Do we know that we are free?

Long before Don Imus called the Rutgers Women's basketball team "nappy-headed hoes" African-Americans have faced degradation. But it is the degradation that we place upon ourselves that is the most damaging.

African-American history is rich with slaves who taught themselves how to read, learned to till and navigate the land, achieved status as small business and landowners, and were even elected to office post-Reconstruction. They instilled in their children a sense of pride and hard work. All the while, they were viewed as having no more brains than an ox. No greater use than manual labor and reproducing. Still they soldiered on. Their literal blood, sweat, and tears stain the trail upon which African-Americans now tread. But it's as if many in my generation don't even know it.

We have created a hip-hop culture where violence and misogyny have become popular pastimes. Moments after watching America's black female Secretary of State on C-SPAN, the viewer clicks the channels to see young black women in a disgusting sexual display on BET. The black male has always presented a sense of respect to their "mamas," but now displays hatred for the "baby-mamas". This problem goes beyond simple disrespect. Black women have now become the enemy. While I enjoy some hip-hop and would never advocate for censorship, I refuse to play or purchase songs that portray my sisters as "bitches and whores."

The late rapper, Tupac Shakur wrote, "since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman, and our game from a woman. I wonder why we take from women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think its time we killed for our women, be real to our women, try to heal our women, 'cus if we don't we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can't make one he has no right to tell a women when and where to create one." Yet his songs, "I Get Around" and "How Do You Want It" provide lyrics about women too explicit to include in this article.

People like Don Imus feel that they have the license to label us because this is the portion of our society that they choose to see. Few know of the growing number of black women as CEO's of major corporations, doctors, lawyers and educators and that the fastest growing population of small business owners is African-American women.

Forty-three years ago, Congress passed the July 2, 1964 Civil Rights Act. We are not so removed from the days of segregation that we should forget the horrific agony and fatalities suffered by our ancestors. How would our ancestors think of us if they were alive now? Instead of the white man's oppression, it is the black man's, or, even worse, it is sometimes the black woman herself.

Barack Obama was one of many African-American leaders who called for Imus's firing. But Obama recently invited rapper Ludacris to his Chicago office to discuss the singer's new AIDS awareness campaign. What good is Ludacris's campaign when he boasts: "I've got hos in different area codes"? Why have some people attacked Imus so adamantly and then softened their tone towards those who have infiltrated our airwaves with filth? Are we too afraid of being typecast as traitors to our own race?

African-Americans can attack every bigot in the country, but until we cease from producing and promoting disgusting images and sounds, our culture will continue to deteriorate. Freed from the chains of slavery, we have now created our own set of invisible chains. Do we know that we are free?