Friday
May042007
We Did It! Verizon Drops Akon
Friday, May 4, 2007 at 6:39PM The Blogmother
Last weeks winner of our Wagging Finger of Shame Award, Verizon wireless has terminated their relationship with Akon for his abusing a 14 year old girl on stage in Trinidad. We told you about it here last week.
Yes, we can make a difference. Thanks Verizon for thinking about our daughters.
UPDATE:Okay, well maybe we didn't do it single handedly. Turns out Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham also had campaigns to get Verizon to do the right this. They also apparently stopped sponsoring his tour and selling his ringtones on their sites.
Yes, we can make a difference. Thanks Verizon for thinking about our daughters.
UPDATE:Okay, well maybe we didn't do it single handedly. Turns out Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham also had campaigns to get Verizon to do the right this. They also apparently stopped sponsoring his tour and selling his ringtones on their sites.
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Reader Comments (15)
Wow! That was fast. I first read about it on the net. Then I showed some friends (they were so shocked the didn't want to watch). Then many blogs started writing about it. Next thing you know it he's dropped. Videotape and word of mouth can get things done.
Isn't that something? We can change things. We just have to get the word out. Corporations have a choice to make. They can't sell me cellphones, and detergent, and clothes by day and then turn around a fund this kind of foolishness by night.
When I first heard about it I didn't expect anything to happen at all. There are so many videos on YouTube so I didn't think anything would happen. Boy was I wrong. Artists need their sponsors and they might change for the better if we tell their sponsors what we want.
Thanks for all your amazing work. I am coming from a rather strange place -- the white father of an African girl, whom my wife and I are adopting from Ethiopia. As I posted on my own blog, I feel the healthiest way for hip hop to grow and change is from within the black community.
http://swerl.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-rap-to-blame.html
I'd love to know in what ways it is respectful and helpful for white people who read my blog to support your efforts, without seeming like we're putting the hate on African-American culture and expression?
Hey Swerl, I think a good way is to promote positive hip hop that doesn't degrade women or anyone else. There are positive artists out there. You have a right to choose who you like and promote them. It will also show people that there is positive hip hop and that it is not all bad. Then more people will become interested in positive hip hop instead of negative hip hop and it can become the new mainstream. Even if you don't like any hip hop it might be better for everyone if it takes a different turn. I started a Positive Hip Hop Free Promotion Campaign where I asked people to suggest positive artists. Then I put images of their latest CDs into a mini slide show that I display on my blog. Everyone can access that slide show http://www.slide.com/mscd?pxcid=XrLPib7m9gsOhTEB0zHrvPazW9-BKSfIaOLBPUYeJn_SSK0C9MgJDjF9Nb2ExHZx¬ifyfans=1&bnc=bnc" REL="nofollow">here
http://www.slide.com/mscd?pxcid=XrLPib7m9gsOhTEB0zHrvPazW9-BKSfIaOLBPUYeJn_SSK0C9MgJDjF9Nb2ExHZx¬ifyfans=1&bnc=bnc
If you don't like the way it is set up you are welcomed to make your own and express your own choices.
Sometimes it is touchy and some people reject the ideas of White people on anything concerning Black people and I don't endorse that. It just puts up barriers for the wrong reasons. A good idea and helping attitude is good no matter who it comes from. If a lot of people like hip hop and are exposed to it (some say its the new pop) then lots of people can have opinions about it no matter what race they are. :)
Sorry, the address for the slideshow is http://www.slide.com/r/TODereGIwT_BtoE8-79ypvDktb3jakud?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url
O.K. so Akon is being punished to a certain extent. And even though it takes two to tango, I suppose we are going to hold the young lady blameless in all of this, because she is young and was unduly influenced by the mean old hippity hop guys.
I'm not trying to be rude or a troll, (ask bronze trinity and she will tell you that I am very sincere). But I wonder did any of you who were calling for Akon's head on a platter ever try to contact him directly and speak to him specifically about the problems you have with his actions? I wonder if this unilateral move against him, without so much as trying to communicate with him, is going to have the positive results that I know you seek? I wonder if there isn't a better way to approach this than attacking people who are involved in what they see as consensual behavior? I wonder if this is going to help Akon, or any other hip-hip artist, understand what it is people want from them?
I am the father of a 9 year old Black princess, who is also trying to get into the entertainment industry, singing and acting (see my princess at www.niaimani.com) I like the question, what about our daughters. I'd like to think that I am raising my daughter so that the negative influences that she will undoubtedly face in her chosen field and throughout life will not be the experiences that shape and define her. I'd like to think that I can be the best and most positive role model she ever has or needs. I understand that many of our daughters don't have this type of fatherly support, and I truly believe that that is a much better starting point for saving our daughters. I think that is an area that we would have much more success with, than getting a misguided young man blacklisted or blackballed for activities that are commonplace and accepted among much of society, even though some of us may consider them to be morally repugnant.
I wrote a post on my blog called Message From An Invisible Man. I worte it because I am worried that the backlash against Balck men is getting to the point where we will soon be in pitched battles of Black women against Black men. That is a losing battle for all of us. I think we can find positive things and concentrate on building the positive up, rather than trying to tear down a negative thing. Helping just one Black father be in a position to be a positive role model for his daughter will do so much more than getting one negative image removed from one stage.
This site isn't about a battle with black men. I don't think Akon is any different from a drug dealer or a pimp or anyother person that preys on and exploits another individual for their own gain.
I really don't care about the hender or race of the person involved. We have to be free to criticize each. that is the only way we progress.
Black men have to be evolved enough to know that by going after Akon, that isn't an indictment on an entire gender. The site is called What About Our Daughters? That means your daughter too.
Regarding the activities that are common place in all of society, i don't know of any group of people that would tolerate a 25 year old man bucking and flinging around a 14 year old girl or any other person woth that reason. this was not his first offense either.
"O.K. so Akon is being punished to a certain extent. And even though it takes two to tango, I suppose we are going to hold the young lady blameless in all of this, because she is young and was unduly influenced by the mean old hippity hop guys."
I questioned what the girl was doing there and how she was dressed. I questioned who bought the clothes for her and let her go unsupervised to the concert. I also wonder about the concert security and why they let that happen. I wonder if the girl has gotten onstage before and if that was why it didn't bother her at first. There are lots of questions and lots of people to blame. Maybe some people did talk to Akon (I didn't talk to him or write about this or call for him to be fired but other people did). If people think its news they will write about it. On entertainment blogs women are often ridiculed and torn to shreds with criticism so I don't think this is only the problem of men being criticized.
If someone wanted him fired enought they will work to make that happen. If someone wanted him to not be fired enough they would have worked to make that happen. The sponsors sided with the ones who wanted him fired or not enough people stood up to give him a second chance and keep his sponsorship.
I believe that people make mistakes and that sometimes they can be given second chances if they show they have changed. I don't want Akon or anyone to loose their careers or die. I think people like Nelly and Ludacris are very creative and that they can have great music without the mysogyny or N-word. If they change I will write about it. On my blog when I heard Chamillionnaire was no longer going to use the N-Word I wrote about it (maybe I should have done a longer piece about it so that he could be held up as a standard). Thats what I am trying to do with the positive hip hop free promotion campaign. There are mostly male rappers on there and I am promoting them and trying to make them into role models. There are some people who don't think that will work and that they need to get the person fired and some might actually want them to drop off the face of the earth.
I am not one of them and I hope Exodus that the fact that there is atleast one person who doesn't think that way can give you some comfort.
How about joining the Positive Hip Hop Free Promotion campaign with me? If these rappers have positive messages then that would be so beneficial to Black people and it would keep hip hop popular. Or you could do blog entries about musicians who are good role models. Everyone isn't going to write about the same thing but I support and encourage you to promote the heck out of good black men until we all know their names and everyone tries to be like them!
You might like this article from AllHipHop.com about their interview of Al Sharpton and the current hiphop debate http://www.allhiphop.com/features/index.asp?ID=1808tz
I went into your blog through Racialicious and reading what you are saying about gender and Hip- Hop and agree with somewhat but disagree with your denial about this, Imus and other white men pointed the finger at Black Men for their statments about Rap Music in general. This is a war against Black Men and to deny that is being a bit naive.
I do not know what will happen after Akon loses his Verizon deal he may get kicked off Gwen Stefani's tour and after you rid get rid of most vile sexist rappers what's next, Black Artists like Ty Wilson or Marvin Gaye. If you there will not be blowback for Black Women siding with White Men you are sadly mistaken, record companies will just sign white rap artists and promote artists like Thicke, Justin Timberlake, Amy Winehouse and call them R&B Disney has already taught the labels how to promote safe urban music to the masses.
Positive Hip- Hop and creative R&B or any other alternative black music will not be played on mainstream radio or have you forgotten P.E. songs like 'By the Time I get to Arizona', the worst offenders of rap music will get some big monied white "sugar daddy" to fund a cable -type channel like HBO and if you thought they were sexist then wait until they don't have to worry about white males, black feminists or anyone else.
Those brothas will be angry and that's just the artists themselves, when record labels fire Black A&R guys and get rid of Black Music departments everyone involved in modern rap culture will hate black women even more and will blame Oprah, Weathers and Bougie Blacks and feminists for 'dissing' their culture and denying them a living. I may agree with you in theory but there will be 'blowback'.
Eric, you are really depressing. Maybe the world should just spiral into the sun right because everything is hopeless? People are acting like record labels are gods or something who can never be touched.
Did you read this? http://concreteloop.com/2007/05/akon-releases-statement
I love the fact that in the midst of all this these men are still more worried about their image and rep.
Some Black men always make the issue about them. Why should some black men have to be taught that taking care of their children is a good thing?
Why have concern for people who clearly have no concern for you? All the time spent pacifying these lames could be used to build and support projects.
I love the threat of black men coming back angrier and more vicious if we don't let them have their way.
The eric guys is the same one who blames black women for harold ford's loss, despite ford being caught in lies and espite the fact that minority women voted overwhelmingly for ford. To me it seems like dude just wants to blame everything on black women.
Blowback, as these men have no power, what blowback? Please hip hop artist have no power. Don't talk about trendsetting either. Most hip hop artitst are nothing more than "magical negros". Toys to be played with and put aside as adulthood approaches. This culture of blacks marginalizing themselves and ghettoizing themselves leaves very few black people in the position to do things.
Why is it Oprah's fault? Jesse and Al have been the one's making the comparisons between hip hop and degradation of black women.
give akon a break How was he suppose to know that she was underage the club was 18 and up shes the one who snuck in and willingly got up on stage