mrDaveyd | Hip-Hop and Politics

Atlanta Rapper Yung Hott Shot and Killed on Video Set-5 Yr Girl old Also Shot

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

There’s no words to describe this.. Many of us were morning the tragic killing of 7-year-old Aiyana S Jones at the hands of a Detroit policeman who was trying to apprehend a murder suspect while having a reality TV crew in tow. Many of us feel the camera crew influenced him to make a bad decision. 1000 miles away in Atlanta we have rapper Yung Hott filming a video when he gets shot and killed on his set…Also shot but expected to survive was a 5-year-old girl. The disrespect for life is way too rampant.

It was just one year ago to the day that we lost Atlanta rapper Dolla to gun violence. A confrontation in Atlanta resulted in a cat getting on a plane and getting at Dolla in LA where he was gunned down..

Earlier this year Wacka Flocka was shot but survived in what was said to be an attempted robbery. Sadly he wound up having another skirmish when gang members stormed his video shoot ready to squab with him. All this is beginning to be way too juvenile and all to tragic because lives are lost..Its also interesting to note how folks seem to egg on these confrontations by making fun of folks for trying toavoid further bloodshed..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjwhniKuug

-Davey D-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTR1_uLdYGg

A rapper known as Yung Hott was killed during a Saturday evening shooting spree that erupted while he made a video in his hometown, Griffin police said.

One accused shooter is still on the loose, police said.

Jerode Paige died at the scene of the quadruple shooting in which about 20 rounds were fired, according to Lt. Sam Parks. Three others, including a 5-year-old girl, suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Police pulled over a white Chrysler after the shooting and detained three suspects, WSB-TV reported. The investigation is continuing.

The additional shooting victims included a 5-year-old girl who was playing in a toy car in her yard. The child suffered a wound to her left foot. She was treated at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and released Sunday.

Two of the shooting victims were treated at Spalding Regional Hospital, then transferred to police custody. They are being called “persons of interest.”

The incident happened around 6 p.m. near the intersection of Tinsley and Fourth streets, police said.

Paige, 27, was filming his first video when the shooting began. His uncle, Kenny Paige, was among 150 to 200 people who were working on the video or watching when the gunfire erupted.

“I mean, it was broad daylight,” Kenny Paige told the AJC. “I heard a lot of gunshots and people scattered.”

Paige was shot in the head, his uncle said.

The video was to accompany Paige’s first single, which had recently been played on an Atlanta radio station, according to Sid Cooper, a producer who had worked with the rapper.

“He had some good music,” Cooper told the AJC. “His music was real. Everything he talked about in his music he did.”

Friends said Paige was trying to turn his life around after a past that included prison. Paige was released from Wheeler Correctional Facility in central Georgia in June and was on parole, according to state Department of Corrections online records. He served prison time for a variety of drug offenses as well as possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

“He was on the right track,” Cooper said.

Paige’s father was beaten to death at age 28, and Paige was raised by his grandmother in Griffin, another uncle, Gary Paige, told the AJC. Paige was pursuing his music career with a single-minded purpose. He was again living with his grandmother.

“He got out [of prison] and he said he wasn’t going to let anybody stop him from getting his career,” Gary Paige said. “He wanted to give his grandmother a lot. He was really into his music and he wanted to show his grandmother he had the ability to be somebody.”

Paige made a point of saying he was from Griffin, not Atlanta.

“He wanted everybody to know he was from a little town that had a lot of talent,” Gary Paige said.

Paige’s uncles said they believe he was targeted but had no idea why

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: altanta rap, Atlanta Rapper Yung Hott Shot and Killed on Video Set-5 Yr Girl old Also Shot, Dolla, gun violence, Violence, wacka flocka, Yung Hott

Indocumentalismo Manifesto—an Emerging Socio-Political Ideological Identity

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

FROM THE EDITOR: My friend Raul was one of the students arrested for sitting in at John McCain’s office in Arizona in protest of SB 1070. Below is something he’d written and sent a few weeks ago called the “INDOCUMENTALISMO MANIFESTO” that is a must read. Additional links to other national news regarding the arrest of these brave students follows. We will keep you posted with updates and any actions that are being organized to protest their detainment and deportation.

http://nuevaraza.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/indocumentalismo-manifesto/

Message to the Migrant Rights Movement Part 2

Indocumentalismo Manifesto—an Emerging Socio-Political Ideological Identity

31 March 2010

By Raúl Alcaraz/Daniel Carrillo

www.antifronteras.com (versión en español será agregada a la página próximamente)

Note: The following article tries to put together ideas that already exist. None of this is new or groundbreaking. It is based on our experiences growing up in undocumented households/communities and our experiences as participants in the struggle for social justice. It is intended to name a particular experience and its growing social-political ideology.

