An Open Letter To OPRAH By SAUL WILLIAMS…

saul williams

Dear Ms. Winfrey,

It is with the greatest respect and adoration of your loving spirit that I write you. As a young child, I would sit beside my mother everyday and watch your program. As a young adult, with children of my own, I spend much less time in front of the television, but I am ever thankful for the positive effect that you continue to have on our nation, history and culture. The example that you have set as someone unafraid to answer their calling, even when the reality of that calling insists that one self-actualize beyond the point of any given example, is humbling, and serves as the cornerstone of the greatest faith. You, love, are a pioneer.

I am a poet.

Growing up in Newburgh, NY, with a father as a minister and a mother as a school teacher, at a time when we fought for our heroes to be nationally recognized, I certainly was exposed to the great names and voices of our past. I took great pride in competing in my churches Black History Quiz Bowl and the countless events my mother organized in hopes of fostering a generation of youth well versed in the greatness as well as the horrors of our history. Yet, even in a household where I had the privilege of personally interacting with some of the most outspoken and courageous luminaries of our times, I must admit that the voices that resonated the most within me and made me want to speak up were those of my peers, and these peers were emcees. Rappers.

Yes, Ms. Winfrey, I am what my generation would call “a Hip Hop head.” Hip Hop has served as one of the greatest aspects of my self-definition. Lucky for me, I grew up in the 80’s when groups like Public Enemy, Rakim, The jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, and many more realized the power of their voices within the artform and chose to create music aimed at the upliftment of our generation.

As a student at Morehouse College where I studied Philosophy and Drama I was forced to venture across the street to Spelman College for all of my Drama classes, since Morehouse had no theater department of its own. I had few complaints. The performing arts scholarship awarded me by Michael Jackson had promised me a practically free ride to my dream school, which now had opened the doors to another campus that could make even the most focused of young boys dreamy, Spelman. One of my first theater professors, Pearle Cleage, shook me from my adolescent dream state. It was the year that Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” was released and our introduction to Snoop Dogg as he sang catchy hooks like “Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks…” Although, it was a playwriting class, what seemed to take precedence was Ms. Cleages political ideology, which had recently been pressed and bound in her 1st book, Mad at Miles. As, you know, in this book she spoke of how she could not listen to the music of Miles Davis and his muted trumpet without hearing the muted screams of the women that he was outspoken about “man-handling”. It was my first exposure to the idea of an artist being held accountable for their actions outside of their art. It was the first time I had ever heard the word, “misogyny”. And as Ms. Cleage would walk into the classroom fuming over the women she would pass on campus, blasting those Snoop lyrics from their cars and jeeps, we, her students, would be privy to many freestyle rants and raves on the dangers of nodding our heads to a music that could serve as our own demise.

Her words, coupled with the words of the young women I found myself interacting with forever changed how I listened to Hip Hop and quite frankly ruined what would have been a number of good songs for me. I had now been burdened with a level of awareness that made it impossible for me to enjoy what the growing masses were ushering into the mainstream. I was now becoming what many Hip Hop heads would call “a Backpacker”, a person who chooses to associate themselves with the more “conscious” or politically astute artists of the Hip Hop community. What we termed as “conscious” Hip Hop became our preference for dance and booming systems. Groups like X-Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Arrested Development, Gangstarr and others became the prevailing music of our circle. We also enjoyed the more playful Hip Hop of De La Soul, Heiroglyphics, Das FX, Organized Konfusion. Digable Planets, The Fugees, and more. We had more than enough positivity to fixate on. Hip Hop was diverse.

I had not yet begun writing poetry. Most of my friends hardly knew that I had been an emcee in high school. I no longer cared to identify myself as an emcee and my love of oratory seemed misplaced at Morehouse where most orators were actually preachers in training, speaking with the Southern drawl of Dr. King although they were 19 and from the North. I spent my time doing countless plays and school performances. I was in line to become what I thought would be the next Robeson, Sidney, Ossie, Denzel, Snipes… It wasn’t until I was in graduate school for acting at NYU that I was invited to a poetry reading in Manhattan where I heard Asha Bandele, Sapphire, Carl Hancock Rux, Reggie Gaines, Jessica Care Moore, and many others read poems that sometimes felt like monologues that my newly acquired journal started taking the form of a young poets’. Yet, I still noticed that I was a bit different from these poets who listed names like: Audrey Lourde, June Jordan, Sekou Sundiata etc, when asked why they began to write poetry. I knew that I had been inspired to write because of emcees like Rakim, Chuck D, LL, Run DMC… Hip Hop had informed my love of poetry as much or even more than my theater background which had exposed me to Shakespeare, Baraka, Fugard, Genet, Hansberry and countless others. In those days, just a mere decade ago, I started writing to fill the void between what I was hearing and what I wished I was hearing. It was not enough for me to critique the voices I heard blasting through the walls of my Brooklyn brownstone. I needed to create examples of where Hip Hop, particularly its lyricism, could go. I ventured to poetry readings with my friends and neighbors, Dante Smith (now Mos Def), Talib Kwele, Erycka Badu, Jessica Care Moore, Mums the Schemer, Beau Sia, Suheir Hammad…all poets that frequented the open mics and poetry slams that we commonly saw as “the other direction” when Hip hop reached that fork in the road as you discussed on your show this past week. On your show you asked the question, “Are all rappers poets?” Nice. I wanted to take the opportunity to answer this question for you.

