Nashville Schools Rap Flap 'Racially Motivated': Councilmembers

NASHVILLE, TN -- A school board member's complaint about the Director of Schools' use of rap lyrics may have been "racially motivated," a leading Metro Council member suggested Tuesday.

"What is truly amazing to us is that this complaint came from a board member who was not in attendance at said meeting," Metro Councilmember Sharon Hurt, speaking on behalf of the council's Minority Caucus, said at Tuesday's school board meeting. "The board member is taking the context of what was shared and has negatively emphasized what was not the intent. Not only is this inflammatory, it seems racially motivated, perhaps more appropriately stated, as culturally and generationally insensitive."

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The school board's vice chair, Jill Speering, filed a complaint Monday with the school district's federal programs and civil rights coordinator after learning that Director of Schools Shawn Joseph played a snippet of rapper Too Short's "Blow The Whistle" during a recent meeting with MNPS principals.

Joseph was explaining to the administrators how he sometimes uses song lyrics as inspiration, including the opening lines of "Blow The Whistle": "I go on and on. Can't understand how I last so long. I must have superpowers. Rap 225,000 hours."

In her complaint, Speering said the song is "highly offensive, reprehensible and inexcusable."

"I could not understand how this misogynistic song could be appropriate in ANY educational environment," Speering wrote. "What kind of example does this set for principals, teachers and students?"

Speering said after the meeting, some of the principals read the rest of the song's lyrics or listened to it in its entirety and saw a deeper contextual meaning to its use by Joseph than the simple keep-on-keeping-on message of its opening line.

Joseph admitted he quoted a later line in the song - "Can't hang with the big dogs, stay on the porch" - and Speering contends his use thereof was meant to reference her and fellow board member and Joseph critic Amy Frogge, because the preceding lines are "What's my favorite word? 'B----! Why they gotta say it like Short? B----! You know they can't play on my court."

"Principals explained that many didn't know the rap song but became curious about Dr. Joseph's comments," she wrote. "Once they read the profane lyrics and listened to the song, they felt Dr. Joseph's behavior was unbecoming of the director of schools."

At Tuesday's meeting, Hurt said Joseph has "the right to motivate his employees, build morale and communicate with his staff in a way that best fits his role as a leader and the audience to which he speaks." She said if any employees have problems, they should be reported via the "proper chain of command," which, presumably, would mean not through the school board.

In an interview with The Tennessean, Speering pointed to her time working in inner-city schools, rejecting the notion that her complaint was racially motivated.

"I felt compelled to stand for my profession. That song and the lyrics of that song are insensitive to professionalism, and actually contrary to professionalism," she told the paper.

Echoing Hurt's sentiment that the incident was "blown completely out of proportion," Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, chair of the council's powerful Budget and Finance Committee, said "enough is enough" and that Speering's actions "divided the city."

In her complaint, Speering asked Joseph to issue a public apology for playing Too Short, who was featured in the 1999 documentary "American Pimp" and now stylizes his name as Too $hort. Joseph did not do so Tuesday.

Photos of Joseph and Speering via Metro Nashville Public Schools; Too Short photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images