Emerging socio-political ideology

Political ideology is a certain set of ideals, principles or doctrines of a social movement, class or group of people that explain how society works, offers a vision of how society should be different, and proposes certain methods of achieving that vision. We know of political ideologies such as anarchism, socialism, communism, Maoism, Zapatismo, Magonismo to name a few. Today, there is another emerging political ideology rising from the experience of over 12 million U.S.-based undocumented peoples and their families. It is an ideology deeply rooted in a profound vision for social justice. Es una ideologia subterranea, clandestina, subversiva, indocumentada. El Indocumentalismo is an ideology blooming from a very specific set of social, cultural, economic and political experiences particular to displaced and economic refugees from Abya-yala (Latin America). It is an ideology rooted in the migrant uprising, today co-opted as the “Immigrant Rights Movement”.

Historical roots of Indocumentalismo

Indocumentalismo as an emerging socio-political ideology goes back centuries. It can be traced back to 1492 and the European invasion that killed millions, occupied native land and split up the earth into territories. This ideology can also be traced back to 1521 when Tenochtitlan, Mexico fell to the blood-filled hands of Spanish rule and finally, it can be traced to U.S. imperialism and the Mexican-American War where colonial forces occupied the southwest and through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase established the U.S.-Mexico international border line where we know it today.

Indocumentalismo comes from a history of slavery, genocide and dehumanization. From the very foundation of the United States of America, Native and African people were completely excluded from freedom and citizenship. In order to justify land robbing of Native land and the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of African folks, the U.S. capitalist/imperialist machine had to deny their humanity and by extension deny them papers. Citizenship and borders were thus created as tools of capitalist/imperialist oppression meant to dominate and control the land, resources and labor andwho has access to them. We cannot forget that Europeans were the first undocumented/ “illegal” group in the hemisphere. But after they founded the United (colonial) States, and after they defined/imposed borders and citizenship, Africans and northern Natives became the first colonized/undocumented groups.

From the start of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1920, almost 900,000 thousand southern Natives (aka Mexicans) fled to the U.S. This meant that rural and land-based brown folks were now living in this country. Indocumentalismo therefore has ideological roots in Magonista and Zapatista ideologies—indigenous-based, radical Mexican social movements originating in this time period.

With the development of American history and the rise of a globalized capitalism, Mexican and “Central American” labor became the most appealing to the ruling class; Largely because they could easily segregate the labor force (similar to how they did during slavery times) between “American” and “immigrant”, between “citizen” and “illegal” or essentially between “human” and “sub-human”. This has not only crafted a perfectly segregated labor force, but also a social, psychological, cultural, economic and political system segregated along racial, class, gender, sexual orientation and citizenship lines.

“We are human”: Reformist Immigrant Rights Hispanic Movement

In the year 2010 the mainstream “Immigrant Rights Movement” is still reformist, still assimilationist, still hetero-male dominated, still hungry for the “American Dream”, still lacking an anti-colonial analysis and vision…

“Resisting the colonial?”

I do not know, but this is what my heart says… standing in line, waiting to be processed by the colonizers and waiting for colonial papers. The “Immigrant Rights Movement” stands in line, waiting to be called on by the colonizer in order to receive white papers stamped “human”. As the movement says “we are human” we in turn exclude our sisters and brothers who fell “behind” in the race to become white. The movement does not say we are indigenous, we are womyn, we are queer. The movement states we seek to be white and marches with the colonizer’s flag. It does not resist colonization but instead offers to side with the slave master in exchange for certain privileges. Essentially, it defends the US; it validates its ongoing genocide and occupation.

The rise of Indocumentalismo

It is from this historical and current context that Indocumentalismo emerges. Not only is Indocumentalismo based on oppression, but more importantly its very essence is rebellion-rebeldía:

Indigenous-based. Indocumentalismo recognizes that the struggle for migrant rights is a struggle within the context of indigenous rebellion and indigenous liberation. We recognize our indigenous ancestry and see ourselves not as “immigrants” or “illegal aliens”, but as Native descendants living in the Northern, Central and Southern continents. Our method of organizing is collective and communal. We imagine love to build this movement and a connection of the four elements (fire, earth, water, wind) to humanity. We embrace our mother earth and all life on this planet. Indocumentalismo is indigenous-based.

Anti-colonial/Anti-borders. Indocumentalismo understands that our framework needs to be an anti-colonial analysis of race, class, gender, and sexuality. This includes an anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist orientation. Indocumentalismo recognizes no borders because our ancestors for thousands of years migrated throughout these lands without restrictions or walls of shame. Today, capitalism forces hundreds of thousands of our family members annually to make a long, dangerous and “unauthorized” journey north. Clearly, we have no regard or respect for their colonial borders or walls. Indocumentalismo seeks to abolish not only physical, but also mental, spiritual, social and psychological borders among us. Indocumentalismo is anti-colonial and anti-borders.

