Men and Domestic Violence
By Matthew Birkhold

Throughout high school and part of college I was a straight up mixtape nerd.  As soon as I discovered tapes by DJ Clue, DJ Juice, DJ Zooted, Tony Touch, Doo Wop, and DJ S&S, I began copping them like they were heroin.  When I moved to Durango, Colorado for a year in 97, it got so bad that I asked my mom to cop tapes and mail them to me.  After getting them in the mail, I used to bootleg them and sell them wholesale to a skateboard shop.  One of my all time favorite tapes was a joint Tony Touch and Doo Wop did in ’97 or ’98 called “The Diaz Brothers.”  Thanks to the internet and file sharing sites like megaupload, I was able to get an mp3 copy of “The Diaz Brothers” the other day.  Needless to say, I was dumb excited.  After putting the tape on my ipod I felt like I had entered a time machine.  I was quickly memorized by memories of an era when hip hop had enough boom bap to break your neck and beats were so raw you had to look over your shoulder.  Unfortunately, just as things were getting good, I was snapped back to 2008 by the reality of domestic abuse.

On a Big Pun track featuring Fat Joe, Kool G Rap, and B Real called, “Wishful Thinking,” Big Pun rapped, “I’d change my life and make my wife forget the tears from the pain and the physical abuse/ give her back her best years/Grab my chest hairs/ pound my fists on the hearts of men/ Spark the scent and pound the sky til my heart’s content/ and repent.”  At this point I was reminded that Big Pun use to regularly beat his wife, Liza Rios, in very severe ways.

Because I knew this, I was not surprised by the actual abuse.  Instead, I was surprised by the way in which Pun talked about the abuse is if there was nothing he could do to stop it.  The hook of the song says, “What would you do if you could do the unbelievable/ Would you rule the world every girl would want to be with you/ First I‘d get the money the I’d get the power/” then each rapper personalized the last line by saying something violent that rhymed with power.  In the context presented by the song, it’s important to emphasize that Pun believed that could not stop abusing his wife unless he could do the unbelievable.  This all too common idea that ending men’s violence against women is somehow unstoppable must be challenged.

Just as important to challenge is the idea that men’s violence against women is somehow okay.  It is amazing to me that Pun was comfortable enough with his actions to rap about them and say that stopping them was wishful thinking.  In order to achieve such a level of comfort, Pun had to understand that the men in the studio with him would not challenge him to stop abusing his wife.  Unfortunately, we can’t blame hip hop for domestic abuse.  Big Pun did not beat his wife because he was a rapper just like G Rap, Fat Joe, and B Real did not critique Pun’s abuse because they were rappers.  Domestic abuse exists because men are taught that violence is natural.  Fortunately, because violence against women is learned, learning something new can end it.  As men we have to encourage one another to learn new things.

Matt Birkhold is a Brooklyn based independent scholar, educator, and writer.  His work appears regularly in Wiretap and has also appeared in The Nation and Mother Jones as well as other places.  He is founder of Political Education Outreach Collective and can be reached at birkhold (at) gmail (dot) com.

Bias in drug studies may mask the mind’s role in overcoming depression.

Are Antidepressants Faith-Based Treatment?
By Bruce E. Levine

While millions of people swear by Prozac, Zoloft, and other antidepressants, do they work any better than a placebo or no treatment at all?

Answering that question would be much easier if: (1) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed all drug study findings without requiring a Freedom of Information Act request, (2) drug studies with negative results were routinely published in medical journals, (3) the FDA did not rely on drug company studies employing biased research designs, (4) FDA advisory panels did not include advisers financially connected to drug companies and (5) the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) did not fund drug studies by researchers who have financial relationships with drug companies.

The good news? There are antidepressant researchers without ties to drug companies, and there is wisdom about overcoming depression that remains available.

On Jan. 17, 2008, the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed both published and unpublished antidepressant studies registered with the FDA between 1987-2004. Examining 12 antidepressants, Dr. Erick H. Turner, a former FDA medical reviewer, and his research team included data gained via the Freedom of Information Act.

Dr. Turner discovered that most studies with negative results were never published in journals, and so doctors had no way of knowing how poorly antidepressants have actually fared. While 94 percent of antidepressant studies published in journals show antidepressants to be more effective than placebos, only 51 percent of all registered studies were determined by the FDA to show antidepressants superior to placebos.

Why are most negative results not published in journals? Drug studies are routinely funded by the drug’s manufacturer, which has no interest in the publication of negative results. Also, medical journals are increasingly dependent on advertising revenue from drug companies, which results in a disincentive to publish negative results.

For the rest of the story, click here.

Today’s photo of the day shows Rep. John Lewis (D. Ga), the superdelegate and former Hillary backer who is now publicly supporting Barack Obama. Although I am not an Obama fan, I respect the decision to support the will of the people in his state.

Today’s video of the day is “I Know,” the latest release from Jay-Z’s American Gangster album. The video features the up-and-coming superstar Zoe Kravitz.