The genius, as far as the marketability, of Hip Hop is in its competitiveness. Its roots are as much in the dignified aspects of our oral tradition as it is in the tradition of “the dozens” or “signifying”. In Hip Hop, every emcee is automatically pitted against every other emcee, sort of like characters with super powers in comic books. No one wants to listen to a rapper unless they claim to be the best or the greatest. This sort of braggadocio leads to all sorts of tirades, showdowns, battles, and sometimes even deaths. In all cases, confidence is the ruling card. Because of the competitive stance that all emcees are prone to take, they, like soldiers begin to believe that they can show no sign of vulnerability. Thus, the most popular emcees of our age are often those that claim to be heartless or show no feelings or signs of emotion. The poet, on the other hand, is the one who realizes that their vulnerability is their power. Like you, unafraid to shed tears on countless shows, the poet finds strength in exposing their humanity, their vulnerability, thus making it possible for us to find connection and strength through their work. Many emcees have been poets. But, no, Ms. Winfrey, not all emcees are poets. Many choose gangsterism and business over the emotional terrain through which true artistry will lead. But they are not to blame. I would now like to address your question of leadership.

You may recall that in immediate response to the attacks of September 11th, our president took the national stage to say to the American public and the world that we would “…show no sign of vulnerability”. Here is the same word that distinguishes poets from rappers, but in its history, more accurately, women from men. To make such a statement is to align oneself with the ideology that instills in us a sense of vulnerability meaning “weakness”. And these meanings all take their place under the heading of what we consciously or subconsciously characterize as traits of the feminine. The weapon of mass destruction is the one that asserts that a holy trinity would be a father, a male child, and a ghost when common sense tells us that the holiest of trinities would be a mother, a father, and a child: Family. The vulnerability that we see as weakness is the saving grace of the drunken driver who because of their drunken/vulnerable state survives the fatal accident that kills the passengers in the approaching vehicle who tighten their grip and show no physical vulnerability in the face of their fear. Vulnerability is also the saving grace of the skate boarder who attempts a trick and remembers to stay loose and not tense during their fall. Likewise, vulnerability has been the saving grace of the African American struggle as we have been whipped, jailed, spat upon, called names, and killed, yet continue to strive forward mostly non-violently towards our highest goals. But today we are at a crossroads, because the institutions that have sold us the crosses we wear around our necks are the most overt in the denigration of women and thus humanity. That is why I write you today, Ms. Winfrey. We cannot address the root of what plagues Hip Hop without addressing the root of what plagues today’s society and the world.

You see, Ms. Winfrey, at it’s worse; Hip Hop is simply a reflection of the society that birthed it. Our love affair with gangsterism and the denigration of women is not rooted in Hip Hop; rather it is rooted in the very core of our personal faith and religions. The gangsters that rule Hip Hop are the same gangsters that rule our nation. 50 Cent and George Bush have the same birthday (July 6th). For a Hip Hop artist to say “I do what I wanna do/Don’t care if I get caught/The DA could play this mothaf@kin tape in court/I’ll kill you/ I ain’t playin'” epitomizes the confidence and braggadocio we expect an admire from a rapper who claims to represent the lowest denominator. When a world leader with the spirit of a cowboy (the true original gangster of the West: raping, stealing land, and pillaging, as we clapped and cheered.) takes the position of doing what he wants to do, regardless of whether the UN or American public would take him to court, then we have witnessed true gangsterism and violent negligence. Yet, there is nothing more negligent than attempting to address a problem one finds on a branch by censoring the leaves.