Queer/Womyn embracing. Indocumetalismo comes from the most marginalized, oppressed sectors of society. This means solidarity with all oppressed people of the world is its essence. Currently, our community is plagued with sexism and homophobia. We understand this is a result of colonial occupation we have adopted that seeks to divide and weaken us. Here and in some parts of this continent, tradition means not to exclude people, it means to include all of us in a respectful and dignified manner. In this manner, the movement we build is a womyn/queer radical movement. We do not force womyn or queer people out of prayer circles or movement-building because of “tradition” that says their energy is wrong. Indocumentalismo does not structure itself under a heterosexual male framework. Indocumentalismo is queer and womyn embracing.

Autonomous. Indocumetalismo is anti-authoritarian. To be ruled by laws or governments without our consent is unacceptable. Communities should have the right to govern themselves and not be ruled by an outside, occupying force. Historically and currently, because of police/migra and state-sponsored terrorism, our community overwhelmingly does not trust law enforcement or government agencies. Power of the state means oppression of el pueblo. We believe in autonomy where the community is independent. This means the politicians, government, corporations, la migra, military or police do not control our minds/bodies/spirits. Indocumentalismo is anti-authoritarian and autonomous.

Non-reformist. Indocumentalismo is clear that when there is no federal recognition or respect for community self-determination, then one only has violence as a resort and means to be heard. Violence is generally a last resort in a struggle for freedom, after exhausting various non-violent channels. We need to employ non-violent direct action tactics, because right now our tactics are submissive and disempowering. The movement is currently disarmed and turns to electoral tactics: voting and lobbying. The “Immigrant Rights Movement” accepts only state-sanctioned/state-approved methods for “change”—thus validating an oppressive political system. Indocumentalismo supports our community’s fight for legalization. But it also recognizes that a ReformaMigratoria as we currently know it is problematic because it seeks change within a blood-filled system and further promotes the surveillance, persecution, deportations, raids, criminalization and militarization of our communities. Instead, indocumentalismo follows the militant/warrior spirit of our community that is tired, fed-up and outraged with this system and seeks to liberate itself from it. Indocumentalismo seeks alternative, grassroots, revolutionary methods of struggle!

Conclusion.

Along with other indigenous Mexican@s/Xicanas/and other “Raza”, we have been permanently displaced by imperialist capitalism and now reside throughout areas of the US. We are not recognized by the state as “indigenous” or “native”. Our community does not have those kinds of papers, we do not have reservations, and we are not “valid” indigenous communities. According to them, we have no papers to be indigenous and no papers to be human. ¡Somos un pueblo sin papeles! ¡Somos un pueblo indocumentado! This is dangerous for the system because our community is not in their system, and cannot be tracked. It is from this invisibility, from these shadows; from the margins that indocumentalismo rises as a socio-political ideology. Indocumentalismo presents a growing threat to the system because this ideology thinks and acts beyond the limits of their borders; we are inherently “illegitimate” and “subversive”; we areits biggest crisis. We have never surrendered during colonial occupation, we have never signed any treaties with this illegitimate government, and we will not start now. We charge the US with the genocide of indigenous peoples and its illegal occupation of these lands. We remain firm in our stance to defend and nourish this earth and our families and communities that struggle for liberation!

In Solidarity,

Raúl Alcaraz/Daniel Carrillo

From Tohono O’odham and Gabrielino-Tongva lands

nomoreborders@gmail.com

31 March 2010

http://www.thedreamiscoming.com/2010/05/17/detained-in-arizona-four-student-immigrant-leaders/

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News

Do I Look Legal? Kobe’s Wife Weigh’s In on Arizona Immigration Law

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

LOS ANGELES
The wife of Kobe Bryant wore a black t-shirt to Monday’s game with the words “Do I Look Legal?”, a clear reference to Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Vanessa Bryant, who is part Hispanic, wore the shirt on the game night that approximately 40 demonstrators rallied against Lakers coach Phil Jackson for refusing to criticize Arizona’s new immigration law.

In comments made two weeks ago about state Senate Bill 1070, Jackson said, “Am I crazy, or am I the only one that heard (the legislature) say ‘we just took the United States immigration law and adapted it to our state.’ “

original story:http://lakers.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/17/kobes-wife-takes-on-immigration-issue/35853/

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Phil Jackson isn’t going to talk about it. Kobe Bryant won’t go near it. The Lakers aren’t going to talk about it or wear their Los Lakers jerseys. While there was a small protest outside, inside Staples Center the Arizona Immigration law discussion was dead.

