Rita Whack is Wack!

A Closed Mind: The Journalist's Worst Enemy

I had counted down the days until the Media Roundtable with Laura S. Washington, an Ida B. Wells-Barnett University professor, would host the "Reporters on the Record" discussion on Monday, November 7th. As a freelance writer/editor, I was interested in finding out more about black writers like Chris Benson, Yolanda Joe, David Thigpen, and Rita Whack. I went into Schmitt Academic Center thinking I was going to learn about the ups and downs of being a black writer in an unbalanced media, how to bring out black news in journalism, and how to go about making a successful full-time career in writing. Unfortunately, I left there with only negative views of Rita Whack.

David Thigpen, a journalist who covers music commentary, made a comment about musicians like 50 Cent coming out with books, in addition to his book on Jam Master Jay "Jam Master Jay: The Heart of Hip-Hop." Whack piggy-backed onto that comment by stating that she does not like 50 Cent because she doesn't like "the way he depicts women." Now as a big Sister Souljah and Eric Jerome Dickey fan, she'd already annoyed me by saying she didn't like Eric Jerome Dickey but not backing up why. I didn't understand how she compared "The Coldest Winter Ever" to 50 Cent's book. She blew my mind when she talked about how she wanted Toni Morrison to "shut her mouth" about telling how poor, black people really lived. But when she said the comment about "the way [50 Cent] depicts women," I was hot. Not only did she mention it once, she mentioned it twice. When the audience was allowed to speak and one woman pointed out that even if Whack doesn't like the way 50 Cent is making his money, he is succeeding in a society set against him, Whack went on to say that she wouldn't support a crack dealer.