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Are Blac Block & Diversity of Tactics Hurting or Helping the Occupy Movement?

February 8, 2012 By

Are those who employ Blac Block tactics Hurting or Helping? Photo credit: Black Hour

Ever since the November 2 Oakland General Strike which brought out tens of thousands of people culminating in the shut down of the Port of Oakland, folks within the Occupy Movement have been talking about the usefulness of Blac Bloc style tactics.. In Oakland the debate was full steam and contentious around an issue called ‘diversity of tactics’ . This was the result of the disastrous outcome to a successful General Strike, when a group under the guise of diversity of tactics attempted to take over an abandoned building ran into police who pulled no punches. The end result was broken windows, fires in the streets, local businesses looted and graffiti all over downtown. The damage was courtesy of those who were initially and erroneously labeled ‘The Blac Block’.  Since then many of us have come to learn Blac Block is a tactic not a group or organization. We also know that its not the exclusive domain or tactic of folks who identify themselves as anarchists.

With that in mind, the tactic of breaking windows and kicking up dust to make a point is one that is being fiercely debated within and outside the Occupy Movement.  Some are saying if it wasn’t for the aggressive tactics, people would remain docile.. The movement would be ignore. Others are are emphatically claiming that the aggressive tactics are hurting the movement..  Below are two articles that address this issue…

The first is from veteran journalist and former NY Times columnist Chris Hedges... Its a stinging rebuke of those he says are associated with the ‘Blac Block.. He called it a Cancer of the Occupy Movement. It initially appeared in Truth Dig…

The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state. The Occupy encampments in various cities were shut down precisely because they were nonviolent. They were shut down because the state realized the potential of their broad appeal even to those within the systems of power. They were shut down because they articulated a truth about our economic and political system that cut across political and cultural lines. And they were shut down because they were places mothers and fathers with strollers felt safe.

Black Bloc adherents detest those of us on the organized left and seek, quite consciously, to take away our tools of empowerment. They confuse acts of petty vandalism and a repellent cynicism with revolution. The real enemies, they argue, are not the corporate capitalists, but their collaborators among the unions, workers’ movements, radical intellectuals, environmental activists and populist movements such as the Zapatistas. Any group that seeks to rebuild social structures, especially through nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, rather than physically destroy, becomes, in the eyes of Black Bloc anarchists, the enemy. Black Bloc anarchists spend most of their fury not on the architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or globalism, but on those, such as the Zapatistas, who respond to the problem. It is a grotesque inversion of value systems.

Continue reading this article at:  Truth Dig

The next article is a slamming response to Chris Hedges article by Don Gato. Its a titled:  To Be Fair, He is A Journalist: A short Response to Chris Hedges on the Black Bloc …Among the things that stand out is the author correcting the blatant mislabeling Blac Block/ Anarchist etc…Its also noted that in Hedges critique he never once mentioned the over the top brutality delivered by OPD on unarmed peaceful demonstrators..

Here’s some of what Don Gato wrote…

First, we need to clear up some definitional problems. Now, as a journalist, I really don’t expect Hedges to be able to “research,”—it does seem to go against the prime directives of the profession, but let’s be clear: There’s no such thing as “The Black Bloc movement.” The black bloc is a tactic. It’s also not just a tactic used by anarchists, so “black bloc anarchists” is a bit of a misnomer—particularly because Hedges doesn’t know the identities of the people under those sexy, black masks. In fact, it was autonomists in the 80s who came up with the (often quite brilliant) idea in Germany. Protecting themselves against the repression of what Hedges calls “the security and surveillance state,” squatters, protesters, and other rabble rousers would dress in all black, covering up tattoos, their faces, and any other identifying features so they could act against this miserable world and, with some smarts and a sharp style, not get pinched by the pigs. This was true of resisters who were protecting marches (because the state never needs an excuse to incite violence and police are wont to riot and attack people), destroying property, or sometimes just marching en masse. That is, the black bloc has all kinds of uses. And in Oakland, where Hedges seems particularly upset by people actually having the gall to defend themselves against insane violent police thugs instead of just sit there idly by getting beaten, on Move-In Day the bloc looked mostly defensive—shielding themselves and other protesters from flash grenades and police mob violence with make-shift shields (and even one armchair). So, to be clear: The black bloc is a tactic used by lots of people, not just anarchists, and it has all kinds of uses. It’s not a “movement.”

