The hip-hopping street party was in
full swing, college kids talking, laughing and listening to the music.
Asha Jennings, 21, wasn't joining in. She and her girlfriends were
confronting college party-goers in Atlanta, Georgia, challenging them
about what they say is a nasty cultural shift, the transformation of
hip-hop from a musical forum into a misogynic rant. Jennings and her
group pushed men -- and women -- at the party to think about how their
support of the hip-hop industry perpetuated images that hurt the black
community. "I want people to start thinking critically about how these
images affect black women today," said Jennings, a Spelman College
alumnae and now a law student in New York. "We're telling people [black
women] are bitches and hos and sluts and not worthy of respect," she
said. "And that's exactly how society is treating us." It all began
last April when Jennings organized a cancer fund-raiser at Spelman,
where Jennings was a senior at the time, and invited hip-hop artist
Nelly, whose sister has leukemia. Someone pointed out his video "Tip
Drill" and Jennings was upset. [more]
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