A musical pioneer who played a central role in defining a genre of music that now dominates the airwaves has been accused of child molestation by four men, who say the man abused them when they were boys in the 80s.
Where’s the media outrage?
The answer to that question tells us a lot about the racial divide in the US — and the racial divide in our mass media.
The allegations against Afrika Bambaataa, the hip hop DJ whose early tracks, particularly the Kraftwerk-swiping Planet Rock, helped to define and popularize both hiphop and electro in the early 80s, have been covered on black-oriented radio talk shows, in the hip hop media, and in black-oriented publications like Jet and The Root.
But the story has barely made a ripple in the mainstream — that is, white-dominated — media, with the notable exception of the New York Daily News, which has broken key elements of the story.
The details of the allegations are certainly troubling enough. Vulture — one of the handful of other outlets in the mainstream media to cover the story — sums up what we know so far:
Last month, Ronald Savage, a former New York State Democratic Committee member,accused Bambaataa of sexually abusing him in 1980, when Savage was 15 years old.
Since then, three more men have come forward with similar allegations: A man named Hassan Campbell told the New York Daily News that Bambaataa repeatedly sexually abused him when Campbell was 12 and 13, calling the DJ a “pervert” who “likes little boys.” Two other men whose identities were not fully disclosed also say Bambaataa abused them when they were minors — a former bodyguard also claims Bambaataa abused “hundreds” of young boys since the early 1970s. Bambaataa has denied all of the allegations.
[NOTE: The reference to the early 70s is puzzling. Elsewhere in the interview quoted in the NY Daily News, the apparent former bodyguard simply referred to “the 70s,” so I’m assuming he was misspeaking when referring to the early 70s. Bambaataa was born in 1957; he started his career as a DJ in 1977.]
The leaders of the Universal Zulu Nation, a sort of hip-hop advocacy group that Bambaataa founded in the 80s, first responded to the allegations by dismissing Savage, the first accuser to step forward, as “mentally challenged,” and denouncing the Daily News as a propaganda organ “compromised and controlled by U.S. government intelligence.”
But on Friday the group reversed itself, issuing a statement announcing that
ALL accused parties and those accused of covering up the current allegations of child molestation have been removed and have stepped down from their current positions.
If the allegations against Bambaataa are true — especially those coming from the man who says he was the hip hop producer’s former bodyguard — we’re talking about abuse on a Jimmy Savile scale. So why isn’t this story getting written about in the New York Times or talked about on CNN? Because the alleged victims were black boys? Because white people see Bambaataa more as a one hit wonder than a cultural icon?
Maybe Hannibal Buress needs to start talking about Bambaataa in his standup. That might get this story the attention it deserves.
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and was furious. I was a big fan of Time Zone’s World Destruction as a teen, and this made me wish I had my old remix 12″ so I could destroy it. Why is this not getting more press? Rolling Stone, where are you? Or are you not covering sex abuse any more?
WOW. Horrifying. I hadn’t heard anything about this until just now.
Oh damn, I have some stuff of his I really like and now they’re tainted. The lack of outrage is very telling I guess for the reasons stated. At least in the UK we were able to lock up the scumbags even if justice and belief in the victims stories was far too long delayed.
I’ve followed this. As a fan of hip hop, I’ve had massive respect for Bambaataa as a pioneer and in many ways godfather of the entire movement. But there’s no way you can hear these people tell about their experiences and not believe them. It’s a sad, horrible thing, but I’m happy that it’s finally being uncovered.
And there’s not a woman to blame, so you’re definitely not going to see it covered by AVFM or talked about on the men’s rights subreddit.
Oh, how awful. My sympathies to all victims. How are we seemingly so unable to stop shit happening?
Loved Babaataa’s work so am very disappointed to hear this news.
This needs to be as widely covered as the Bill Cosby rape scandal.
I don’t really know his stuff personally, so I have no difficulty in thinking him a horrible human being. My heart goes out to the men he abused.
This always seems to catch people off guard. It doesn’t usually surprise me – people attracted to power and attention can have or develop other catch-ups about control, and abuse fits that like a glove. I get why people are surprised about it, halo-effect and all, mind you.
And, yeah, I wonder if any of the MRA voiceboards will call out on this? No women involved, so there’s not much to complain about, rite? And if they do call it out, I wonder how racist it’s gonna be?
What was that? 100% racist? Yeah, you’re probably right.
I suspect it’s just that Bambaataa isn’t someone that the editors of white media are familiar with/think their audience will be familiar with. (And, yeah, I fit that stereotype. Never heard of the guy before.)
They generally publicize black football players accused of abusing black victims – that one who beat his kid, for instance, and the one who knocked his girlfriend out in the elevator.
100% agree with WTH: black boys as victims + no women involved = no chance of being addressed by the MRM.
I’d say 75% racist and 25% homophobic*. Yeah, best for the victims if the MRAs stay as far away from this horribleness as is possible without leaving the atmosphere.
*We understand that sexuality and paedophilia have nothing to do with eachother, that plenty of straight men rape young boys, but the MRAs don’t.
🙁
Why do people think violating another’s agency and autonomy is OK?
I don’t believe that the awfulness of an artist is any way connected to the quality of their art – Polanski has made quite insightful films about the damage sexual violence inflicts without it in any way seeming to moderate his behaviour or public remorse. I don’t think anyone should feel guilty for having liked the art. It still sucks to know that it’s possible for people to have inspiration and insight and all these admirable qualities and still cause such pain to others.
AVFM are currently too busy spinning the anti-trans “bathroom bill” as gynocentric misandry. Who cares about real problems when you can rant endlessly about made up nonsense?
