People have been asking me to position myself on the Cipha sounds stupid and ignorant remark, where he said: “The
reason I’m HIV negative is because I don’t mess with Haitian girls.” So, after thinking about it for days, I think I am ready now to come out of my silence to position myself.
It is always the same ineffective routine –getting infuriated and protesting for a few days -whenever we are being wrongly talked about, treated or discriminated against as a community. We need to change gear. We cannot be using the same ineffective approach over and over hoping to see better results.
I am not condoning the ridiculousness he had spewed out on the air last Friday about Haitian women on his show on Hot 97 WQHT, but I think, to some degree, we are allowing ourselves being distracted and not focusing on the things that really matter -the survivability and sustainability of our people.
The man had made a stupid joke, and he apologized for it. I saw the apology clip on Youtube. Without being judgmental, I think he was sincere. If he knew he was going to face so much heat for the controversial statement, I guarantee you he would have not made it.
Yes, putting pressure for him to be fired is okay, but how is that going to help cure the discriminatory disease going against us? He dropped the bomb already, and the damage has already been done. Having him fired will not take away the fact that our beloved Haiti is being constantly called the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; having him fired is not going to efface the inhuman situations our people are living in back home; having him fired is not going to get the victims of the earthquake out of the tent cities; having him fired is not going to get Preval out of the leadership of the country; getting him fired is not going to get MINUSTAH out of the country; getting him fired is not going to address the cholera epidemic killing our people back home.
This is a disease going against us, and Cipha’s stupid and ignorant remark is only the manifestation of that disease. Let us not get distracted by the symptoms. To cure the disease, we must use a causatic approach, not a symptomatic one. If our only focus is to take care of the symptoms while leaving the root cause of the disease untouched, we are doing nothing but cheating ourselves. In other words, we are jerking ourselves off for a quick psychological ejaculation.
The reason why he and many others before him could make those stupid, ignorant, disgusting and incendiary remarks about us is because we are a weak community, though we have potentials to be a strong one. We are not using our strengths effectively. This is the materialization of the “kabrit gade je met kay avan l rantre” philosophy.
What we need to do now going forward is to GET THE DIASPORA ORGANIZED so that we don’t have to deal with another stupid, ignorant and ridiculous remark again from anybody. ONLY THROUGH A STRUCTURED COMMUNITY CAN WE BE STRONG, POWERFUL AND RESPECTED!!!
Ekspoze! -The final word 
I see your point, but I’m puzzled by “having him fired will not get preval out of the white house.” Sa la pa gin okin rapo.
We are dealing with double standards here, defamatory of character of a whole group, disrespect and many more, together we shall overcome theory is good and dandy, but yet, how do we stop the rumor from taken out of control. How should we stop that disease, the VIPER MOUTH, is by “trace on lesson.”
Fire him, removed him from having another public job ever and keep on penalizing “them”from regurgitating stupidity.
All in all, I hope we do stick together as a group and getting the repect we deserve.
If you read me closely, you would see that I said it is okay to get him fired. But how far is that going to take the fight? We have to do more than just that. We have to get the entire community organized.
Like there is a conference scheduled for this week. I bet you will not see 200 people show up. Do you know why? It is because we are not organized. This conference action is only the initiatives of a few. That is not going to give a thorough and definite response to the stupidity in the media going against us. We have work to do. We need to get busy. Let’s not go for the easy way out or shortcut.
We protested and got Cypha Sounds, who insulted and disrespected our women, off the air in a matter of days. I think that shows some type of strength. My question is this: When are we going to use that strength to organize and get the MINUSTAH out of the country as soon as possible and by any means necessary?
Iam extremely happy to see a West Indian man see right through this whole situation with Cipha Sounds, I dont know him personally but always hearing him giving respect to all carribean people. Ive heard him say before in events/clubs big up all haiti. Iam not making any excuses for him, his remarks was not acceptable. The bigger picture is that the media portrays Haiti in a negative way & puts it in people mind set that Haiti is the poorest country in the world. Until people of the carribean come together under 1 umberlla they will always use Haiti as an escape goat because of Haiti’s Revolutionary past they must poision the rest of cariibean/world with this negative perception. Thank You for this outlet because Iam so tired of seeing carribean people distracted & mislead.
