Kim Osorio was awarded 15.5M in her sexual harassment case against The Source. Guess, The Source cats were too arrogant to settle. They should have paid attention to what has happened in sexual harrassment cases on wall street. Settle. Settle. Settle.
Shout out to Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond for the text over at the Village Voice.
Women working in hip-hop often have an even tougher time reconciling that divide. Getting a paycheck for marketing products and artists that often instigate violence and portray women as only good for sex can leave staffers at all levels feeling played. That was—and is—the case at The Source magazine, according to former editor in chief and current plaintiff Kim Osorio, who found herself explaining how her former bosses sexually harassed her from a witness box in courtroom 14B at the Southern District of New York.Well all turn the other cheek and/or take it up the a$$ at some point at work, otherwise, there would be way more work place fatalities.
But the angel on her shoulder got in her ear. "People would ask my opinion on how they portray women and just the blatant usage of the N-word—among other expletives," she remembers. "I would be like, 'Oh, you know, well, it is what it is. This is the culture now.' Deep down in my heart I knew that it wasn't right. . . . I felt a lot of internal conflict."RARELY, do people who benefit financially from pushing the HOP, talk transparently about how they reconcile the contradictions pervasive in HH.
Hip Hop is pervasivly homophobic, yet there are a ton of gay folks that eat off the HH industry. And they don't speak up.
Hip Hop is pervasivly anti-woman, yet there are a ton of women who eat of the industry. And they don't speak up. For that Matter.
And in a similar vein, The Republican party is notorious for being anti-gay marriage and for using gay marriage initiatives as a divisive issue during election season. Yet. Gay republicans don't speak up. Peep what Frank Rich had to say in the Times a couple of weekends ago. When I was reading this article, I kept thinking, that, this is what Black people go through all the time. In terms of working someone where people like you are Blatantly and Subtly dismissed and discriminated against on the reg.
If anything good has come out of the Foley scandal, it is surely this: The revelation that the political party fond of demonizing homosexuals each election year is as well-stocked with trusted and accomplished gay leaders as virtually every other power center in America.“What you’re really seeing is the Republican Party on the Hill,” says Rich Tafel, the former leader of the gay Log Cabin Republicans whom George W. Bush refused to meet with during the 2000 campaign. “Across the board gay people are in leadership positions.” Yet it is this same party’s Congressional leadership that in 2006 did almost nothing about government spending, Iraq, immigration or ethics reform, but did drop everything to focus on a doomed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Apparently, The Source thought that its readers were dumb too. In all fairness. The readers of The Source run/ran the gamut of brilliant to "look at the pretty pictures". Which is arguably the case for all magazines. However it is one thing for a main stream, mag to think that way about heads, but to hear that The Source does it too. Its like dayum, yall expectations was that low for cats!!?!?!?!?
"We were getting ready for our International Issue and I wanted to write something like, 'Look forward to next month—we'll be hitting you with the diaspora,'I love how fools would speak, but only anonymosly. Oh what it must feel like to be insulated from accountability. Thats what I want to be when I grow up:)" Sonya recounts. "These muhfuckaz was like, 'Niggaz don't know what diaspora means so we gotta take that out.' I was like, 'You don't think muhfuckaz would wanna look it up?' "
Evan, a music video director and hip-hop documentarian who admits he's shot his fair share of "guy up against his car, a girl shaking her ass for no apparent reason" music videos to keep the lights on.Life imitating art. Life imitating art. Life imitating art. Not an excuse.
Evan didn't want to be identified since he works for a major hip-hop artist's label and feared recrimination. "By any means necessary," he continued.
But the art-imitating-life defense is hard to swallow as these stories trickle down to consumers through agents that aren't of the culture. "For people who did not really grow up in that lifestyle, it's almost like being on a movie set," Fiona says of her primarily white former co-workers. "Like, it's not your reality, it's not your responsibility. You don't hear gunshots. . . . You're not dealing with baby-daddy drama issues. You know what I mean? Your reality is so different so it's easy for you to go to work and do something like that and feel totally disconnected from its actual effect on society."Aw. Being Disconnected from its actual effect on society.
At least she saying something now.