We urge folks to read the article in its entirety as its very insightful at: Facing Reality

Another article of interests that responds to Chris Hedges is one written by Diane Gee its titled: Perspectives on Hedges Cancer in Occupy… She pens the following:

Other than ONE window and one Flag, which mind you, is property damage not violence per se; not one act of violence has been recorded by Occupy or the Black Bloc he wishes to malign that has not been the result of DEFENSIVE maneuvers.  When attacked?  They have thrown a few stones, have tossed back a few tear gas canisters; mostly what these young men and women have done is offer their bodies up as a defense line, and taken the hits so that the weaker are saved: the women, children, old people may run to safety while they defend them with meager trash can shields.

The injuries and unfair arrests, the abuses of law by the Police however, have been widespread, vast, recorded, and yet barely spoken to by the MSM.

Yet?  To Hedges?  These few acts of defiance by angry young men are enough to bring the movement itself to ruination.  Let us not forget that since the beginning of time it is always the elders who cool the heated blood of the youth and try and direct their tactics to a more effective use of their energies.  Old warriors know when to wait.  In some ways, though?  It is good for the powers that be to know, via a small warning shot of a broken window or burned flag, that we are deadly serious.  There has been no wide-scale violence except that done by the Police.  There have been no riots or burning cities.  No 1%er or defender of the 1% have been killed.

What Hedges has done here, presumably without intent, is work to divide Occupy.

Today many of us woke up to seeing a video posted by folks from Anonymous warning those who employ Blac Block to chill out..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LD8UohyYPWA

Let Us know your thoughts on all this??

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

America Loses a Legend Soul Train Founder Don Cornelius-Chuck D Pays Tribute

February 1, 2012 By

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4OI-SGiNmw

We caught up w/ Chuck D of Public Enemy, the day we got the tragic news about music icon Don Corneilus killing himself.. Chuck gave a history and rundown about Don and his show Soul Train.. We also talked about the irony of this happening on the first day of Black History month

don-cornelius

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hip Hop Has Always Been Political

January 26, 2012 By

Whenever we talk about Hip Hop and Politics it’s always done from the standpoint with us going to the ballot box as the ultimate goal. Don’t get me wrong, voting and participating in the electoral arena are important, but Hip Hop is so much bigger and so is politics.

For many of us politics is more than us voting for a particular candidate or having a catchy slogan that everyone chants at a rally. At its core, politics is about Empowerment. It’s the social, economic and political control of our communities with voting and political education being among the important steps we take to reach that goal.

Hip Hop is more than a ‘Hot 16‘, ‘fresh new gear‘ or ‘swagger devoid of substance‘. At the end of the day Hip Hop like politics is also about Empowerment. It’s about giving voice to the voiceless and helping remove both ourselves and the community from a position of being maligned and irrelevant with respect to the larger society. Like voting, knowledge and understanding of self and our communities is critical.

It’s important for us to have a firm understanding about the political and social conditions that existed at the dawn of Hip Hop’s birth in the early 70s. It’s important to note that our communities were under serious attack and the expressions associated with Hip Hop was one way in which we responded and ultimately coped.

The pioneers to this culture came up seeing how the FBI under the leadership of J Edgar Hoover and his Cointelpro Program, went all out to destroy the symbols of resistance and liberation from earlier generations including; Malcolm X who was killed, Martin Luther King who was killed and the Black Panther Party which was destroyed with many of its members jailed. Among those incarcerated during the dawning of Hip Hop was Afeni Shakur and the mother of Tupac. She along with her Panther comrades known as the New York 21. were jailed in 1971 while she was pregnant with Pac.

Also part of Hoover’s Cointelpro  Program was to have his agents focus on Black Culture. He had his agents learn everything they could so they could control and disrupt the Black community. The FBI went all out to try and undermine the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Many feel the FBI kept aspects of its program alive to undermine aspects of Hip Hop which emerged in the aftermath of BAM. Below is a former FBI agent named Darthhard Perry speaking about the significance of Black culture and how the FBI sought to undermine it. I would urge people to watch the entire video, but the part that pertains to culture starts at 1hr 20 minutes into the video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHnUFpCeGxQ

The Free Speech and Anti-War Movements were under attack with then President Nixon declaring an all out war on radical youth. Hippies and Yippies were two components of youth culture caught up in the cross hairs as were Black and Brown organizations like SNCC, the Young Lords and the Brown Berets.

