Russell Simmons apology for spoof sex tape of abolitionist Harriet Tubman
Hip-hop record mogul Russell
Simmons has apologised for a parody
video on his YouTube channel showing
a US abolitionist heroine in a sex
tape.
The clip features an actress portraying
Harriet Tubman having sex with her
white slave master in order to film it and
blackmail him.
The video, first posted on Wednesday,
has been removed from the channel.
Escaped slave Harriet Tubman helped
hundreds flee bondage through a
network of safe houses in the 1800s.
Tubman was a well-known "conductor"
on the network, known as the
Underground Railroad, making the
journey south 19 times, including when
she was a wanted fugitive in the region.
Tubman was also a spy for the Union
army during the American Civil War.
"My first impression of the Harriet
Tubman piece was that it was about
what one of [the] actors said in the
video, that 162 years later, there's still
tremendous injustice," Simmons, the
founder of Def Jam Records, said in a
statement.
"I can now understand why so many
people are upset," he added. "I would
never condone violence against women
in any form, and for all of those I
offended, I am sincerely sorry."
He said he removed the video after a call
from the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