Except for Kobe Bryant’s wife.

Vanessa Bryant is part Hispanic and she wore a shirt that said, “Do I look illegal?” to the game.

The reference was clear.

She — and often the couple’s daughters — are regulars at Lakers games. They tend to stay out of the limelight, as much as that is possible for a high-profile family. But she gets noticed, and used that to make a statement at Game 1 against Arizona.

original story: http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/05/kobes-wife-wears-do-i-look-illegal-shirt-only-one-talking-immigration.php

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: Arizona Immigration, Do I Look Legal? Kobe's Wife Weigh's In on Arizona Immigration Law, Kobe Remains Silent But His Wife Weigh's in on Arizona Immigration Law, o I Look Legal?, SB 1070

Davey D Interview w/ Common: Music, Movies, Politics & Life

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

I caught up with Common a few weeks ago when he came to NASA Aimes Research Center in Mountainview and headlined a huge concert for Yuri’s Night. We talked to him about his career and his upcoming movie with Queen Latifah ‘Just Wright’ which opened up this weekend. Here Common plays the role of an injured basketball player.

http://vimeo.com/11458830

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Essential videos to peep Tagged With: Common, Davey D Interview w/ Common: Music, Hip-Hop.com, Movies, Movies and Life, NASA Aimes Research Center, Politics and Life, Queen Latifah

The History of Rap: The Story of DJ Hollywood

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

The Golden voice of DJ Hollywood was his handle. DJ Hollywood was the first rythmic rapper for Hip Hop. A Master of the crowd response, Hollywood inspired a countless number of early MCs. Here is a sneek preview of the DJ Hollywood story from the movie “The History of Rap” written and Produced by Kurtis Blow Walker. Email us at kbkrushgroove@aol.com for your promo copy of the film..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSM8RfPno6Q

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Essential videos to peep Tagged With: DJ Hollywood, Kurtis Blow, The History of Rap, The History of Rap: The Story of DJ Hollywood

Reality TV, Cops Mistreating Little Kids & the Tragic Death of Aiyana Stanley Jones-Who Protects Us From You?

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

By now many of you have heard of the tragic shooting around 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones. It’s beyond heartbreaking. It’s beyond shocking.. and sadly it underscores the disrespect and disregard far too many have for Black life. When word of this first came out, there were far too many who asked, ‘What did they do wrong?”, meaning that the family or even the little girl must’ve done something as opposed the police being dead wrong in their procedures. many were quick to point out that the police were looking for a suspect in the killing of a 17-year-old earlier that week and the family was supposedly harboring him.. Again, folks conditioned to immediately side with the boys in blue..

Of course we now know that the police entered the wrong resident, tussled with the girls grandma after they tossed flash grenades in the house and shot Aiyana ‘by accident’. Here’s something many don’t know. Most police departments are media savvy and deeply embedded in the corporate media machine. They allow camera crews to follow them and we are bombarded with numerous ‘reality Cop spin-off shows that result in us forever having a ‘soft spot’ for the police who take us on highly edited and somewhat scripted adventures through the sordid world of crime and vice.

The city of Detroit is one such department being profiled for reality TV -in this case 48 Hours and it was on that fatal night that Aiyana was killed that these dip shit cops with a camera crew in tow came busting into the wrong house, storm trooper style, tossing flash grenades and ‘shooting’ the girl-oops lemme rephrase.. the gun ‘accidently’ went off. What we all need to be asking is; ‘How much of their outlandish actions were attributed to them showing off and hamming it up for TV cameras?’ How much was their over the top approach attributed to them wanting to show LAPD, NYPD and every other city profiled on reality shows that Detroit PD was ’bout it bout it’?

I ain’t no expert in police work, but I covered enough of these stories and had enough police officers on my shows to understand a few things. First, officer safety is paramount. The goal is to come home at night, hence if you are not chasing down a suspect and you know he’s holed up in a unit that has children and other folks, you wait it out. You catch dude when he leaves the building. There’s all sorts of ways to flush someone out a resident that you have surrounded. However, the gung-ho shoot em up bang bang, Tea Party crowd that watches these types of reality cop shows would find thoughtful, methodic police work boring. So with TV crew on hand, and anxious producers needing some ‘action’ to satisfy the thirst of viewers, the police as was the case here in Detroit are gonna ham it up and perhaps break a few rules-end result a dead 7-year-old girl name Aiyana Stanley Jones.

Folks need to ponder on that for minute-serious ponder that…Was police work compromised by TV cameras. I been on TV sets before and I know the type of pressure producers can exert when looking for an angle or a result.I also know cops are human and while some are shy about the cameras, others play to it..Why a flash grenade in a house with innocent people? Let’s all pause and ask ourselves that for a second.

