Sharpton attacks racist, sexist lyrics at National Action Network Convention

Jet, May 14, 2007

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he will continue to pressure hip-hop and rap artists to stop making degrading comments about women in their music, during the recent ninth annual convention of his National Action Network (NAN) in New York.

"A major emphasis is that we want to stop misogynist records, misogynist references," he told the conventioneers. "They're calling people in the hood 'hos' and say 'Yes, ma'am' in the Hamptons."

Sharpton's action comes on the heels of the Don Imus incident in which the shock jock lost his job on CBS Radio after he called the Rutgers' women's basketball team, "nappy-headed hos." (JET, April 23 and April 30).

He said he would buy stock in Time Warner and Universal Music Group and other companies and go to shareholder meetings and complain about sexist lyrics.

The convention, attended by more than 3,000 delegates at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, also addressed the growing problem of race in America, the need to level the playing field for Blacks in corporate America, obesity and diabetes in the Black community, the AIDS crisis, and homeownership.

Among those attending were the major Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, each of whom applauded the work of the National Action Network.

Sharpton told JET after the convention, "The challenge now is that we will go into the field and implement the actions that we decided to work on in corporate discrimination, political enfranchisement and cultural excellence."