Black Intel

When the images of Black women are broaden out to look at all television and video media an overlaying theme occurs. Black women are portrayed in three major components, the emasculating sapphire, the desexualized mammy and the over sexualized jezebel (Jones & Gooden 2004). With only a few positive images in general to compensate for the negative ones, the three images of Black women or reinforced by the mainstream media repeated times. This point will issue more importance later in this series when examining the impact of video images.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are the images of Hip Hop culture saying? This blog will explore the impact of Hip Hop videos on African American women’s self-esteem and if there is a link in the abundance of negative images portrayed in Hip Hop videos to some of the self destructive (i.e. high rates in HIV, domestic partner abuse, etcetera) behaviors manifesting in Black women’s lives.

On March 15th, filmmaker Reginald Bullock released the short film “A War For Your Soul” over the internet. In 7 months, the film has been viewed by over 2.5 million people over the internet. The film is being shown on over 700 websites, and has now reached Ghana, UK, Israel and many Caribbean Islands. The film was originally targeted towards at-risk African American youth, but most viewers are left asking themselves “How can I help my community?”

Will and Jada interview President Obama

We burst out of the door in pursuit of the precious property. Cameron had caught his breath and ridden off full speed. Cedric climbed on my bike and gave chase while I trailed behind on foot. A tan minivan pulled up and offered me a ride, “We saw the whole thing man! Get in, we’ll help you catch him. That’s so fucked up.” Pushing my reservations about fighting a fully grown crackhead suffering from withdrawals to the side, I jumped in.

The Black Intel: “Since the creation of Ragamuffin, tell us what has given you your biggest break and what was your biggest obstacle.”

Leandrew Robinson: “Our biggest break was when Essence Magazine did an article on our Obama shirts and from there our online sales picked up dramatically. The events leading up to our Essence Magazine article was the biggest obstacle I have encountered so far.”