Second thing, folks need to understand that this isn’t the first time police have gone overboard when it comes to dealing with 7 year old girls. A couple of years ago in Pittsburgh, PA a mother Pamela Lawton was pulled over for what appeared to be a routine traffic stop. She was on her way to a Pee Wee league game with her two girls in the car age 7 and 8.

Pamela Lawton and One Hood member Reverend Cornel Jones

When the officer Eric Tatusko approached the car he had already drawn his gun on the mother and ordered her to put her hands up. As he approached the car, the mom, not knowing what was going on and why she was ordered to put her hands up was shaken and scared. She became more frightened when the officer went over to the passenger side where the girls where with the gun drawn. The whole ordeal caused Ms Lawton’s kids to cry frantically. The officer became annoyed when the girls would not stop. Bear in mind the mom still has her hands in the air.. Next Officer Tatusko pointed his 9mm gun at the 7 year old Joshalyn Lawton and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t stop crying.

When other officers arrived on the scene, they ordered Tatusko to withdraw his weapons. Then in an attempt to justify this egregious behavior, officers searched Pamela’s car ‘looking for weapons’. Of course they found nothing. Ms Lawton was cited her for having expired insurance and then hit with disorderly conduct charges for yelling at the officer. She spent an year in trial as the police did everything they could to spin the story.. Lawton thanks to the outrage and help of community members like X-Clan member Paradise Gray and rapper Jasiri X and their fellow members of the group One Hood who helped bring national attention to this story, was eventually found not guilty.

The Aiyana Jones tragedy, the Pamela Lawton case are coupled with a slew of cases including 3 officers entering a kindergarden class to put handcuffs on and arrest a 5 year old girl who was having a tantrum in Florida..Or the 94 pound, 10 year old in Martinville, Ind who was tasered by police .. There’s a long list and sadly what’s been missing is not only some sort of change in policy on how to deal with small children, but a lack of good cops stepping up and telling folks that these types of incidents are wrong. From what I been told; many are afraid to cross the blue line for fear of retaliation.. is this what are tax dollars are paying for?

-Davey D-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Ig34hQQXo

Below is the link to the interview we did with organizer and author Adrienne Maree who attended the vigil for Aiyana and wrote the moving piece below

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/61117

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there is no justice for aiyana

by Adrienne Maree

http://adriennemareebrown.net/blog/?p=1423

there is no justice. not for aiyana stanley jones.

there is punishment, and perhaps accountability. someone to point towards, many people, a trail of blame, stories, mistakes and tears.

but there is no justice.

i’m just home from a vigil for aiyana. i don’t like to go to these things because they make me feel too raw and hopeless. my partner, however, knew that we had to go and make sure aiyana’s story was told. so here it is: she was alive yesterday, 7 years old. she went to bed on a couch in a first floor room with her grandmother last night. in the wee hours of the morning, cops raided her house. a man outside the house shouted that there were kids inside. a man on the second floor of the house was a suspect in the murder of a 17-year-old last Friday.

the police threw a “flash bang” through the front window. it blinded everyone inside; it lit aiyana on fire.

the news reported a tussle with the grandmother, during which the firearm discharged. everyone in the family says there was no tussle, that the grandmother was throwing herself over the baby when aiyana was shot in the head.

what do you call the blinded, terrified groping of a grandmother who knows her grandchildren are in the room, blasted from safety and sleep into chaos and danger, whose granddaughter is on fire? how do you comfort a man like aiyana’s father, which was forced to lie face down in his daughter’s blood by the same police officers who killed her?

the police shot and killed aiyana. they shot her in the forehead. her family saw her brain on the couch. by accident, perhaps. which doesn’t even matter to a 7-year-old. you don’t get let off any hooks for your intentions in this case, officer.

apparently a crew from the television show 48 Hours were with the police during the raid. i can’t help but wonder what their footage shows, and if filming for the show had anything to do with the drastic tactics and fatal timing – flash bombing a home in the middle of the night when the women and children are most likely to be home and sleeping.

standing on the sidewalk with over 100 black people, some shell-shocked, some sharing bits and pieces of the tragic gossip, some railing against the mayor, some staring at each other or holding each other in quiet sadness…i only saw the children. they were running, kicking, punching each other. playing. they were all 7 to me, however big or small. they were all potentially aiyana. yesterday she was with them, today she is martyred for no cause.

several members of imam luqman’s family were present, in prayer as we approached the house, present in solidarity with the particular grief of losing a loved one to violence at the hands of authority figures.

