By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Russell Simmons Harriet Tubman video leads to boycott? With race issues in the nation still bubbling post George Zimmerman being found not guilty for the murder of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, one would have to wonder why anyone in the African-American community would produce a parody of Black History icon Harriet Tubman. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Russell Simmons did. While parodies aren’t necessarily a bad thing, Russell has many people fuming because he actually produced and posted a video to his YouTube Channel All Def Digital that showed a black actress portraying Harriet Tubman making a sex tape with her master. In the very controversial video, we see the on-screen Harriet Tubman conversing with another slave in broken english about how the tape could possibly free her and the rest of the slaves, and moments later we see her lying in bed with her master as the other slave records from the closet unknowing to their master.
What really ruffled many feathers was the dialogue that occurred between the on-screen Tubman and her master. She actually tells hims that she secretly liked him raping her on numerous occasions and she actually has deep feelings for him.
So not only did the video infuriate those in the African-American community, but also activists against rape.
It didn’t take too long for an online petition to start making its rounds against Russell Simmons, and he eventually apologized and took the video down from his YouTube Channel. However, political activist Najee Ali is now calling for the boycott of Russell Simmons. Ali says:
“Slavery was not a joke. I doubt very seriously that Simmons would produce a comedy skit depicting a holocaust victim engaging in sexual acts with Hitler or a Nazi guard in order to secure her freedom. The Jewish community would never allow it. The African American community shouldn’t allow anyone to depict Tubman in this manner. Simmons has to be held accountable and just can’t apologize his way out of this. We’re calling for an immediate boycott of all his business products and companies which include DefJam, PhatFarm and RushCard.
“Simmons has essentially spit in the face of every black woman in the nation by disrespecting the legacy of Tubman. I’m not accepting his apology.”
Najee also goes on to say that it’s hypocritical for African-Americans to be outraged with Paula Deen using the N-word, yet Simmons isn’t being held to the same standard after he produced a video that he feels is disrespectful to the legacy of Harriet Tubman.
If you’re interested, the video is below:
Well Russell is an Uncle Tom so I’m not surprised.
Now this is a damn shame!
This pedofile needs to quit.
Russell Simmons hates black women. No shocker to me.
Wow. Russell should have been smarter than this. I guess his dislike for black women got in the way of his common sense.
Huh you and I are on the same page. Disgusting!
Idiot. And I’m not watching that mess.
It’s disturbing that a black man of Russell’s stature would think this was ok.
This queen knows he was wrong for this one.
This was so offensive and not even funny. And the black woman who went along with this ought to be ashamed of herself.
Was this fool serious?
I don’t have to watch the video to know that it is offensive. Yoga and money doesn’t make him a smart man.
What an idiot…
this fool has two black daughters now what in the hell was he thinking he’s a devil worshiper anyway i will not support anything russell simmons does what an a-shole he needs is a-s kicked