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Hip Hop Isn’t Political

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Hip Hop isn’t political. A Hip Hop show isn’t political. An album
isn’t political. At best, a rap song is similar to what I do here on
this blog, which is provide social commentary.

Ludacris’s song is not political action.

Kanye saying George Bush doesn’t care about Black people
is not a politcal action.

Puffy talking about the high price of gas is not a politcal action.

A political action is one that results in a group moving closer to a
goal that serves that groups interests or agenda.

For instance, the republicans chose Palin to energize their evangelical
base. In energizing their evangelical base they are increasing
the likelihood of folks turning out and voting for the republican party
ticket, thus increasing their chances serving their agenda by winning,

Our lack of an understanding political history leads to our thinking
that hip hop is, in fact, politcal. In the book, Stand and Deliver: Political
Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture Yvonne Bynoe explains the
difference between a hip hop show and a politcal movement. She writes,

After almost twenty years, the unproven assumption is that because a recording artist sells millions of records, his or her celebrity tranalsates into political clout, as if the artists buying public equates to a potential voting block. A rap artist can surely bring out the masses to a rally, but he or she can’t get ’em to the polls or them actively engaged with an issue.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There are tens of thousands of us.
We have the potential to constitute a movement.

However we have to understand that wearing an Obama t-shirt
does not make us political. What we need is a vision/agenda and
a willingness to VOTE folks out who decision do not support our
interests.

Bynoe goes on to explain what those of us in the hip hop generation
have to do in order to be political. She writes,

…It is time for the Hip Hop generation….to construct a more sophisticated dialogue about what constitutes leadership, politics and political action….Political power comes from influence and influence comes from the ability deliver (or deny) money, votes, or both to a politcal candidate, legislator, or politcal party; in the words of MC Lyte, all the rest is “chit chatter.“

I went to an Obama Mixer on Sunday. You no longer need to take cheap viagra in usa lots of X-RAYS. Subjects of brainwave entrainment program experiments were reported to exhibit the trained mental states long after the experiments had ended, six months to be exact. order tadalafil online india viagra Their sex-partner has right to know everything before consuming a tablet. Just imagine if this problem has been experienced by a number of males of all ages & it generic price viagra leads for enough difficulties during the sessions of copulation. The general idea of the mixer
was to discuss what how our work would like if Obama won or loss.
We decided to do a voter teach in on Friday September 26th, the
night of the first debate. We believe that this is an exciting time
because folks who would normally not care about an election are excited.

However the next step is to maintain that excitement, to get folks to
the polls and involved in their communities on a local level. If you
are interested in attending contact me at (m . dotwrites AT gmail . com).

In short, just because Hip Hop isn’t political it doesn’t have to remain
this way. A show isn’t political. A CD with a song about Katrina is not
political. You want to know what is political? The republican leadership
pipeline. I went to the GoPac website and was floored at just how
sophisticated, accessible and well funded it was.

Again our situation doesn’t have to remain this way. With the Obama
related interest in the election, through collective action we have the
potential to find our voices and develop an agenda.

****
The voter deadline for NY is October 10th. Go to your States board of
elections website to confirm both that you are registered and the site
of your local polling location.
The presidential election is Tuesday November 4th.

Some Children Are Disposable

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Because what is happening on the streets of Harlem to black
boys and girls is also happening on all America’s streets to
everybody. It’s a terrible delusion to think that any part of this
republic can be safe so long as 20,000,000 members of it are
menaced as they are.

Th reality that I am trying to get at is that the humanity of this
submerged population is equal to the humanity of anyone else,
equal to yours, equal to to that of your child. I know that when
I walk into a Harlem funeral parlor and see a dead boy lying there.
I know, no matter what the social scientists say, or the liberals
say, that it is extremely unlikely that he would be in his grave
so soon if he were not black
-James Baldwin, Words of a Native Son
Playboy December 1964

People vote differently when they have skin in the game.

They MOST certainly vote differently when their children comprise
said “skin”.

I had this thought in mind while reading folks rationalize why
it was “expected” for the Obama’s to send their children to
private school because they are “lawyers” or the children
of a senator.

I don’t have an issue with where the Obama’s send their
children to school per se. I have an issue with our whole
hearted acceptance of an individualized approach to education
that clearly does a disservice to our young people (across ethnicities).

