bubbles
and the giggles,
I coulda told you.

But we are grown up now.
And it is all so complicated
when you dig somebody.

Now, when i open up my crackerjacks,
I find no heart-shaped ring.
Only a puzzle
that i don’t wanna solve.

Assata Shakur

Following the success of Karrine Stephans’ and Carmen Bryan’s highly sensational memoirs, there was little reason to doubt that more people would follow their lead and write insider tales about the rap world. The next book, however, promises to be the most controversial and dangerous one yet. According to AllHipHop.com, Caushun, the self-titled “Gay Rapper,” is preparing to write a tell-all memoir that will expose various members of the hip-hop community as gay.

First, I would not be surprised if this book never makes it to print. Between law suits and death threats, both of which are inevitable when you expose rappers as queer, there is a very real possibility that Caushun’s project will be shut down before it reaches the editor’s desk.

If the book does make it to press, I worry that it would do more harm than good. Although I think that the hip-hop community would be better served by an open and honest conversation about sexuality, this cannot happen by yanking MCs out of the closet. Instead of teaching the world that sexuality, gender, and masculinity are complex, we would merely ostracize a few rappers and reinforce the already impoverished “Down Low” discourse.

The President’s relief plan ignores the gender dimensions of the AIDS epidemic, and women are paying for it with their lives.

Bush’s Failed Global AIDS Plan
By Sarah Fort 

In his January 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced a $15 billion initiative to “turn the tide” against AIDS, targeted mainly at 14 of the hardest-hit African and Caribbean countries, plus Vietnam. That would virtually triple the U.S. commitment, offering renewed hope to the nearly 30 million AIDS sufferers in Africa alone.

It all sounded grand.

But very quickly, the strings of the plan — now known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — began to show. Starting in 2004, the United States recommended — and by 2006 required — that 33 percent of all prevention funding be earmarked for abstinence and fidelity programs. Condoms could be recommended only for high-risk groups, not for sexually active people in general. No funds would be provided to groups that don’t explicitly condemn prostitution. Finally, the Bush administration seemed to be spreading a significant share of AIDS funding through faith-based groups.

Meanwhile, the AIDS pandemic has been rapidly feminized over the past 15 years. But PEPFAR — underpinned by the political and religious philosophies of the Bush administration — often doesn’t take into account the facts of life for women in the countries it serves.

“The gender dimensions of the epidemic are completely ignored,” says Beatrice Were, a Ugandan mother of three who has devoted herself to AIDS activism since 1993. “We know very well that women don’t [always] have control [over sexual decisions]. There is rape in marriage. … Many women can’t make a decision on whether to have protected sex or not, even whether to have sex or not, because it’s their husbands [who] make the decision.”

For the rest of the story, click here.