Good post. I stopped listening to Hot 97 years ago, for its misogynistic music and stupid shock jock radio hosts like Star and Ms. Jones, that radio station disgusts me as much as Rush Limbaugh. I don’t think Cipha said those words with malicious intent but it was in really poor taste and his ignorance is really sad. The protest was justified but I’m not as concerned about whether it results in him getting fired…the point was made, he apologized and hopefully he nor anyone else at the station will be making such ignorant comments in the future. Agree with Emann that there are way more important things to focus on right now and it shouldn’t be something to dwell on. Hopefully the anger generated by the whole incident is an impetus for the diaspora to some up with solutions on how we can be more involved in community activism on the ground where it’s really needed.
You’re are right. Let’s not get distracted by the symptoms. The ignorance tree must be rooted out, not trimmed. Cipha is just a leaf.
Symptom or disease, this man is a PUBLIC personality whose ignorant remarks have the power to shape, influence and hurt the perspective of others and he must be held accountable for his actions.
I agree with the first poster. This has nothing to do with being “the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”, but rather an ignorant, inaccurate label that he has inflicted on an entire group of women. If it were said about any other group, poor or not, he still would have been under fire by said group and consequently suspended.
Interesting fact is that statistically over half the reported cases of HIV and AIDS in America are young African-America/Black-American women. I doubt they are catching it from Haitian women. smh
This man may not be the cause of stereotypes and prejudice against Haiti, but that’s no reason to let him contribute to it and stomp all over our names (Haitian women).
I don’t object to your position, nor did I object to Krakra’s. I strongly believe that such ignorant, baseless and ridiculous statement has no place on an FCC-regulated radio station. Therefore, he must pay the consequences of his reckless behavior no matter what those consequences are. Having said that, I do believe that we need to do more than just showing our anger to the insult.
We need to diagnose the state of our community and see what we need to do going forward. We got him suspended “indefinitely,” now what? Are we going back to our dormant state and not use this opportunity to structure and strengthen our community? That’s the point I am making.
“Kabrit gade je met kay avan l rantre.” If we were not a weak community, they could have given that man money to insult and disrespect our women, he would have not done so. We can be strong and respected by ALL only when we are a structured and powerful community.
As far as I am concerned, that man’s show should have been off the air no later than the day after he spewed that garbage on the air. It all requires community activism and involvement. We must not TRY to come together as one only when we get disrespected. We must prevent, not just reacting to situations. So let us get our community organized!!!!
Cipha is a good dude. He’s forever repping the Caribbean and on occasions has played some of our tunes. He jokingly made a stupid remark and has apologized for it. Yes, it doesn’t change the fact that he did make the statement but calling for a man to lose his job based off a joke is stupid in itself. How many times have we personally made dumb jokes about other ethnic groups and got away with it. We’re wasting our time organizing a March against Cipha when we should be focusing on our children going to jail for dumb isht, our country in decay, our families breaking up, kids being raped from left to right etc…we need to wake the hell up and put our thinking cap on. Stop reacting to ish that’s not going to get us anywhere…when other people make mistakes, we seek justice. When we make mistakes, we seek compassion. Gotta give to others what we seek…Respekte!
“We’re wasting our time organizing a March against Cipha when we should be focusing on our children going to jail for dumb shit, our country in decay, our families breaking up, kids being raped from left to right etc…”
lol 😀 I think you too make a valid point.
you know i keep it raw fam. I was going to blog about it but its all a waste of my brain cells man. Haitians always wanna play the victim role. ki kk sa…time for us to pick ourselves up and rebuild the country so that we won’t be a joke to the international community.
I don’t think it’s playing the victim role. No one complained or thought it was “their” fault when that same station got blasted for making fun of Aaliyah or Tsunami victims. When you have a radio station, joking or not, you have to know what is appropriate and crosses the line of disrespect or prejudice. That is not anything to joke about. So because he plays Haitian music, he can say something on air as a radio personality that is not only untrue and prejudice, but repeats the same derogatory remark Haitians had to combat in the ’80s. Stop giving people free passes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this station constantly hires those who make irresponsible, disgusting comments that always end up in the press for the wrong reasons. They will never get my support.
You all made some valid points. This is a popular radio station, some people believe everything they hear or at least emulate. Imagine, some dumb boy saying this to your little girl. Anyway, I think we’ve made our point. This comment does not need any further publicity.
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