A Two-Way Street

It will be a dark day for the music business if Tracy Chapman’s male-bashing anthem “Fast Car” is awarded even one Grammy (“Tracy Chapman: The Grammy Favorite,” Jan. 8).

Consider this: If Bob Dylan wrote a song about quitting school to take care of his troubled mother but then abandoning her, getting married but later taking the children and abandoning his troubled wife, people would think he was a monster. But when Chapman sings of abandoning troubled men, she is roundly applauded. Is there a double standard at work here?

And after seeing the video for this song, it is obvious to me that Chapman, for crass commercial gain, is exploiting a racist stereotype of black men as lazy people and lousy fathers.

“Fast Car” is designed to portray the singer as a victim. But an inspection of the lyrics reveals that the woman in the song is calling all the shots. She is not a victim but a victimizer.

I suppose that we shouldn’t blame Chapman. We all live in a society where male-bashing is used to sell everything from cigarettes to automobiles. Why shouldn’t she get to join the party?

JAMES L. DESPER JR.

Panorama City