Should These Three Words Be Banned?
By Paul Butler
BlackProf.com 

“Bitch,” “ho,” and “nigger.” In this press release Russell Simmons and Ben Chavis, on behalf of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, are calling for the broadcasting and recording industries to voluntarily eliminate those words because the first two are sexist and the last one is racist.

The most obvious omission is “faggot” but “skank” also comes to mind, as does “pimp.”

It’s a bad idea – as I noted here the problem isn’t so much words as the ideology behind the words. If people don’t like those words in songs, I would suggest they not buy the records or let their children listen to them.

My concern is that the next decree will be that artists shouldn’t rap about selling drugs, or doing time in prison, or having children without being married, or anything else that doesn’t portray the African-American community like the Huxtables. Artists should always depict their worlds.

There is plenty of hip-hop with “positive” images – if those records aren’t getting sufficient attention or radio play the problem is with consumers, not with artists who paint different kinds of pictures.