as we left the crowd, a man walked past us – more literally was dragged past us, barely able to walk, wailing in grief. his voice ripped through the southern twilight on the street, the realest voice there. i had spent the whole day around beautiful, vibrant children – little boys who ran circles around me and kicked everything because they were ninjas, and then grabbed my hands gently and easily to cross the sidewalk. and then i held a 2-day-old baby, totally fresh, just barely opening his eyes to say hello. what is more valuable than our children? this man, stumbling down the sidewalk weeping – this is how it feels when society offers up our babies as human sacrifices in pursuit of an unattainable justice.

i wanted to hold him. i wanted to say it would be ok, that there would be justice for aiyana. but i don’t believe, right now, there is any real justice for the violent deaths of our youth.

every thread i pick up in the story leads to more impossible questions.

why are police officers legally able to use military tactics on a house with children in it on a sunday morning…or any morning, on any house, with anyone in it?
why do the grieving faces of people on this street look so unsurprised?
and when 17-year-old Jerean Blake was killed Friday, wasn’t that equally devastating? did we do enough as a community at that moment?
do we know how to keep our children safe?
can we admit that we don’t know anything about how to be the kind of society where this could never happen?

to step back from the immediate events is to see what happens in communities who internalize the corporate military worldview that some people are expendable. the way we function as an economy that places profit first is that it’s normal for people in uniform to throw bombs into the home of civilians and shoot children.

an economy that valued people first could never justify those tactics.

i think of the children in my life – those blessed and loved and safe, and those who will never really be safe because of how the world sees them. the way aiyana died, the last minutes of her life – that is terrorism. to know that that kind of terror and pain can happen to a child in this time – IS happening to children, funded by our tax dollars, right now, in iraq, afghanistan, palestine, arizona, and here in detroit – is to understand that as things stand, there is no justice. nothing will make it right, nothing will take away the pain, nothing will heal us – and anyway, there is no time to heal. not for aiyana.

detroit police, at the behest of the detroit city government, are on the offensive in this war against our community. this is national in scope – international really. we cannot keep half-healing from the wounds inflicted on us – we have to fundamentally shift the way we participate in our lives and in the creation of our local economies and societies. we have to demand that police fundamentally shift how they are allowed to function in our communities – they must be disarmed, we must demand they focus their training on the humanity of communities, unlearning these tactics of creating devastation from a safe distance.

we have to make today’s events impossible – that is the only way to regain our humanity. then, maybe, we can use the word justice.

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles Tagged With: 48 Hours, Aiyana Stanley Jones, cops arrest little kids, Detroit police abuse, imam luqman, jerean blake, justice., Pamela Lawton, Police brutality

Welcome to Apartheid, Arizona, USA

May 18, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Welcome to Apartheid, Arizona, USA

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

“If I am alien, where is my spaceship?”

This is how we feel right now in Tucson.

It’s a line in a poem from Cantos Al Sexto Sol (Wings Press, 2002). This is how we feel right now in Arizona. It is insane here.

First they have come for our bodies (to deport those of they can); now they come for our souls.

No matter what they do, they will never have our spirits. The last part, I believe, is a line from Aztlan Underground.

With Arizona in the spotlight, most of the nation has focused on the draconian anti-immigrant law: SB 1070. But what has to be clear is that this is the culmination of a 518-year ongoing and relentless war. Nothing less. The mood here is not anti-immigrant. It is anti-Mexican. The racial profiling law has little to do with legalities; it is about the expressed targeting of red-brown Indigenous peoples.

Law officers do not or will not target generic Hispanics or even Mexicans. Their profile is 100% Indigenous. That’s why American Indians in Arizona too understand precisely what this law is all about (Navajo Times, May 13); they are subject to this profile because the similarities are obvious: short, dark hair, dark eyes and red-brown skin. Spaniards or other Europeans are not at risk.

How do we know this? Look to the historic practices of the migra. Or let’s look at the practices of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They have been racial profiling for years, and now, the governor has authorized all law enforcement to be able to do the same, under the threat of lawsuits, etc. For years, those of us with red-brown skin have lived this reality anywhere along the U.S./Mexico border. Nowadays, this anti-Mexicanism, under the veneer of anti-illegal immigrant fervor, is nationwide.

That is about our bodies. And I repeat, the targets are Indigenous.

In past years, they’ve gone after our tongues. In Arizona, in the year 2000, it was proposition 203 – a measure that virtually gutted bilingual education, on the belief that it is better to be monolingual, than to be bilingual. To this day, the question remains: what does language have to do with legalities and illegalities? (And truthfully, on these matters, Arizona is simply following California’s footsteps from the 1990s).

The latest salvo is HB 2281; this one is about our souls.

This new law is an attempt by Superintendent Tom Horne to eliminate Ethnic Studies. Specifically, Horne has targeted Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program, arguing that what is taught there, is outside of Western Civilization and should not be taught in Arizona schools.

