Likes the Girls

 ‘I Hear It Likes the Girls’

When I was little, I loved when the Ghostbusters theme came on the radio. I used to yell, “I ain’t afraid of no ghost!” along with it. Of course, as I got older, I understood the irony of that statement. Ray Parker, Jr. is mocking that sentiment, not supporting it. By implication, he is asking, “Are you sure?”

The music video explores themes of violence against women and the history of racism in America, although I’m not sure it intentionally set out to do that. Maybe they devised the scenario of the music video and it all came tumbling out of their subconsciousness. Horror is a genre that frequently talks about the ordinarily unspeakable and explores the dark underbelly of society and the psyche.

Here is the official VEVO video on YouTube. If you want to know the interesting history behind writing the song and the song’s legal status, check out 

Mike “DJ” Pizzo

’s story.For those of you who don’t want to watch the music video, I’ll discuss the images. The plot of the music video follows a white woman played by Cindy Harrell who experiences a haunting in her home. The scenes are broken up by clips from the movie and cameos of famous actors shouting “Ghostbusters!” Ray Parker, Jr. plays the ghost in the haunting scenario as he sings the song. He is black. The ghost of a black man is haunting a white woman.

The immediate visual impact of this shocked me.

Website

America has a history of oppression, and many black men were killed because someone falsely accused them of looking at, touching, or harming a white woman. The Jim Crow Museum explains the brute caricature:

The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal — deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous,