House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection

The Honorable Bobby Rush, Chairman

September 25, 2007, 10 AM

Remarks of Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., National Chair

National Congress of Black Women

On Behalf Of The

Women’s Coalition on Dignity and Diversity

“FROM IMUS TO INDUSTRY: THE BUSINESS OF STEREOTYPES AND DEGRADING IMAGES”

SUMMARY

·      TheWomen’s Coalition on Dignity and Diversityrepresents more than 11 million women and their families.

·      Women, especially Black women and our children, have been bombarded with misogyny, violence and obscenity through public airwaves.

·      Many corporate leaders in the entertainment business have captured the rawness of the feelings of many Black males and lured them into changing what began as a positive expression of our culture to something negative for the sake of the almighty dollar. 

·      The Jena 6 case says to young people they have reason to be angry with everybody—even with Black women and Black elders who’ve given their all to make life better for them.

·      Instead of putting adequate funds into the education of young people, and the assurance of jobs and opportunities for them to build their own businesses, our system has failed them by instead steadily pouring money into war and destruction. 

·      We must provide the kinds of options that would prevent young people from idolizing the lives of thugs, pimps and other negative images.

·      Too many of us have criticized young people for denigrating and disrespecting women and Black people to make a living when they are offered no decent options for making a living.

·      We have allowed greedy corporate executives in the entertainment industry to lead too many of our young people to believe that is okay to entertain themselves by destroying Black culture

·      The profanity, vulgarity, and obscenity have become common place.  Even our very young babies have become subjected to horrifying language and images on public airwaves by those who should know better, but are claiming that this is the only way to relate to our children.  If you haven’t seen the so-called public service advertisement calledRead a Bookthat looks like just another cartoon, you need to see it to understand what I am talking about.

·      Our complaint is not about freedom of speech; we’re for that. It’s about much needed responsibility and sensitivity in the use of free speech.

·      Black women are under greater attack than anyone else—and it’s getting worse.

·      Not only entertainment executives, but advertisers must act more responsibly in what they pay to sponsor on public airwaves.

·      There must be consequences for those who insist upon subjecting our children to songs likeRead a Book—the bizarre so calledpublic service advertisement.

·      We need help from Congress with ridding the public airwaves of extreme obscenity and denigration of women and their families.

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