DETROIT -- The Rev. Al Sharpton organized rallies across the United States on this week urging public divestment from the music industry until rap lyricists stop employing the "n-word" and terms degrading to women.
"We're talking about Viacom (Inc.), Time Warner (Inc.), Vivendi," three entertainment conglomerates that Sharpton said would be pressured to clean up musicians' lyrics if threatened by the withdrawal of government-run pension fund investments.
Time Warner sold its music business, including such labels as Atlantic and Reprise, to a private equity group in 2004.
"The opposition has tried to use the argument of free speech, but they don't have the freedom to use peoples' pension funds against their own will and interest," Sharpton, a 2004 presidential candidate, said in a telephone interview from Detroit, where he deplored the use of "nigga," "bitch," and "ho," -- slang for whore -- in popular music.
"I'm here in Motown in Detroit as a symbol of when music was not denigrating and was entertaining," Sharpton said.
Pension funds do not act on such calls unless the state tells them to, because their mandate is to maximize returns, not make moral judgments, said Clark McKinley, a spokesman for the California Public Employees Retirement System, the biggest U.S. pension fund.
"We get all kinds of divestment calls and this is just the latest," he said.
In Detroit, about 80 people joined Sharpton's protest despite rainy weather while in New York, about 150 braved heat, humidity and exhaust fumes to gather on the sidewalk outside Virgin Media Inc.'s flagship Times Square store.
"These young people are destroying the fabric of black history and black culture for a dollar," said M. Morton Hall at the New York protest, giving his age as "50-plus."
Tamu Favorite, a New York actress and playwright in her mid-thirties, wrote a play called "Ten Steps Backwards" to channel her anger at use of the "n-word."
"Our ancestors fought and marched so we wouldn't be called the N-word," she said, wearing a T-shirt she designed that read "Embracing the 'N' word is embracing slavery."
Legislation proposed in New York state calls for $3 billion (1.5 billion pounds) in pension fund investments to be moved away from music companies that distribute rap music with the offending lyrics, Sharpton said.
In February, the New York City Council passed a symbolic citywide ban on the "n-word" and in July, Councilwoman Darlene Mealy moved to extend the ban to "bitch" and "ho."
Sharpton was among the leading voices demanding talk show host Don Imus be fired for referring to black women basketball players as "nappy-headed hos," and to demand an apology from "Seinfeld" actor Michael Richards for his tirade at a comedy club where he repeated the "n-word."
"Nappy" is a slur describing the tightly curled hair of many African-Americans.
Rev. Al Sharpton leads protest over rap lyrics
Protests were held in more than 20 cities over the use of degrading lyrics
Kesha Moore and other demonstrators protest outside a Virgin Music Store during a national "day of outrage" organized by Rev. Al Sharpton. Rallies were held nationwide calling for the elimination of the "n-word" and terms derogatory to women from music lyrics.
Updated: 7:21 p.m. ET Aug 7, 2007
NEW YORK - Protests were held in more than 20 cities Tuesday over the use of degrading lyrics by the music industry, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
The so-called Day of Outrage, organized by Sharpton’s National Action Network, included protests in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Richmond, Va., Jacksonville, Fla., and other cities.
Sharpton, who led a demonstration at the Motown Museum in Detroit, said, “I’m here in Motown in Detroit as a symbol of when music was not denigrating and was entertaining.”
Sharpton announced an initiative in April to combat the use of gutter terms in rap music.
He called Tuesday for the withdrawal of public funds from entertainment companies that “won’t clean up their act.”
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Imus backlash has rappers cleaning up acts |
Some people in the music industry have defended rappers’ free-speech rights but say the degrading words at the center of the debate should be treated the same as extreme profanities and consistently blanked out of clean and radio versions of songs.
Demonstrators march outside a Virgin Music Store during Rev. Al Sharpton's national "day of outrage" in New York
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Demonstrators march outside a Virgin Music Store during Rev. Al Sharpton's national "day of outrage" in New York August 7, 2007. Al Sharpton organized rallies across the United States on Tuesday demanding rap lyricists stop employing the "n-word" and terms degrading to women, urging public divestment from the music industry until it complies. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES) (SHANNON STAPLETON)
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