This law has nothing to do with “illegal immigration.” If anything, it closely resembles the practices of the early European friars who deemed Indigenous knowledge to be Godless and attempted to both demonize it and destroy it completely. The burning of the books of our ancestors – Indigenous peoples of this continent – resides deep within our psyche. The philosophical foundation for Mexican American Studies in general is Maya-Nahuatl knowledge – derived from thousands of years of maize culture. Anthropologists refer to it as Mesoamerican knowledge. One part of it is: In Lak Ech – Tu eres mi otro yo – you are my other self (me). It is an ethic that teaches us that we are all part of each other and connected to each other. It is a human rights ethos connected to social justice and love of humanity and of all things living and non-living.

This is what Horne wants to ban, what he wants to eliminate. Could book-burnings and an Inquisitorialauto-de-fe be next? Of course. This is what he wants. This is what he demands. He has singled out Rodolfo Acuña’s book, Occupied America and Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed as examples of books that preach hate, promote segregation, anti-Americanism and the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

After the law was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, metaphorically, an auto-de-fe was precisely what Horne came to conduct at TUSD the very next day. Hundreds upon hundreds of middle and high school students laid siege to the TUSD headquarters. When he failed to show his face, he then scheduled a press conference at the nearby state building a couple of miles away. The same students marched to the state building laying siege to that building. Eventually, 15 arrests were made (I was one of them).

Why are students willing to be arrested? Because the two books singled out are but the beginning. The new law – despite being in compliance per the TUSD legal counsel – authorizes the monitoring and censorship of books and curriculums to ensure they are in compliance with the law. Only non-educators could have come up with this one.

And so here we are again; welcome to apartheid arizona, u.s.a..

Rodriguez, a professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com

original article: http://web.me.com/columnoftheamericas/Site/ColumnoftheAmericas/ColumnoftheAmericas.html

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: http://web.me.com/columnoftheamericas/Site/ColumnoftheAmericas/ColumnoftheAmericas.html, immigration reform, Roberto Dr Cintli Rodriguez, SB 1070

August 11 1973: We Celebrate Hip Hop’s Birthday: The Kool Herc Story

May 17, 2010 By mrDaveyd

Here is the Kool Herc Story from the movie The History of Rap. Widely know as the Father of Hip Hop, Kool DJ Herc was the catalyst to a whole new movement called Hip Hop. The History of Rap Movie was Written and Produced by Kurtis Blow Walker. Co-Produced by Grandmaster Flash, DJ Hollywood and Lovebug Starksi. Directed by Tommy Sowards. Edited by Jochen Hasmanis and Kurtis Blow Walker. For your very own promo copy of the film email us at kbkrushgroove@aol.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIRc8YNzYS4

DJ Kool Herc

Below are several other interviews and documentaries snippets that celebrate Hip Hop’s History.. Here’s one from the late Malcolm McCalren

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhisX4mVoDI

We caught up w/ Cindy Campbell who we consider to be the first lady of Hip Hop. We talked to her about the work she’s done on behalf of her brother Hip Hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc. We talk to her about what took place August 11 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Ave which was home to the first Hip Hop party.

Cindy explains that the party started out as a fundraiser for her to get some school clothes. She talked about how they actually had Old E 800 and Colt 45 being sold there and how it was a 25 cent for women and 50 cent for guys.. They made 500 bucks

She also explained how she herself brought slow jam records for her brother to spin..

Cindy also talks about other deals she’s done for her brother including how she talked Harry belafonte into making sure Herc’s character was positive in the movie Beat Street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SMVGLEr6nA

Here’s our 2005 landmark Breakdown FM interview we did with Kool Herc. He gives a brilliant history lesson on the early days of this culture..

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/56812/ pt1

He gave us an indepth run down of Hip Hop in the early days. He speaks about the early party scene and talks about how he and sister Cindy made history when they threw a back to school party at 1520 Sedgwick Ave in the Bronx.

He talks about how he used to be a grafitti artist and how his sister had his back and sheilded him from the wrath of his strict father who would’ve whupped that butt if he knew his son was defacing New York City property.

Kool Herc also lets us know that Hip Hop did not start in the South Bronx as is often erroneously reported. Herc never lived in the South Bronx, he lived in the West bronx which is a totally different area.

In this interview Kool Herc talks about his Jamaican background. He talks about how he grew up in the same township as Bob Marley and he explains how and why Jamaican culture is an important root within Hip Hop.

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/56817/pt2

We continue our interview with Hip Hop’s Father-DJ Kool Herc. Here in part 2 he breaks down which legendary rappers would be on his all-time dream team.. One of the more interesting choices is Pebbly-Poo who was down with Masterdon and one of Hip Hop’s first dominating female figures. Herc also explained how Pebbly-Poo was so dope that he made her a part of the Herculoids.

