It was another ritualistic dragging on social media this week, as Black Twitter read Gayle King for filth for daring to ask WNBA veteran Lisa Leslie about the darker side of Kobe Bryantβs legacy (his 2003 sexual assault charge, which was subsequently dismissed and settled out of court) during an interview on CBS This Morning. And this time, several famous folks piled on as well, most notably Snoop Dogg, whose disapproval escalated to a now-viral expletive-filled rant on Instagram in which he not only called King several pejoratives but accused her (and BFF Oprah Winfrey) of being complicit in a plot to destroy black men, ending his post by seemingly threatening the morning news host should she not βback off.β
βRespect the family and back off, Bitch,β the rapper, author and TV personality spat at the screen, adding, βBefore we come get you.β
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Unsurprisingly (if sadly), most engaged in the online conversation seemed undisturbed by the vitriol and suggested threat of violence Snoop spewed at King; neither was it widely considered an outsized response to the issue at hand. (Or perhaps, many who found the footage disconcerting felt it unsafe to address it as such.) Instead, the rapper was roundly lauded for defending black manhood against the alleged evils of two high-profile black women whoβand I paraphrase hereβhave a clear agenda to uphold white supremacy (comparisons to the much-despised Trump pundits Diamond and Silk made this abundantly clear).
But Snoop wasnβt done. He then posted a series of years-old paparazzi photos of King and Winfrey smiling alongside widely-accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, adding his voice to the chorus of those indicting King for failing to interview Weinstein about the multiple allegations against him. (As if she wouldnβt if she could; King actually did interview Weinsteinβs defense attorney Donna Rutunno last fall, asking questions of a far more pressing tenor than those she asked Leslie.)
Snoop then went for Winfreyβs neck, positing that she: βDid that fake ass [Michael] Jackson shit to tarnish his name with them lying ass kids and here she is with a known rapist smiling and laughing. Fuck u and Gayle. Free bill Cosby.β
For many, βfree Bill Cosbyβ was a bridge too far. Suddenly, many of the same people whoβd been co-signing Snoopβs campaign against King and Winfrey were suddenly backpedaling in response to the rapperβs defense of a convicted rapist.
And then, as if on cue, an even more controversial voice entered the fray.
Thatβs right. It was Bill Cosby himself (or a passionate surrogate), presumably tweeting from prison, where he is currently serving a three to 10-year sentence for three counts of aggravated indecent assault, following a firestorm in which dozens of decades-long allegations also surfaced.
Cosbyβs aim in this clandestineβyet highly publicβmission? To thank Snoop for defending his honor, tweeting: β[W]hen they brought me to my gated community and placed me inside of my penthouse, they didnβt win nor did they silence me. Itβs so sad and disappointing that successful Black Women are being used to tarnish the image and legacy of successful Black Men even in death.β
Aside from the sense of entitlement and self-delusion it must take to refer to prison as a βgated communityβ and your cell as a βpenthouse,β how ironic that Cosby should tweet about black women being βusedβ when a significant percentage of the women who accused him of drugging them for the non-consensual use of their bodies wereβwait for itβblack women? Cosbyβs sudden allegiance to a man he likely turned his nose up at while free (Snoop being a purveyor of the very culture Cosby railed about in his infamous βpound cakeβ speech) was telling:
Misogynoir loves company.
Letβs be clear: However you feel about the appropriateness of Kingβs line of questioning, it in no way warranted a suggested threat of violence against her. (As Winfrey disclosed on the Today show Friday morning, King has received death threats in the face of the controversy.) If you thought it entertaining to hear Snoop call her a βfunky dog-head bitch,β you are equally as complicit in a culture that regularly denigrates black women yet expects us to indiscriminately sacrifice our safety, dignity, and integrity for the sake of black menβwithout any guarantee of reciprocity.
On its face, Snoopβs alliance with a man who has unapologetically exploited women (since by Cosbyβs own admission under oath, he has used sedatives to have sex with womenβbut still admits no wrongdoing) is a reminder of the rapperβs own self-proclaimed status as a βpimp.β However, the collective endorsement of his hatred for two black womenβhowever capitalist or questionable their tactics may beβis bigger than Gayle King or Oprah Winfrey. It speaks to a broader racial dynamic that consistently denies gender dynamics, as well as the very real dangers black women often face within the very same communities we so staunchly defend. In the βus vs. themβ dichotomy that often frames race relations in America, as black women we all too frequently find ourselves thrown beneath the bus, shamed into silence, and wondering, βbut what about us?β
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