Where is our willingness to critique and reform an educational
and economic system that has allows parents, policy makers,
and politicians to focus on “their children” and say “good luck”
to the others.

It takes a village went out with the Jheri Curl, hunh?

Its easy to be angry but then I began to think about what
an alternate future could look like.

How different would our neighborhoods look if the police
officers had to live in the neighborhoods they served?

How would our schools look if teachers had to live in the
neighborhoods they taught in?

What if public servants had to send their children to public schools?

If the children of the well off are only those that receive a
first rate education then isn’t that more of a feature of an
Aristocracy rather than a Democracy?

All children, in this country are entitled to a first rate education
regardless as to whether their parents are senators, janitors or addicts.

I don’t mean a drill and kill education. But an education that builds
critical thinkers who are content with who they are as human beings
and feel that they have a contribution to make to society.

Baldwin continues in the same essay about how the fate
of all of our children, and I would argue similar to the fate of
our global economy is tied together. The bureaucracy, informal and formal policies, and corporate culture usually stifle creativity and hamper cialis for cheap productivity. And, with our federal government constantly getting thus available to significant businesses’ requirements, we think they are heading to succeed really.There happen to be various additional and they will be merely as very generic cialis online published here good as the doctors would guide you properly giving you all the possible suggestions as well as information about the medicine. It is important to take treatment under the right medical free viagra online experts with prior experiences. The reputed brands of generic levitra pilloint a lot of medical representatives. He writes,

As long as my children face the future they face, and come to ruin
that they come to, your children are in danger too. They are
endangered above all by the moral apthay which pretends it isn’t
happening. This does something terrible to us. Anyone who
is trying to be conscious must begin to be conscious of that apathy
and must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we’ve use so
long to cover it up, to lie about the way that things are.
-James Baldwin, Words of a Native Son
Playboy December 1964

How Did You Find It?

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How did you find this blog?

The internet anthropologist in me wants to know.

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I am putting together a piece and knowing how you found the
blog would really do me a solid.

How did I decide to blog? Reading Hashim’s Hip Hop Blogs.
I guess that is the way I “found” it.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Why Can’t the Obama’s Send Their Kids to Public School?

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Apparently the Obama’s send their daughters to a private school

I find it tre interesting that we are questioning whether?
his daughters should go to private or public school
and what it says about Senator Obama as a leader
when we don’t question the decisions?of our elected leaders,?
school teachers and administrators?to send?not send ?their?
children to the public schools?that they work for.

Chicago schools have been in the news lately.
Last week, in order to bring attention to the inequity in school
and headed to a suburban school district and attempted to?
enroll to shed light on inequitable funding between school
districts.?In New Trier, a suburb, spending tops at $17K per student,
whereas in Chicago, it tops off at $10,400K per student.

In light of this funding discrepancy, why is Senator Obama
expected to send his kids to schools, that teachers,
white Teachers (the majority of public school teachers in this country
are white women) would never send their children to?

I am torn on this. As a product of both public and private institutions
they both have their merits and drawbacks. What I do know, is
that education is expensive, and that until we acknowledge that
nothing will be done and analyze why what stops folks from
acting, nothing meaningful will be done.

I also know that failure creates jobs and that people would?
rather talk about “a culture of poverty” rather than about
how many people pay their mortgages off of jobs related
to the academic failure of low income students.

As parents, we all want to give our children better than what we had.
However, public servants are obligated to serve not only their families
interests but the interests of the public as well.

Perhaps, the question then becomes, where does Obama’s public life
end and his private life began.

Rather than be interested in where the Obama daughters attend school,
perhaps we should be more interested in how inequitable schools are?
funded in Chicago between low income districts and affluence districts.

Providing quality education to all is a benchmark of a healthy democracy.
As a rule, I listen to a persons words, and I also watch their actions.
It is clear that commenter’s are interested “they own”, the rest be damned.
It ain’t blatant neglect, but it is neglect just the same.

