Rap’s infatuation with white girls is hurtful to black female fans

OPINION - Kanye West, whose music I happen to love dearly, has had a longtime obsession with the white aesthetic...

Jun 19, 2012

“You know we keep that white girl/Christina Aguilera.” – Young Jeezy

“But I’ve been practicing with some actresses as bad as sh*t/And a few white girls, asses flat a sh*t/But the head so good, damn a n**ga glad he hit.” – Kanye West

“White girl, that Ricky Lake/That boy can’t feel his face.” – Rick Ross

“And now you b**ches that be hatin can catch a bouquet, oww/yeah, you a star in my eyes, you and all them white girls party of five.” – Drake

“I got that white girl, that Lindsay Lohan/And all you gotta do is ask Lindsay Lohan.” – Lil Wayne

“So just get you a white girl, don’t f**k with no black b**ch.” – 50 Cent

Granted, most of the verses aren’t as provocative as 50 Cent’s, and in a few of them, “white girl” is code for cocaine; but it’s interesting that the “white girl” nods are rarely paired with the same “b**ch,” “ho,” “gold-digger” and other slurs hurled at black women on the very same records. The adoration of one vs. the despising of the other is cause for concern. Yet as disturbing as it is, it’s not all the rappers’ fault. After hundreds of years of dehumanizing and conditioning, it makes sense that the BIC in the psyche of blacks would seep into rap music, which ironically, young whites are the largest consumers of.

Without romanticizing the “good ol’ days” of “real” hip-hop, I do miss the days when listening to commercial rap didn’t remind me of what society perpetuates: the degradation of black women. It’s not that I even have a problem with white girls or rappers wanting to be with them. I just want hip-hop to love its women — black women — the way we love it. In the same way we defend it to our last breath, write rebuttals about it not being the cause of society’s ills, I want the music to reciprocate that love. And at the very least, if it can’t do that it should not tear us down while putting the “white girls” on a pedestal.

Follow Bené Viera on twitter at @writtenbybene