This is like Jimmy Savile and Bill Cosby combined.
And yeah: No women. No whites. Therefore, no peep out of AVFMorons. They’d be all over it if this were a case of a woman raping males, though, because that serves their misogynous agenda perfectly.
@IP That article…
my brain hurts.
OT, but Rodrigo Duterte is now president of the Philippines.
For those unfamiliar, he’s routinely compared to Donald Trump, and he might arguably be worse
TW for rape jokes reported in the article
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-10/rodrigo-duterte-wins-philippine-presidential-vote/7399658
R. Kelly is well known as a pedophile/hebephile but the press has either turned a blind eye or “forgiven” him. It happens his victims are all black.
Ugh. Sympathy for all the victims and props to those who are speaking out. I hope the investigation will be fast and fair and that everyone gets the support they need.
it’s odd what people will notice or not notice. I grew up in a school/parish/church community where everyone was very alert to the possibility of priests having sex with adult women parishioners. It did occasionally come to light: once a priest was suspended for it and the woman moved from her job, another time a priest left to marry.
What nobody seems to have been alert to was the possibility of priests and teachers sexually assaulting underage boys. Which, it turns out, was going on for about 40 years.
it’s astonishing what one finds out as time goes on.
I’m going to have to go against the grain here and say that sometimes the art is irrevocably tainted by the artist. There’s no way to fully separate the artist and the art, and, tellingly, nobody tries to do that until something like this comes up. But once something like this comes up, the urge is to want to continue enjoying something that one enjoyed before, and then we see this argument.
I don’t buy it. Roman Polanski is a horrific person and his movies are horrific because they are tainted by his involvement. Just as charities frequently give back tainted money, I have to “give back” the art produced by horrific people. I don’t want it and it makes me feel dirty to derive enjoyment from it. There are a shitload of movie and music options out there. I have a wide array of choices made by people who aren’t garbage and who certainly deserve my support and admiration more than child rapists.
Giving up a little piece of cultural entertainment isn’t a huge price to pay.
@WickedWitch of Whatever — Absolutely true, it’s really not fair — not to the artist, but to humanity — to judge the work of an artist by his/her awful personal character.
Polanski is a good example, but come on, the best-ever example of this is Richard Wagner. He was a thoroughly miserable, cruel, manipulative, abusive person, who mooched shamelessly off his (not-for-long) friends, whined incessantly about how ill-used he felt by the world, exploited his wife and warped his children; he was also a knuckle-dragging, shameless racist and vicious anti-Semite who arguably laid the groundwork, almost single-handedly, for the Third Reich’s disgusting hijack of German fine art in service of monstrous, genocidal evil. Hell, he was Hitler’s favorite composer for a reason.
And yet, he indisputably was one of the very, very greatest composers of the 19th Century, and wrote some of the most glorious music ever written.
Wagner’s artistry is right up there with that of Johann Sebastian Bach, another German artist who is arguably the most sublime composer of Western classical music of all time. And Bach was, as a person, Wagner’s polar opposite: a kind, humble, funny and loving man who was, according to all credible history, adored by pretty much everyone whose path he ever crossed, including his huge houseful of children.
Artistic genius is deeply, deeply unfair. And yet, there it is.
I would much rather have known Bach as a person than Wagner, but I would not want to be without either composer’s music.
Ugh, that sucks. I hope there’s an uprising.
@Imaginary Petal
Ladies and Gentlemen, yoooooooooour, Republican Party!
The irony is that the article is blaming the right for this terrible misandry…
Hip Hop artist B. Dolan said this about the whole awful thing shortly after the news broke as people rushed to defend Bambaataa because of who he is and what he’s done. I think it’s a really thoughtful and powerful statement about separating an artist from his art and who he is as a person, and about how important it is for the voices of victims to be heard.
“It doesn’t make me feel good to share this, but I feel like I should do so anyway…
As a rapper who has name-checked Afrika Bambaataa on record, and has been inspired by his music, message and mission through the years, I feel compelled to acknowledge it.
Especially since a lot of my peers will most likely stay silent on this or, as KRS-One did recently, make a mess of themselves trying to preserve Bambaataa’s legacy for the culture.
Hip Hop raised me in a very real sense, and I’m ever conscious of the debt I owe to the forefathers of rap music. One of those forefathers was Scarface, who I heard say “I follow no man, cause men be phony.” To me that means no matter how respected or important you were/are in this, Rap is bigger than you. One man’s actions don’t damn a movement, a culture or a ‘Nation’.
I think what DOES damn a movement is being unable to properly respond to moments like these. Victims deserve to be heard, and to feel that they are believed while the facts are investigated. More and more accusers and witnesses are now coming forward with similar stories. That information deserves to be known and the problems that enabled it addressed by the Hip Hop community.
Is there a voice in my head that hopes it all turns out to be false? Of course. But that voice is speaking from the place of a Hip Hop fan, and the other voice is speaking from the place of compassion for human beings and a desire to see justice where people have been violated… so I feel like my Hip Hop fan perspective needs to fall back in this instance.
Anyhow. That’s where I’m at on this if it matters to you. Take it for what it’s worth, and take care of each other.”
https://www.facebook.com/bdolanSFR/posts/10153579694970777?fref=nf
I don’t feel bad for having liked Bambaataa’s music in the past; he was one of the inventors of electro and a very important artist. But at this point I don’t feel comfortable listening to his music, and I definitely don’t want any of my money going to him, even in a tiny symbolic way, so I’ll be removing him from my Spotify playlists, even though it’s not likely he would get even a fraction of a cent from me listening to him once in a while.