Look at the following comments it appears that folks want a better?
educational?system. In the meantime, their children are enrolled?
in Chicago Day?Prep school. No time for fake ones. Check out some?
of the comments?for the Times article,
“Any parent who doesn’t send their child to the school that best
meets their needs is irresponsible”

“I am not a believer in sacrificing my child for the potential- but not
certain- benefit for society”

“Children are not the sacrificial lambs for the greater good. As someone
who attended public school all her life, and managed to get into and?
graduate from The University of Chicago…I would have loved to have
attended the Lab School”.?
What would happen of all the parents of students at underfunded schools
said that they wouldn’t send them there any longer unless they were funded equitably.
Logistically, it would be a nightmare, but it would sure bring attention to the situation.

Black people in this country have a had a real tenuous relationship with?
education. Throughout history, we have always been fighting to learn.
At first it was illegal for us to read. Then we were allowed to read?
but in our sub par schools, just the same, we made do with what we had.
Then the schools were “desegregated”,?but first little Black boys and
girls had to be escorted to schools by?the national guard because racists
where not interested in going to school with them.

Implicit in the spirit of many of the commenter’s messages from the?
quoted above is that the lives of some children are worth more than others.
stated that only 32?percent of Black men enrolled in high school in
New York?graduated on schedule.?Yes. 32 percent. If this is the case in
New York City, then I wonder?what the case is in say, LA, Chicago,?
Baltimore and Philly.

The bottom line is until we treat the education of ALL children the way?
we treat the education of “our” children the 2008 Jim Crow system of?
education?will persist.

As long as we have two educational systems we will have two America’s.

Where is the Democracy in that?

What Stops You from Acting?

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You can imagine how amped up I was when I noticed that the
100 Visionary widget jumped $40 this weekend. While I was amped
up about it?this summer, my essays have taken over as my?
dominant focus in the?last few weeks or so.?I admit that this is largely
connected to the fact that ?three weeks ago,?I accepted that many folks
would rather just talk ?about “the problem”?than take action.

Which brings me to the question.

What stops you from acting?

Is it time, not knowing what do to or where to go?

For me, it is a fear of whether people will show up.?

Now this is odd, especially since I blog about a pretty
niche topic, Hip Hop, Feminism, Sexuality and Politics,
yet I have a healthy and consistent readership.

People like you show up every day to read, so part of?
me had to check myself, as that was clearly evidence
that people do show up. However, reading is not the same
as coming together the purposes of addressing an issue.

On the other hand, I believe the people want to do good. I am not
saying that I don’t think they don’t have a darkside, because they do.
I just also know that they want to do good as well.

I have an old friend that would always say that my naivete would get me
in trouble one day. As I have gotten older, I have learned that many
folks are out?for self and that it is prudent for me to allow
their actions to confirm who they are instead of just granting
everyone the benefit of the doubt on gp.

Since deciding to do 100 V?I was finding that every time I encountered
a person, I wonder are they really real or are they just?talking that yack.

For instance, when thinking about the reflection retreats I mentioned to Filthy
that I should try and form like Voltron with the other bloggers and he was like,
“it is important that you keep in mind that many Bloggers, may just be that,
bloggers,?they just want to talk. Just because they blog, they may not be
interested in taking action.”

He didn’t mean no disrespect, he was just trying to get me to recognize real.

Which brings me to the widget.?

Baldwin says to act is to commit and to commit is to be in danger.
I add on that to commit is to commit to personal transformation
and that is what stops folks from acting. To commit to transform is?
bugged out ish, because by its very nature you are stepping out on faith.

In the past three weeks I have been reading essays and books about?
Black Women Organizers,?Street Harassment, The History of Black Feminism,?
Wage Suppression, German Social Theory.

The difficult part is taking what I read, sharing it, and figuring out
how to use it to address some of the ish that we face every day.

Its hard, because the whole time, in my head, “They ain’t gonna show up,
folks just wanna complain, blar, blar, blar”.

Then I have moments like the other day when I am in Au Bon Pain,
a fancy Starbucks like coffee and sandwich chain, and the?
Black lady operating the cash register is saying “This company don’t care about
me, they don’t pay me even a tiny fraction of what I make for them all day”
and I think to myself, wow, did she just do the knowledge to “surplus value“
and man I wish I had a flyer for these Hip Hop and Feminism study groups,
I would give one to her.

It was at that moment that regardless of the doubts that I had, that little moments
would come along and push me towards acting, whether I would accept them
as they nudge they were or not was up to me.

What stops you from acting when you see something taking place
that you know is wrong??

What have you told yourself, in order to walk away from a problem?

What stops you from taking the step from talking to action?