Hi Shannon, I really admire your work and I generally think you’re correct in your perspectives. In this case, my concern is that as white folks who want to engage with antiracist movements, it’s very easy to score points with those we know agree with us already by repeating ideas we can expect they will support.
It’s much harder to speak to the nuances of the issue.
In this case, as you mention, there is an entire movement against hip-hop specifically due to concerns over its portrayal of women and how that impacts abuse of women of color.
So dismissing these criticisms is also inadvertently silencing those many women of color who have come forward.
Since you are clearly aware that this movement exists, as an intersectional feminist, wouldn’t it be wiser to simply include a line or two verifying that this criticism is important and should be heeded, but not when deployed by white conservatives as a moral ploy to disguise their racism?
That is likely what you believe, I’d guess. It just didn’t make its way into the article this time.