Name calling, racist generalizations, sexist perceptions, are all rooted in something much deeper than an uncensored music. Like the rest of the world, I watched footage on AOL of you dancing mindlessly to 50 Cent on your fiftieth birthday as he proclaimed, “I got the ex/if you’re into taking drugs/ I’m into having sex/ I ain’t into making love” and you looked like you were having a great time. No judgment. I like that song too. Just as I do, James Brown’s Sex Machine or Grand Master Flashes “White Lines”. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll is how the story goes. Censorship will never solve our problems. It will only foster the sub-cultures of the underground, which inevitably inhabit the mainstream. There is nothing more mainstream than the denigration of women as projected through religious doctrine. Please understand, I am by no means opposing the teachings of Jesus, by example (he wasn’t Christian), but rather the men that have used his teachings to control and manipulate the masses. Hip Hop, like Rock and Roll, like the media, and the government, all reflect an idea of power that labels vulnerability as weakness. I can only imagine the non-emotive hardness that you have had to show in order to secure your empire from the grips of those that once stood in your way: the old guard. You reflect our changing times. As time progresses we sometimes outgrow what may have served us along the way. This time, what we have outgrown, is not hip hop, rather it is the festering remnants of a God depicted as an angry and jealous male, by men who were angry and jealous over the minute role that they played in the everyday story of creation. I am sure that you have covered ideas such as these on your show, but we must make a connection before our disconnect proves fatal.

We are a nation at war. What we fail to see is that we are fighting ourselves. There is no true hatred of women in Hip Hop. At the root of our nature we inherently worship the feminine. Our overall attention to the nurturing guidance of our mothers and grandmothers as well as our ideas of what is sexy and beautiful all support this. But when the idea of the feminine is taken out of the idea of what is divine or sacred then that worship becomes objectification. When our governed morality asserts that a woman is either a virgin or a whore, then our understanding of sexuality becomes warped. Note the dangling platinum crosses over the bare asses being smacked in the videos. The emcees of my generation are the ministers of my father’s generation. They too had a warped perspective of the feminine. Censoring songs, sermons, or the tirades of radio personalities will change nothing except the format of our discussion. If we are to sincerely address the change we are praying for then we must first address to whom we are praying.

Thank you, Ms. Winfrey, for your forum, your heart, and your vision. May you find the strength and support to bring about the changes you wish to see in ways that do more than perpetuate the myth of enmity.

In loving kindness,

Saul Williams

20 Responses to “An Open Letter To OPRAH By SAUL WILLIAMS…”

  1. Combat Jack says:

    Cool.

  2. Vee says:

    Yeah, I got to support this brother, because he has been dropping wisdom with style and verve.

    yeah, Oprah will shake her b’hind to just about anything and then turn around and talk about I don’t want to be marginalized as a woman.
    Yeah, OK.

    Good drop, D.

  3. nerditry says:

    awesome, powerful words. this man needs a mountaintop and eager masses.

  4. Dj RaYz says:

    Yo DP, nice find. You are a crazy ass e-digger, always finding the most uplifting stuff to educate our people. This type of stuff is what people need to know! Saul spelled everything out, from how our culture impacts the music we hear. Word!

  5. Where’s the link Negro?

    Saul Williams has a blog?
    I’d peep that.

  6. naija says:

    At some point, the conversation must mature from the always reliable supplication that “you must understand the root of the problem” to “this is what must be done.” It seems every spokesman–and I use the term spokesman knowingly because I have not seen too many women from Hip-Hop speaking up or speaking out–must make it the focal point of the argument to bring to our attention the ills of society that begot the post Chronic version of the artform we see & hear today. This tends to miss the mark and drags everyone into doing the dance that Black people know how to do best, wallowing in our victimhood. At some point, some enterprising soul is going to realize that in a 60 minute dialogue about the genre, 55 minutes of the time should not be spent analyzing and rationalizing the reasons why we must sympathize with the gangsta rapper.

    Russell Simmons tried to pawn off some of the more egregious rappers as merely being reflections of their circumstances or mirrors of reality.

    I disagree.

    Simmons must take a better part of the Hip-Hop consumers as fools to think we cannot recognize the difference between celebration and critique. It does not take an advanced degree to understand that while “Wonder Why They Call You Bitch” and “Hoes (Ying Yang Twins)” might both use terms used to describe women in the projects on a daily basis, only one of those songs offers any real critique or explanation of the usage of the term. Narration without insight is a pointless, mindless exercise and not worthy of the lofty standards Mr. Simmons would have us ascribe some of the aural garbage that dominates the Hip-Hop airwaves.

    As the saying goes, every time you point a finger at someone else, 4 fingers point back at you (well actually its 3 fingers, but you get the point). So enough with the pointing and the reasons.