Herc really goes into depth about the Sugar Hill Gang and the controversy surrounding group member Big Bank Hank. He talks about how Hank lived in the same neighborhood with him and that he tried not to get involved with the beef Grand Master Caz had with him over the rhymes Hank bit…

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: Grandmaster Flash, Hip Hop History, Hip Hop Pioneers, Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow, Malcolm McClaren, swift.fm, The History of Rap

This is Not Good-LA’s Gang Problem Just Got Worse-Homeboy Industries Lays off Most Employees

May 14, 2010 By mrDaveyd

This is such a troubling story..We have to find a way to make sure Homeboy Industries doesn’t shut down.. Can’t we get some of these radio stations to do a a few summer jam concerts? cant Hollywood have a fund-raiser?

Gov Arnold Scwartznegger is setting us up to fail.. 300 unemployed gang members and next month he’s releasing a few thousand folks from over crowded jails .. No jobs, no money.. meanwhile we have greedy bankers getting billions-I repeat BILLIONS in bonuses..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoyMGtlC-do

L.A.’s Homeboy Industries lays off most employees

The institution dedicated to helping gang members quit lives of crime has been unable to raise the $5 million it needs. A quarter of the staff will remain.

May 13, 2010: Young man after young man hugged Fr. Greg Boyle and shoock his hand and Homeboy Industies in Los Angeles, CA May 13, 2010.

Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles institution whose mission for more than 20 years has been to turn jobs into a recipe for saving the lives of gang members, laid off most of its employees Thursday because of crushing financial problems.

Father Gregory Boyle, who started Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights during the height of the city’s gang wars, said 300 people were laid off, including all senior staff and administrators. Boyle said he has stopped taking a paycheck.

“We let people know so they could apply for unemployment, which I’m going to do as well,” he said.

Inside the organization’s headquarters at Alameda and Bruno streets in Chinatown, employees — many of them former gang members — took turns embracing and consoling Boyle. Young men crowded around him and promised to come back even without pay.

“We love you, G. We’ll be here tomorrow,” said one. The 55-year-old priest called it a “Frank Capra moment,” but he was noticeably dejected.

For two decades, Homeboy Industries has offered counseling, removed tattoos and helped gang members find jobs. Its motto: “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”

But Boyle said no amount of campaigning and fundraising could make up the roughly $5 million the organization needed to operate. He said pleas for donations had resulted in some help, but not nearly enough.

He acknowledged that the people Homeboy Industries helps have always been a hard sell, and more so when the economy is struggling.

“If these were puppies or little kids, we wouldn’t be in this trouble,” he said. “But they’re tattooed gang members with records. So I think a lot of people love this place, but not the folks who can write the big checks, the ‘Save the Hollywood sign’ check.”

The only employees not laid off were more than 100 who work in the organization’s businesses, including its store, bakery and Homegirl Cafe. Boyle said that for the moment, the social services offered would continue, precariously, only because employees said they would keep coming. Eventually, like others left in the lurch by the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, many would need to find work elsewhere.

“We cobbled together payrolls since November. But it was not enough to save us,” Boyle said. “Hope has left the building a little bit. Miracles happen. They just haven’t happened for us lately.”

Still, the priest emphasized to his staff that this was not the end for Homeboy Industries.

Boyle acknowledged some blunders. When he embarked on a campaign to raise money to buy the building on Alameda Street, the organization did not factor in enough money to pay for operations that serve more than 12,000 gang members and former gang members a year, he said.

The $5 million “should have been included in our capital campaign, and it wasn’t,” Boyle said. “And that was our error…. We sort of forgot that we were going to put a program in this place.”

Homeboy Industries probably would have weathered that mistake, but then the recession struck — and the organization became busier.

“The recession happened, and everyone and his mother, every ZIP Code that has a gang had people coming here from all over the county,” Boyle said.

Homeboy Industries has gotten plaudits from influential politicians, celebrities and, increasingly, high-ranking LAPD officials — though over the years, rank-and-file officers have been critical, calling Boyle an apologist for gangbangers who don’t always change.

But Boyle has become an L.A. icon because of his work, with some supporters saying he should be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hector Verdugo, 35, a former gang member from Boyle Heights who became a top administrator at Homeboy Industries, said it was only natural that the priest’s wards would try to comfort him when they saw him crying Thursday. Together, they prayed in the lobby and vowed to return as long as they could, even without pay.

“Everyone just said, ‘Thank you, G, for bringing us this far,’ ” said Verdugo, a father of three. “But this isn’t the end. Like Father G said, this is just a pause.”

hector.becerra@latimes.com

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Essential videos to peep, Political articles