‘On the Record’ and the #MeToo Movement’s Colorism Problem
When The New York Times first reported allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Def Jam Recordings co-founder and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, they featured, in print, a triptych of women: former music journalist Toni Sallie, singer Tina Baker, and former A&R executive Drew Dixon. Dixon is also at the center of the documentary On the Record, which debuts today on the brand new streaming platform HBO Max. Noticeable in the Times’ triptych, and as she herself points out in On the Record, Dixon is one of a group of predominantly light-skinned black women, as well as a few white women (Baker is white), who have felt able to speak out against Simmons after decades of silence. Of all the allegations against Simmons, Dixon’s is most marked, with a fall from the success train as a direct result of Simmons’ allegedly raping her (as well as her subsequent boss L.A Reid’s alleged sexual harassment).
On the Record is a rigorous film, one that does the necessary work to contextualize the stories of Dixon, musician Sheri Sher, former model and activist Sil Lai Abrams, and many more women who’ve accused Simmons of assault and harassment, within contemporary and historical experiences of black womanhood in the U.S.
The documentary digs into the legacy of hip-hop and its misogynistic aspects as well as the misogyny that’s rife within the music industry at large—as much within music authored by white men as black men. Several black woman cultural critics are featured, from academic Kimberlé Crenshaw (who coined the term and tool “intersectionality”) to organizer Tarana Burke (who came up with “#MeToo”) to This American Life producer Bim Adewunmi. The rock and hard place black female survivors often find themselves between—of disclosing abuse and unintentionally opening black men up to harm from a racist state or not disclosing and letting the harm they’ve experienced from sexual assault destroy them—is seriously explored through the insights of these experts.