Ashley Judd Clarifies Controversial Hip-Hop Statements
April 11 2011, Published 5:25 a.m. ET
Ashley Judd, after coming under fire last week for comments she made in her new book All That Is Bitter & Sweet, has taken to urban website Global Grind "to express her gratitude for a chance to learn, to be corrected where she was wrong, to make amends, and hold firm and strong on the original intention and context of the points she made, with a commitment to try to do so less clumsily and with more sensitivity in the future.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Judd's comments about the genre -- calling hip-hop a “rape culture” -- raised eyebrows, as she slammed the likes of P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg for their "abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as ho's".
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Judd wrote on Monday: "I am also aware that, no matter what I do, some will call me disingenuous and impute bad motives to me."
In her new post, she attempts to link her own background with those she might have offended with her passages in her memoir.
"My equivalent genres, as an Appalachian, an oppressed and ridiculed people, would be mountain music and bluegrass," she wrote. "Those genres tell the history, struggles, grief, soul, faith, and culture of my people. In imagining how I would feel if someone made negative generalizations about that music, I am deeply remorseful that anything I may have said in All That Is Bitter & Sweet would hurt adherents of genres that represent their culture.
"This book is an act of love and service. Insulting people of goodwill is the antithesis of its raison d'etre."
She wrote of the massive feedback about her comments on Twitter: "Easily the most ludicrous thing about the Twitter wars has been the perpetuation of the ridiculous accusation I am blaming two musical genres for poverty, AIDS, and the whole of rape culture.
"Please, people. Seriously. I am white, yes, but in spite of some allegations to the contrary, I am not an idiot," she wrote. "Gender inequality and rape culture were here a long before the birth of the genres and rage everywhere."
Judd addressed those who've been flooding her with negative massages, saying: "There are those tweeting who are not of goodwill.
"The extraordinary violence, venom, slander, and character defamation expressed by some toward me and my body is exactly what I was isolating and identifying. Some say I deserve to be sexually humiliated, dominated, hurt, and raped. There are death threats. You are making my precise point with a lucidity that is stunningly clear.
"Hatred of girls and women, I will oppose with spiritual and non-violent principles every day," she wrote. "Abuse and violence in any form, at any time, in any expression, are never okay. Period. I, and other girls and women, are not afraid of you.
“You can keep on hating, but I am going to keep on loving."
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