he Hood Museum of Art attracted nearly 400 students to the opening of its Black Womanhood exhibit with the irresistible “Hip-Hop in the Hood” party theme. But despite the impressive turn out, many were offended by how the party theme played off two stereotypes of the black community. Student responses included flyers posted around campus and two dinner demonstrations in which proactive students voiced their discontent and anger with the theme.
The exhibit was designed to challenge institutionalized sexist and racist conceptions of Black women through juxtaposing traditional stereotypes with modern artistic attempts to subvert those stereotypes. Its three sections—African, Western colonial, and contemporary global art—confront issues of sexuality, the female body, motherhood, social roles, and identity. Many people had been excited about the exhibit because it honors Black women, confronting and demystifying many negative stereotypes. Supporters had hoped it would encourage constructive dialogue about issues of race, gender, and oppression.
Sadly, the “Hip-Hop in the Hood” party theme, accompanied by the campus flyer advertising it, crushed many of these hopes. The controversial flyer read “Hip-Hop in the Hood (Museum of Art)” and included Maud Sulter’s “Terpischore,” a piece of contemporary art unrelated to the Hip-Hop theme. Neither the text of the flier nor the picture explained the point of the Hip-Hop choice. The Hood claims that the “in the Hood” reference was strictly referring to the name of the museum and not the inner city, but we couldn’t find “Museum of Art” bracketed on any other Hood publication or advertisement.
In a statement to The Dartmouth, Barbara Thompson, curator of the Black Womanhood exhibit, made dismissive mention of the offended students: “We attracted almost 400 students who were very much engaged [in the exhibit] in ways we’ve never seen,” Thompson said. “In that way, we celebrate that we brought people in, unfortunately, at the cost of hurting some. Hurting African-American women is the last thing that I would ever want.”
While it may not have been the direct intention of the Hood Museum to offend a significant portion of the student community, its reliance on tired stereotypes and misogynistic constructions to draw attention to an otherwise noteworthy exhibit was a serious blunder. The Hood’s irresponsible play on words did more than just hurt a few people—it trampled on the entire message of the exhibit by implying a natural association between hip-hop and Black womanhood, and invoking other negative characterizations of Black people.
Why Hip-Hop? In general, mainstream hip-hop rarely concerns itself with encouraging a positive black female identity. Have you ever heard “Slob on My Knob” by three 6 mafia? Perhaps you’ve heard their Academy Award winning song “Its Hard out Here for a Pimp,” which made them the first rap group honored by the Academy. One hip-hop critic writes, “Only in a rap video can somebody swipe a credit card down a woman’s thong-clad backside. Black women are tired. Tired, they say, of being portrayed as everything but a woman.” The lyrics in many hip-hop songs sexually degrade women, especially black women. By associating hip-hop with Black womanhood (even if they did not play any songs with blatantly misogynistic lyrics at the event, in part due to student reactions), the Hood tainted its exhibit with the overt misogynistic messages present in hip-hop music.
Why would the Hood choose a flagrantly misogynistic music genre to use as the theme for a party celebrating an exhibit meant to divorce Black womanhood from its predominately negative constructions? Well, it depends on who you ask. Melissa Fan ’08, a Hood intern involved in the party planning, says she saw the party theme as a chance to mirror the work of the artists featured in the exhibit. Her plan was to have the DJ juxtapose offensive misogynistic hip-hop with socially conscious feminist hip-hop. The point was to contrast the negative portrayal of Black women, which is pervasive in mainstream hip-hop, with hip-hop that deliberately seeks to combat these negative stereotypes. Fan explained that there was supposed to be a provocative picture of Josephine Baker in her famous banana skirt on the postcard advertisement to make it clear that the hip-hop theme was meant to challenge the same stereotypes that are confronted in the exhibit. But the original plans for the advertisement and party were derailed because of a negative reaction from a Museum-selected focus group.
Regrettably, there does not seem to be a connection between the intentions of the interns and those of curator Barbara Thompson and Brian Kennedy, the Director of the Hood. Neither Thompson nor Kennedy seemed to understand that the original purpose of the hip-hop theme was to bring the main idea of the exhibit—redefining and honoring the legacy of black females—into present day terms. When asked why hip-hop was played rather than jazz, Thompson explained that the Hood had tried jazz before but it hadn’t gone over very well with students. She wanted to make the exhibit accessible to students; she understood the hip-hop theme as the best way to attract a certain student demographic that, she felt, would not otherwise be interested in the exhibit. She never specified exactly what group of students she had in mind, but “black people” seems like a safe assumption. With this goal in mind, Thompson saw no problem with the theme, and celebrated its attendance-boosting results.
The Hood was willing to be a part of the struggle to reclaim a positive Black female identity. Unfortunately, the actions of the Hood did not match its theoretical agenda. On the part of the museum administration, the “Hip-Hop in the Hood” theme for the exhibit on Black womanhood was not a malicious attempt to reinforce negative black stereotypes; rather, it was the Hood’s genuine effort to get the greatest amount of Dartmouth students interested in the exhibit and the museum. And that is the problem.
The people who approved the “Hip-Hop in the Hood” party theme are not overt racists, and we imagine they expected a positive reception for the idea. The problem comes down to the fact that throwing a “Hip-Hop in the Hood” party for an exhibit on Black womanhood merely as a marketing ploy is disrespectful to the exhibit and Black women in general. It is beyond us how Thompson, who seemed remarkably sensitive to issues of race and gender marginalization, could not see that. Racist and sexist ideas are so normalized in our culture that most people did not see that there was a problem with “Hip-Hop in the Hood,” or at least did not think it was egregious enough to warrant a response. For those offended, the advertisement and party, as the Hood presented them, basically reduced Black womanhood to the “Big Booty Hoes” (this is the actual title of a Notorious B.I.G. song; considered by many the greatest rapper of all-time) of hip-hop fantasy. Throw in a reference to the ghetto, and you have a conspicuously racist result that only a handful of people recognize as problematic. And that’s the worst part.
