So what has been the response to Sister Souljah's ethics. I would have to say that there are quite a few more critics than supporters. The biggest crtitic would have to be the newly re-elected President Bill Clinton. Clinton attacked Sister Souljah at Rev. Jesse Jackson's rainbow Coalition Leadership summit for her lyrics and racist remarks. What were her remarks? Clinton said "She told the Washington Post...'IF BLACK PEOPLE KILL BLACK PEOPLE EVERYDAY, WHY NOT TAKE A WEEK AND KILL WHITE PEOPLE?' ... If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech." Angry black leaders attcked Clinton for "exploiting her purely to appeal to conservative whites." Clinton quickly defended himself saying "I called for an end to division, which I've been calling for since I first began this race." Souljah responded by saying "I'm not Murphy Brown." "I am very, very well prepared to defend myself and my people."


Sister Souljah was very popular with the black community before the Clinton incident.

SOULJAH"S MUSIC:
Her video is called the "The Final Solution: Slavery's Back in Effect". It "imagines a police state where blacks fight the reinstitution of slavery. Sad to say, but MTV rejected this "tasteful" video. Would you like to see some of her lyrics? From her song "The Hate that Hate Produced":
"SOULJAH WAS NOT BORN TO MAKE WHITE PEOPLE FEEL COMFORTABLE
I AM AFRICAN FIRST, I AM BLACK FIRST
AND IF MY SURVIVAL MEANS YOUR TOTAL DESTRUCTION, THEN SO BE IT
YOU BUILT THIS WICKED SYSTEM
THEY SAY TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE IT RIGHT
BUT IT DAMN SURE MAKES IT EVEN

In both her music and activism she uses the same rhetoric. "I reserve the right to put pressure on White America, to be angry with White America and to organize against white supremacy and racism."
She hasn't attracted an audience as a rapper. Her one album "360 Degrees of Power" includes slurs like "honkies" and gives you 500 reasons why you should leave your Black man. The week Clinton made her a national figure, it fell off the Billboard Charts, never having made it to the pop top 200. After Clinton took on Sister Souljah, support fell, but her true followers continued to back her ideas. It is true that Clinton reduced her popularity.


In a rap column for Billboard magazine, Havelock Nelson says "The way she screams many of her lines may be fine for the lecture circuit, which she frequents, but in a jam, her street-warrior delivery alienates the very audiece she's trying to reach - black youth. She bores them."

There are those who support Sister Souljah. Tricia Rose, in her book review "A Sister Without Sisters", says "she's very brave and inspiring. Those of you who have ever heard Souljah speak know that her powers of oratory are exceptional; she stands well above most any public figure in America today, age, race, and gender not withstanding."
THERE'S THE SUPPORTERS AND NON-SUPPORTERS! WHAT ARE YOU?

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