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CSULB STUDENTS TO PROTEST LUDACRIS SATURDAY

Chris ZieglerThu. February 21
 

Bill O’Reilly laid off of Ludacris a long time ago but CSULB is ready with new rage: Daily 49er reports that students will be protesting Ludacris’ performance this Saturday. Info plus illo ahead.


julio salgado

“His lyrics are misogynistic, racist, homophobic, they glamorize capitalism and overconsumption, and promote violence against women,” said Marina Wood, a junior women’s studies major and organizer of the protest.

[...]

“We want people to know that we don’t want to end the concert,” said Alaina Chamberlain, a junior women’s studies major and organizer of the protest.

Wood and Chamberlain both said Ludacris is just one example of mainstream hip-hop that can be dehumanizing.

“Our protest is aimed towards the bigger picture,” Wood said.

For some background: Ludacris provoked similar complaints from FOX’s Bill O’Reilly in 2002 after he was set to appear in a Pepsi commercial. O’Reilly said “some” consider Ludacris “more vile than Eminem, if that’s possible,” and questioned a Pepsi spokesman about the moral issues involved in Ludacris’ then-current hit “Move Bitch” before quoting Machiavelli and calling for a boycott. (At that point, Ludacris’ mother got involved.)

Then when Pepsi decided that their replacement for Ludacris would be the much more polite and proper Osbourne family, Russell Simmons threatened a hip-hop-wide boycott and the company eventually settled with a multi-million dollar payment to Ludacris’ Ludacris Foundation, the charity foundation the rapper started in Atlanta in 2001. The foundation has since donated half a million dollars to children’s advocacy organizations and handed out 500 free Thanksgiving turkeys at an Atlanta church last November.

In between the O’Reilly dust-up and this weekend’s scheduled protest, Ludacris also got in a tense moment with Sandra Bullock on Oprah, the same year he also spent some time working on ideas for teen AIDS awareness with then-relatively obscure Senator Barack Obama. (Not to be confused with his 2005 work advancing awareness of cerebral palsy.)

And after a Live Earth set (before which he discussed personal environmental responsibility with SOHH: “I’m switching my light bulbs out for fluorescent light bulbs. You can turn your thermostat down a degree, which makes a big difference. Turning the computers off at night and not just letting them sit, purchasing music online. I’m looking into getting solar panels.”) and winning the Spirit Of Youth award for his work with the National Runaway Switchboard (1-800-RUNAWAY) last year, he went on to the Usher Raymond Altruism Award just last month in Atlanta, only six weeks before heading to Long Beach, where he will face a student protest.

Ludacris has yet to issue any public statement, but Associated Students., Inc.—the concert sponsor—Communications Coordinator Melissa Duque told the 49er she appreciated the protest as evidence against student apathy: “I love that they’re protesting because I don’t think they’re protesting ASI. I love the idea they’re protesting Ludacris if it means student activism.”

Ludacris “Move Bitch” (2002)

watch this video on youtube
Watch This Video on Youtube

Ludacris “Down In That Durty” (Making Of) (2007)

watch this video on youtube
Watch This Video on Youtube

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  • coffee face
    ill bring the bikinis and trapper keepers...
  • Andy
    This is what college students are protesting now? Do they know there is an illegal war on?
  • Andy
    Oh. "Women's Studies" majors... that explains it. I dated one once. Everything "means" something to them. I got a lecture when I referred to an electrical connector piece as the "female" part. She said it was demeaning.

    I said "I'll call you."
  • A.R.
    I think this is a good cause, but it needs to be recognized by all the communities it impacts. It'd be nice to see a bunch of different types of people turn out. BTW, the title to this post makes it sound like they're planning on protesting an outlandish Saturday filled with a bunch of nonsense.
  • Chris Ziegler
    every day is ludacris saturday to me
  • howardx
    “We want people to know that we don’t want to end the concert,” haha wtf?
  • Andy
    Hee hee. Ludacis Saturday. I love it.
  • A.R.
    Yo, Saturday is going to be Ludacris!
  • LBRez
    So what did Luducris do with his Pepsi shakedown money? He got $3M, his website shows 11 employees and about half million spent over the past several years. Those are some well salaried workers! Would any making comments against the protest have an issue if they were protesting an appearance of...let's say Rush? Or V.P. Cheney? Or Mel Gibson? Or is it just upsetting when a misogynist whose music you like is the subject of the protest?
  • Chris Ziegler
    the specifics of the settlement (according to a BBC report) were that pepsi would split at least $1 million per year (no date given for when payments actually started) between "charities chosen by" (BBC quote) the ludacris foundation, russell simmons' hip-hop action network (since russell simmons is the guy who actually made this all happen) and pepsi itself. so they didn't just give ludacris a bunch of money. instead they had to donate to charities specified by the ludacris foundation and the hip-hop action network (which certainly could have included actual donations to the ludacris foundation and the hip-hop action network) as well as charities pepsi picked themselves. i haven't been able to find anything particularly specific on where the ludacris settlement money went, but pepsi documents detailing corporate giving in 2006 are available online at pepsico.com (though they wouldn't work on my collapsing computer, so i can't quote them) and overall pespi charity contributions (as detailed on their own site) total about $59 million. i'm not sure if that's yearly for 2006 or over all time, though since pepsico had a net income of $1.26 billion last year, i wouldn't be surprised if they give away something like $59 million a year in charitable contributions. anyway sorry i can't give you a specific answer yet, though a general answer is that ludacris and the ludacris foundation didn't get all the money or even all of their portion of the money at once, and by the rules of the settlement they had to share control over where the settlement went. unfortunately i haven't found records yet showing how much money the ludacris foundation itself got from pepsi and what they did with it. if i come across something i'll post it here.
  • Chris Ziegler
    ps today is ludacris saturday!
  • Andy
    RE: #9 (LB Rez)

    Not fond of Cheney and Gibson, but I'd never protest Rush.

    I mean, Geddy Lee is a freakin' GOD.
  • howardx
    "Pepsi shakedown money" you gotta get off the koolaid rez!
  • erin
    it is great that the article discusses some background, but there really was not much about the actual protest. those quotes provided by wood and chamberlain were from the daily 49er on the thursday before the protest. it would be nice if the article used quotes from the actual protest of both the protesters and those attending the concert. is there more to come? something is missing....
  • Chris Ziegler
    this article is from thursday, feb. 21. saturday update here:

    http://thedistrictweekly.com/daily/featured-dai...
  • Beliu
    "women studies" major, well that explains the crazy protest. You hoes need 2 get a grip. What happened to freedom of speech! It's not what he says that is harmful, It's your sensitivity, and low self esteem that is causing yourselves to be hurt by his words. As Tupac said to Janet jackson in Poetic Justice, "So you one of dem feminist bitches, one of dem ANGRY bitches." lol
  • olo
    LUDACRIS THE BEST. YOU STINK. BITCHES!
    HOLLA oIo
  • kathleen
    datz right ludacris rules
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