A history professor at the all-female, historically blackm, Spelman College published a scathing indictment of rappers calling them "racist,"sohh.com reports.
Professor William Jelani Cobb took a shot at Nelly and rappers overall saying videos like the St. Lunatic's "Tip Drill" are not just sexist, but racist too. Earlier this month, Nelly had cancelled his appearance at a planned bone marrow charity event when word got out that some students, outraged at the portrayal of black women in his video for "Tip Drill," would protest the charity event.
Cobb writes that rappers' treatment of black women in their lyrics and videos is comparable to the way white slave owners treated black women.
"...the sad truth is that hip hop artists' verbal and visual renderings of black women are now virtually indistinguishable from those of 19th century white slave owners," Cobb wrote.
Nikole Howard, a senior at Spelman, told an AP reporter she thought black women were going to have to stand up and "demand respect," to reverse the "sad" trend of sexism in rap videos. "It makes me realize how much work we have to do to educate women."
A spokeswoman for Universal Records, Nelly's label, told the Associated Press the female students were obviously just looking for a "scape goat," since Nelly "was not the first, certainly to do a video like that."
