Follow-up to my earlier post about Akon’s appalling behaviour at Zen nightclub in Trinidad. (Yesterday’s link to the video no longer works, because the video has been removed from YouTube; Akon’s record company is making some sort of weak copyright infringement claim, and for “copyright infringement claim” you can read “efforts at damage control”.)
Afrobella, Karel McIntosh, and Elspeth Duncan (all Trinidadian women) have posted entries about the incident.
Afrobella also talks about the blogosphere reaction to the video; when I read some of the comments on other blogs that posted the story and video, and over at digg, I found myself feeling angry and frustrated. I read that the girl involved was a “slut” and a “ho” and a “prostitot” and a “dumb bitch” who “was asking for it” and “should have known better”. I read that she “looked like she was enjoying it”. I read that “she doesn’t look like 14, she looks like a grown woman”, as if that makes a difference. I read that “this sort of behaviour is normal [in Trinidad / in the Caribbean / among black people / in Africa / for rappers]”. I read that Akon was “showing the girl a good time”. I read that “island girls are easy”. I read that the whole thing was somehow “the girl’s fault” and she was “to blame”. And I read all kinds of extra stupid shit about how it was racist to criticise Akon for what he did.
Akon intentionally deceived this girl (who is just fourteen years old) when he lured her onstage with his promises of “a trip to Africa”. Akon grabbed this girl and manhandled her in a fashion that I, as an “island girl” who has seen a lot of stuff at clubs and parties and fetes and carnivals, have never seen before. He literally tossed her about like she was an object, a thing. And then he dumped her on the stage and went on his way while his crew picked up what he had discarded. He engaged in behaviour that was atrocious and unexcusable, regardless of what the girl looked like, what she was wearing, how old she was, or what kind of parenting she had. Her poor judgement does not excuse his misogynistic violence.