Rainbow Push Atlanta

May 24, 2004

Mr. Mel Karmizan

President and Chief Operating Officer

Viacom Inc.

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036-5794

Dear Mr. Karmizan:

I appreciate your attention to my remarks during your annual shareholder meeting last week. I am writing to reiterate key elements of our position and to remind you to discuss this matter with Ms. Debra Lee as you indicated you would at the shareholder meeting. I hope to meet with her in the very near future to discuss these concerns.

Some rap videos portray stereotypical images of the over-sexed, promiscuous black siren that is not representative of most young African American women.
The African American community will not continue to condone degrading material without complaint, as evidenced by recently upraised voices of young women who have begun to actively defend themselves against negative imagery.
Viacom should move immediately to add an African American director who is sensitive to the concerns of an important constituency.
Implementation of voluntary standards, not censorship, is the solution. Hip-hop is glorious art form that does not require denigrating gratuitous sex scenes to succeed.”

Beyond profit and popularity, Viacom and BET will ultimately be judged by their value to the communities they are empowered to serve. Attached you will find a copy of the Spelman students’ solidarity statement, which we endorse.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a civil and human rights organization with more than 300,000 members and supporters in the United States and abroad that seeks to level the playing field for equity, parity and inclusion.

Sincerely,

Janice L. Mathis, Esq.

Cc: Debra Lee
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Asha Jennings

SPELMAN ALUMNA SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PORNO VIDEOS AT VIACOM SHAREHOLDER MEETING IN NEW YORK

Recent Spelman College graduate and former Student Government Association President Asha Jennings attended the Viacom shareholder meeting on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 in New York City to present the organization’s views on negative images of women in some music videos on Viacom’s BET cable station. Jennings, the Spelman SGA, other Atlanta University Center students, staff and faculty have engaged in informational picketing, town hall meetings and other efforts to raise public and industry awareness that the images of young African American women are objectionable to a significant portion of the intended audience for Hip-hop videos.

The controversy was sparked just prior to a recently planned visit of artist Nelly to the Spelman campus when Jennings notified the rapper’s staff that the issue of misogynistic images of African American women would be raised if the artist visited the Spelman campus for a planned blood drive. Nelly withdrew from the effort; the Spelman students raised $35,000 for cancer research and conducted an independent blood drive in conjunction with the American Red Cross.

“We love Hip-hop, but we question whether Hip-hop loves us,” Jennings said. “The images of women in some rap videos are stereotypical of the over-sexed, promiscuous black siren that is not representative of most young African American women. We feel compelled to speak out; our failure to do so leaves the artists, producers, promoters and corporate interests with the impression that the portrayals are authentic and acceptable. Hip-hop is glorious art form that does not require denigrating gratuitous sex scenes to succeed.”

The appeal to Viacom is broader than the Nelly controversy. There is responsibility for everyone to bear. Certainly the women who perform in the videos should question their own choices; the artists should consider whether their videos are harmful to the esteem of the entire society for young blacks; the corporate interests must understand that there are limits to what is acceptable. Jennings indicates that the SGA and its partner organization, the Feminist Majority do not believe in government censorship. We are calling for the industry to voluntarily set its own standards for what is acceptable, and to draw the line at the most offensive imagery. We are asking to meet with Viacom officials to express our views in more detail and to work on a plan that takes all the interests into account.

Spelman is a highly regarded historically black private women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia. “The Citizenship Education Fund has provided technical assistance to the women of Spelman in their efforts to educate the public regarding this important issue,” according to CEF Vice President Janice L. Mathis, Esq.

Spelman College Student Government Association and

Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance

Statement of Solidarity

We understand that devaluation and violence are twin enemies of Black women that negatively affect their daily experiences and self-worth in the eyes of themselves and others.

We are concerned that impressionable youth who consume problematic gender messages and images day after day run the increased risk of internalizing this content and acting out what they’ve observed.

We recognize that the negative consequences of national and international exposure to a steady stream of antisocial, pornographic images, and destructive behaviors of Blacks will continue to erode our communities from within and destroy our humanity in the eyes of others.

We ask the difficult question of whether all forms of artistic license are socially acceptable if they threaten our basic humanity; we ask if selling our soul in pursuit of the mighty dollar is worth killing our communities?

We accept responsibility as consumers, producers, participants, artists, and communities, for supporting a popular culture, which presents problematic images of Black men and women as oversexed, violent, and unintelligent.

We acknowledge the interlocking schemes of oppression manifested through capitalism, racism, sexism, classism, and any other “ism” intended to devalue or degrade groups of individuals different from what is classified as “right,” “Christian,” or “American.”

We fight these oppressions with the realization that these schemes of oppression are a cycle; that if we do not rid our minds and souls of the desire to oppress those different from us that we will victimize ourselves eventually.

We love our race and humanity and we seek to increase awareness and rejection of these oppressive systems that have been implemented since slavery.

We challenge hip hop producers and superstars to use the power of their lyrics to communicate more positive, affirming, empowering, and socially-conscious messages for we know that popular songs today are just as important as civil rights bills of the 1960s.

We desire to enable Black communities to deal more effectively with controversial issues within our community and culture and to broaden the discussion by offering a gendered analysis of interpersonal violence in our communities.

We especially want women to realize that they are co-conspirators in their own oppressions and that the revolution to challenge these images begins from within.

We seek to EMPOWER producers, artists, consumers, participants, and communities to say “NO” to the exploitation of the sexuality and sensuality of men and women in the media.

WE ULTIMATELY SEEK A MULTILAYERED, COMMUNITY-BASED OPPOSITION TO SEXISM IN POPULAR CULTURE.

explain why the revenues generated by pornographic hip hop music videos aired on Black Entertainment Television are worth more than the social and psychological damage they cause young people and communities of color around the globe.