Writer and activist Kimberly N. Foster, editor of www.forharriet.com, sent out a petition today via Twitter calling for the ousting of XXL Editor In Chief Vanessa Satten.
Foster claims that Satten allowed Oakland rapper Too Short a platform to openly promote “the sexual assault of preteen and teenage girls in a video” on XXL’s website. She went on to state that the XXL EIC’s “value of the security of young black women is so little that they chose to trade it for pageviews.”
In the video, Too Short says, “When you get to late middle school, early high school and you start feeling a certain way about the girls..I’m gonna tell you a couple of tricks. A lot of the boys are going to be running around trying to get kisses from the girls..We’re going way past that. I’m taking you to the hole.”
If that wasn’t enough, the 45 year old rapper goes on in detail, telling women off camera to “cover their ears”. He says, “You push her up against the wall, you take your finger and put a little spit on it and you stick your finger in her underwear and you rub it on there and watch what happens.”
The petition obviously made some noise, causing XXL and Satten herself to issue a statement less than 24 hours later addressing Ms. Foster’s claims. Satten’s statement can be read below:
“I agree with their perspective. I do not see all the content before it goes live. When I saw this video, I was truly offended and thought it crossed the line. I had it taken down immediately. I am disappointed that an employee decided to post it and I am putting internal procedures in place to make sure content like this does not go on the site. The video goes against my value system and represents poor judgement on behalf of the individual who posted it.”
-ShaBe Allah(KingPenStatus)