Could you imagine if Russell Simmons released a video disrespecting Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King?
Yesterday Russell Simmons launched his new All Def Digital YouTube Network, with a video disrespecting an extraordinary black woman who risked everything for the freedom of many slaves. I guess he wanted to start his Youtube Network off with a big BANG, literally!
Russell released a Harriet Tubman sex tape parody that has the Internet in an UPROAR to say the least. What was meant to be a parody had people outraged as it showed Harriet Tubman luring her white slave masters into having sex with her while another slave hides in the closet with a camera to blackmail the “master,” so that she can free the slaves. In the video, the fake Tubman alludes to having been fighting her owners when they raped her in the past but that she really liked it saying, “All these years, I’ve been actin’ like I didn’t love our special time together, but tonight that’s all gonna be different.”
This is worse than Quentin Tarantino’s cowboy slavery movie, Django Unchained…. Russell just sold out one of the most COURAGEOUS women to ever live for a few haha’s and to bring attention to his video Network… ugh its pretty sad when our own people make a mockery out of slavery…. Rape neither slavery is a joke… I bet he wouldn’t do a video about a Jewish woman in the Holocaust being raped. I wonder why…..smh
Needless to say, a petition was started on Change.org with people requesting that Russell not only remove the video, but apologize for saying the video was the “funniest thing I’ve ever seen” and promoting something that tarnished the image of black history. Folks also made their voices heard to Russell on Twitter:
John Legend: Harriet Tubman?? Say it ain’t so, @UncleRUSH
Roland Martin: Bruh @unclerush, Harriet Tubman is SACRED to our people. Anyone even thinking this skit up should have been cussed out with the quickness. EVERY person involved in the shameful skit must be forced to read this book. Harriet’s OUR hero! 2nd @unclerush, too many Black women paid the ultimate price during slavery w/heir bodies, & we as Black men were powerless. This is WRONG.
Kola Boof: What kind of person would post a “parody video” ….of Harriet Tubman being raped? That just defies everything.
Dream Hampton: Harriet Tubman walked through several states’ swamps & forests countless times. WALKED. Countless times she returned to free OTHERS. Like so many enslaved resistors Harriet Tubman didn’t wait to be freed, she took her freedom, then snatched others from its clutches. You don’t have to know or honor Harriet’s legacy, but stay away from her name.
Marc Lamont Hill: By saying that the video was the “funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” @UncleRUSH is endorsing rape culture and disrespecting a revered elder. And to be clear, I’m SURE didn’t think he supported rape culture with that video. I’m SURE he just thought it was funny. [cont’d] But that’s exactly the point. Rape culture gets fortified through every day practices that are ostensibly harmless. I’d love for @UncleRUSH to explain why he found the video to be “the funniest thing ever.” Really? Aren’t you the founder of Def Comedy Jam?
After Russell received the back lash he finally issued an insincere apology on Global Grind, saying he never would condone violence against women and has thick skin so he wasn’t offended by the video…. see below:
In the whole history of Def Comedy Jam, I’ve never taken down a controversial comedian. When my buddies from the NAACP called and asked me to take down the Harriet Tubman video from the All Def Digital YouTube channel and apologize, I agreed.
I’m a very liberal person with thick skin and it’s hard to offend me. My first impression of the Harriet Tubman piece was that it was about what one of the actors said in the video, that 162 years later, there’s still tremendous injustice. And Harriet Tubman outwitting the slave master, I thought that was politically correct. Silly me. I guess I’m older now and instead of fighting for one piece of content, I can understand why so many people are upset. I have taken down the video. Lastly, I would never condone violence against women in any form, and for all of those I offended, I am sincerely sorry.
The video was been pulled from his All Def Digital channel, BUT it can still be viewed in the video below.
