TO THE EDITOR:
When I first heard J. Cole was coming to campus, I felt excited.
I love hip-hop and imagined that any artist rapping about his “Carolina blue kicks, fresh on the scene” would bring a spirited show to campus.
Yet I wanted to take a step back. As part of a seminar on violence prevention, I’ve spent a good deal of time this semester deeply considering the causes of violence in our society.
There are strong correlations between the way women are described in pop culture — as hoes and b*****s with an appetite for “bad” (read abusive) men — and the large number of women being sexually assaulted by men in their lives.
With this in mind, I was nervous about what I’d find as I examined J. Cole’s lyrics.
Sure enough, J. Cole refers to women in most of his songs as hoes, and reassures them that he “can’t be (their) man, no ma’am.”
Yet, J. Cole has some serious raps about growing up in the poor black community. This leaves me confused.
I find it difficult to empathize with someone rapping about the way the system brings one minority group down, while helping oppress another group.
It’s important to consider the ramifications of the ways in which our society describes sex and relationships.
