This was hard to read for a variety of reasons. First, there's just too much truth. I don't consume rap so am not conversant with many of the players but for what I read or see in widely-publicized material. That said I couldn't avoid all the mess about R. Kelly and all the rest, and the throughline abusing women in general, but most particularly, most viciously, Black women.

I am at a loss at how this elevates Black men, or how in any way such behavior, the lyrics, the ugliness are supposed to somehow make Black men feel more powerful. Perhaps in a mean-spirited way it gives some satisfaction, but such behavior tears at the very soul of the offender in ways far worse than it does those who are targeted, and they know it.

I supposed you could argue it's a case of shit flowing downhill, a way to download the pressures they experience. But that doesn't fly when you point out the sacrifices Black women made for them.

The only thing that tracks for me is self-loathing. You don't make such public, ugly attacks on Black women without having that come from a seething cauldron of self-hate. That doesn't make me right. But no amount of love from an external source is going to heal that, as Black women have found out.

Worse, the more Black women get PhDs, rise in politics and education and corporate America, the more abuse they are likely to suffer individually or as a group. While that may well true for women in general, this is one of far too many areas where Black women are singled out for a particular kind of brutality not just for being female and Black, but also for their excellence.

This isn't my areas of expertise but it pains me very deeply, for far too many Black women in my circle have been directly affected by this very thing. I've watched them suffer and have held them while they cried. I don't have answers. Just tears.