As young African American women and hip hop aficionados, we would like to take the time to express our outrage against rapper Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers) for his racist, slanderous statements and sweeping generalizations against Black women on a recently surfaced audio recording that he has admitted to making. The opinions expressed by Eminem on the said tape are vile, unfounded and especially shocking coming from a man who has built his fortune by imitating an art form that was created by and has been traditionally dominated by African Americans. As Mr. Mathers eloquently states: \"All the girls I like to bone have big butts/ No they don\'t, \'cause I don\'t like that n----- sh--/ I\'m just here to make a bigger hit.\" And even more profound: \"Blacks and whites, they sometimes mix/ But black girls only want your money, \'cause they\'re dumb chicks…Never date a black girl, because blacks only want your money/ And that sh-- ain\'t funny.\" Eminem goes on to describe in detail why he firmly believes that white women are superior to black women. His response to the resurgence of this ten-year old tape has been hurried and haphazard: \"The tape they played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity and frustration when I was a teenager. I\'d just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African-American...” I ask you, would it be acceptable for an African American man to make the same sweeping statements against Caucasian women I happen to believe that if this were the case, his career would be over. Unfortunately, this issue is larger than just Eminem. Although we recognize his blatantly racist lyrics, we must also address the numerous hip-hop artists who feel the need to degrade women, Black women in particular, as well as degrade themselves and our community as a whole by their incessant use of the terms ‘nigger\', ‘bitch, ‘hoe’ and the likes: WE WILL NO LONGER SUPPORT ARTISTS WHO PROMOTE STEREOTYPICALLY DEMEANING IMAGES OF BLACK WOMEN. WE WILL NO LONGER PURCHASE MUSIC THAT CATEGORICALLY INSULTS US. WE WILL BOYCOTT EMINEM AND ANY OTHER ARTIST WHO MALIGNS, DEBASES, AND OTHERWISE DISRESPECTS BLACK WOMEN. In the great tradition of our ancestors who began the Birmingham bus boycott, we will not financially patronize or support any entity that discriminates against us and/or disrespects our people. It is interesting to note that Eminem has stated that the tape was brought to light because of the Source Magazine co-owner Ray Benzino’s long-standing ‘vendetta’ against him. I urge you not to let that be a deterrent to the real issue at hand: Eminem’s blatantly racist comments specifically directed toward Black women. We should never lose sight of this. We should never forget. We should not allow this man to come out of this unscathed. Let this be our wake-up call. Regardless of the reasons behind why this tape has been presented to the public, we now must face the fact that we have before us a recording artist, an entrepreneur, a film star, and to some even a role model, who at one point believed, and quite possibly still does…that he: “don\'t like that n----- s—t”.

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