There’s a video of rapper Snoop Dogg interacting with a female reporter and her camera woman circulating around the internet. Before clicking on the video we see Snoop smirking in the thumbnail and there’s a question in the Facebook excerpt asking if she, the camerawoman, is being too sensitive.
I love questions like this and I clicked on the video. During a brief chat with the reporter, either before or after the official interview, Snoop interrupts himself mid-sentence to say:
“I like your camera girl too. She thick. Damn! I wasn’t even looking down like that, now I’m forced to look down at the camera. Looka there, looka there. Look at the shitter on that critter ”
What the [insert your favorite expletive here]?!?!
The video made its way to public view because the videographer released it and even appeared on television to discuss the interaction and how it made her feel embarrassed and belittled.
She said:
“A lot of people talk about this being a compliment. That’s the biggest thing I’ve heard. It’s a compliment, take it. But let’s talk about that? What is a compliment? Is a compliment something that’s going to make a woman feel extremely embarrassed and belittled? I don’t think that’s a compliment. You can compliment women without belitting them. So it’s not exactly what he said, it’s how he said it.
There was a bit of a power play I think. My reporter and I are two women, two young women, physically smaller. He’s a celebrity, he’s physically taller, he’s a man. So there was a bit of a power play. He wanted to embarrass me and he did. I turned beet red.”
So far, I’ve read a lot of comments that seem to suggest that she is taking this too far. Things like, “What do you expect from Snoop?” “You have a tattoo sleeve and you don’t want anyone looking at you?” And “The next thing you know, she’ll be crying rape.”
A part of me is shocked by the reaction but another part of me has learned that people are accustomed to women being disrespected and objectified, they not only accept it, they defend it.
What people fail to realize is that this woman was at work and she had to field comments about her body. It would be the equivalent of a male customer walking up to a bank teller and telling her he peeped dat ass from over the counter. It’s rude as hell.
I keep reading comments where people seem to suggest that because she’s White, she doesn’t understand that thick is a compliment in Black culture. Perhaps that’s the case. But I am Black. I know what thick means. I even take pride in having a little extra meat in some places but I still don’t want a man who I don’t know intimately to call me thick or make comments about my body, famous or not.
As someone who works in media and has routinely interviewed celebrities, it’s something that happens far too often. There have been instances where actors have given MadameNoire editors unsolicited and unwanted kisses.
There was an R&B singer who, when taking a picture after our interview, grabbed the back of my neck to hold me in place. And when I moved out of his grasp, he genuinely seemed shocked that I was not enjoying that bit of physical contact.
For whatever reason, celebrities believe that their flirtatious comments or misplaced actions will automatically be received with open arms. That every journalist, reporter and camera person is a fan and welcomes the attention. And that’s just not always the case. Most people who write and produce visual content are behind the scenes for a reason. Even though our jobs are creative and less rigid than the 9-5 cubicle positions, it doesn’t mean that we’re not actually working. And we all want to be respected at our places of business.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge another layer of this story. As I mentioned there were commenters who brought up the White woman cries rape trope. And I understand that there have been times, historically, where Black men have taken the fall and even lost their lives for crimes against White women they didn’t commit.
But that’s not what happened here.
Snoop, who doesn’t have the best history when it comes to respecting women, was wrong here. And I’m not comfortable riding for Black men when they’re driving in the wrong direction. I’m truly not about the business of bashing Black men. And I honestly, on most days, identify first with my Blackness more than womanhood. Still, being a woman and having endured street harassment and inappropriate comments about my body, I know the embarrassment and frustration this woman felt. It’s played out. It’s not right and it needs to stop.
At the end of the day, this issue doesn’t stop with Snoop. Men of all races and professions have been known to objectify women; and personally, I’m glad this particular woman stepped forward to let the world know this isn’t cool.
But that’s just me. You can watch the full interaction and her comments about it in the video below.
