P. Diddy’s indictment isn’t just an indictment of Sean Combs. It’s an indictment of an era, an ethos, a set of permission slips that permit the denigration and even beating of Black women.
The fall of men like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein has shown that uber wealthy, powerful men don’t fall alone. They often bring other uber wealthy, powerful men down with them, men for whom women were baubles to be passed back and forth, demeaned and, ultimately, discarded.
It remains to be seen what other bad boys will come in for a cultural battering in the wake of Diddy’s indictment.
The downfall of Epstein and Weinstein ushered in the Me Too Movement. Women called out repulsive and criminal behavior. More importantly, they set limits for what they would and would not do and what they would and would not tolerate in their workplaces
The wave of that new empowerment often didn’t dampen the shores of rap, though. Black women were still bitches and hos, baby mamas or worse.
Maybe, just maybe, Diddy’s downfall will change that. Maybe there will be a Me Too Movement for Black women. A Not Me Movement or a Not Me Too Movement.
Whatever it’s called, this can be a moment, a turning point.
Perhaps the next Cassie gets the benefit of the doubt and not dragged on social media when she says she suffered horrific abuse at the hands of a man many Black people saw as a symbol of wealth and cool. Perhaps fewer will doubt whether Megan Thee Stallion actually suffered harm when she was shot.
Beyond a shift in respect for the words of Black women, perhaps there can be more empowerment, too.
Would Black women remain bitches and hos in every other rap song if the president of the music label was a Black woman? Would music videos move off the long, long since tired imagery of jiggling, half-naked Black women happy to be draped over a coolly indifferent rapper if the video director was a Black woman?
There’s a sister on the Supreme Court. Another serves as vice president and is running for the presidency. Which one is a bitch? Which one is a ho?
On one level - and in the absence of any examination of the allegations against Diddy - it’s understandable that there would be an initial well of support for a rich Black man accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Black distrust of the criminal justice system is high. We don’t have an endless supply of Black billionaires or even near billionaires. We cling to those we know of as avatars of what we can be, the power we could command if we had a few commas on our bank statement.
But wealth doesn’t equate to worth. Diddy’s indictment can drive that point home, and it can usher in a new era, one where overt misogyny and violence against women simply isn’t tolerated - even if the woman is Black. Especially if the woman is Black.