    No matter whether the spotlight came to Hip-Hop in a negative or positive fashion, the bottom line is that it is here. We can wield it properly and show the dirt that needs cleaning or we can focus on shining it into the eyes of those who have chosen to look in at the moment, hoping we can blind them to the flaws we must live with, forgetting that when the light moves on it is us that will be left standing here amongst the filth, in the dark, nothing really better before or after the event.

  7. naija says:

    oh yeah, well written and thought out prose by Mr. Williams.

    props.

  8. Bol says:

    >50 Cent and George Bush have the same birthday (July 6th).

    Good point.

  9. LM says:

    Applause to Saul Williams and naija

    What needs to get done and how shall it happen?

  10. FaTBoY says:

    So eloquently put.

    There isn’t really anything else to say.

  11. Eloheem Star says:

    Saul williams is one of the greatest minds, poets and emcees of our times.

  12. the_dallas says:

    I don’t think the discussion has ended. In fact it’s finally beginning. Since the people that find their way to this website know right from wrong, and virtue from duplicity, I would like to ask how have you extended yourself into your community to spread this knowledge?

    Everyone on this thread should make some time this Spring/Summer to do something outside of your home for your community. Read Dr.Seuss books at a children’s clinic, coach a basketball team in a youth tournament, help old ladies cross the street all day one afternoon. And above all, turn off your fucking radios and televisions.

    While I wait for Oprah and Russell Rush to get on the side of truth I understand that they both were bought and sold a long time ago. I however, have no excuse.

    Oh, and one more thing… The only link you need to know is called DallasPenn.com

  13. CB4 says:

    Good stuff… thanks for the post Dallas.

    PEACE

  14. Gee says:

    While I have the maturity and wisdom to chose what I will listen to, my kids do not have that option. Music is uncensored as is much else here. This is my personal crusade in my community. While I agree with much of Saul’s writings as a former Spelwoman and backpacker, my need for responsiblilty goes much further than just me.

  15. notoriousekb says:

    i am often so angry about the way my culture is used as a scapegoat to the problems of this nation . even more infuriating is the fact that our own people shit on us as if we are the enemy when in actually hip hop , people of color and poor people in general are victims . this letter is the best articulation of the real issues at hand . alas i believe it is too late …the revolution is over …hip hop is dead

  16. Hemp says:

    Saul is the truth!!! Oprah should have had him on the show, but like most people, she does not have the knowledge of what TRUE HIP HOP really is. Hip Hop was never about bitches, hoes, bottles, and bling. Hip Hop had a conscious. The society in which we live in has created and fed this monster and now the very people that have created it are yelling because they can no longer control it.

    I hope Oprah reads this and that she address this.

    Good lookin out D! This is the reason why I love this site

  17. Tai says:

    I heart Saul. Great post, for those of us who remember Hip Hop being the soundtrack of our childhood. Where a certain beat or rhyme reminds you of ice cream trucks in the summer or a first crush.

    I agree, this discussion has just begun for those of us, who are letting the recent “media-noise” simmer to a hush and we start to defend our Hip Hop.

    And my tv and radio stay off!!! My issues arise when I speak to the little ones. My message has to drown out their tvs and radios. If I could stick my fingers in their little ears and make them get on the correct frequency, imagine the possibilities.

  18. Amadeo says:

    Naija consider in this who most of the consumers are and why it becomes a concern. We didn’t get Parental Advisory until Tipper Gore’s daughter was playing “Darling Nikki”.

    I agree though…I’m a strong believer in not cursing the darkness but shining the light.

    As for my part I build with the youth I work with about the music they’re hearing and constantly express how they’re missing out on the things people my age got to hear. Once they’re exposed some of them start to seek other things…but those are the ones who are willing to make positive changes in their lives. The rest have to be exposed to life on a larger scale before they can realize that what they see and hear is not all there is. I remember Dallas writing about shopping for Nikes in Paris. I’ve been out of the country and I want to go again. When I ask young people if they had a few million what would they do I get responses like, “Buy a pound of weed and chill” That’s it? You have millions bills aren’t a concern and just buying some weed will satisfy you. The youth need to see a broader world and then realize they are a part of it….it’s a matter of them exerting their will on it. It’s up to everyone else to help them see the world around them. Once people have a taste for things beyond what they’ve known it’s hard to just listen to and accept the same things you once knew. Especially when what you once knew never made you truly happy.

  19. Tiffany says:

    Good drop Naija…..

    Off topic:
    Thanks for the disc D!!!

  20. Darkchild says:

    I agree with everyone on here. Well presented! We need to take the time to look at our selves and our children. The younger ones are just imitators of the older generation. It starts with Us first.

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