During Hip Hop’s dawning, New York City was enduring serious financial hardship as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. That calamity was avoided when city leaders decided to keep the cops, the firemen and garbage workers and instead fired 15 thousand school teachers leaving many of us without after-school programs, extracurricular classes like music and art and our overall education, shortchanged on many levels.

All this was exasperated by greedy landlords in the South Bronx who were burning down tenement buildings almost every other day and collecting the insurance money. Their actions put an already stressed community into an economic tail spin as the Bronx became the worldwide symbol of urban decay.

While all this was going on, the NYPD seemingly working in tandem with President Nixon’s War on Youth had launched an all out war on the gangs that were starting to emerge in the Bronx. They even had a special gang division who were just as brutal back in the days as they are now. Compounding this war by the police, was the fact that many Black and Brown gangs formed because they found themselves under attack by what was known as white greaser gangs who didn’t take too kindly to the Bronx neighborhoods expanding its Black and Puerto Rican populations. Hence there was serious racial tension.

It was in this climate that Hip Hop emerged.

Charlie (Cholly) Rock an original Zulu Nation member and former Black Spade which was the largest gang in New York gives a run down of the political and social climate at the dawning of Hip Hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycREFrL6-RA

The Spirit of Resistence: Hip Hop Has Always Been Political

Resistance-It’s a facet in Hip Hop that is not fully appreciated and reflected upon.

So again let me repeat… Hip Hop is resistance…It was us fighting back, standing up to and flipping the script on oppressive forces. Bottom line Hip Hop was always POLITICAL.

Afrika Bambaataa

It was political when Afrika Bambaataa a former Black Spade warlord while attending Stevenson High School in the Bronx sought to escape gang life and formed the Organization which he later turned into the Mighty Zulu Nation. This was Hip Hop’s first organization which had among its goals to be a youth movement.

It was political when you went to hear Bambaataa spin at a park jam and he would rock Malcolm X speeches over break beats, reminding us what our political ideology should be.

It was political when Bam took the name ‘Zulu’ for his new organization after being inspired by the movie of the same name that depicted the South African Zulus fighting European colonizers. As the Zulu Nation grew, Bambaataa sought to instill pride and bring out the best positive attributes from the people around him. He did this by referring to Zulu members as ‘Kings’ and ‘Queens’. Bam once told me he did this to help raise people’s self esteem with the hopes that they would live up to the lofty titles he bestowed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL1YntDNRHo

It was political when Bambaataa and other artists including Kurtis Blow, Kool Herc, Mele-Mel, Run DMC and the Fat Boys all participated in the Artist United Against Apartheid project where they recorded several songs for the Sun City album. Later Bambaattaa would tour Europe doing concerts to raise money for the ANC (African National Congress).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joYTCwNMdq8

What was even more remarkable and definitely ‘political’ about Afrika Bambaataa who was dubbed the Master of Records, was his goal to turn his former gang comrades into a positive force. Bam has often remarked how and he and others would spend lots of time working and building with folks. He said it took a ‘whole lot of meetings and whole lot of patience‘ but eventually folks grew and got it together.

When he started touring Bam took many of the folks from his Bronx River neighborhood with him. He gave them jobs as roadies or as security. He did whatever it took to get them into new environments to help expand their horizons. He was essentially doing a prison to work program years before the city was doing one. If that isn’t political I don’t know what is..

Years later we would see a number of other Hip Hop artists, most notably MC Hammer a former High Street Bank Boy out of Oakland, do similar things. Hammer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars creating jobs within his company in to help facilitate the transition friends and people in his neighborhood would have to make when returning home from the pen.

Hammer took his desire to transform lives to another level when he approached local Bay Area urban radio station KMEL in the early 90s and convinced them to let him air a radio show he created called Street Soldiers. The show was designed to give folks who were ‘in the life’ (gangs drugs etc) an opportunity to get out. Gang members would call in and talk about the challenges they were facing and get feedback from their peers and community experts who would help them turn their lives around. Hammer hosted the show for the first several months and then turned it over to current hosts Joe Marshall and Margret Norris of the Omega Boys club.

The Geto Boys

In a similar vein we have the Geto Boys out of Houston. Everyone is familiar with many of their politically charged rap songs that dealt with everything from crooked police to shady DEA Agents to a President and his quest for war. We’re also familiar with the fact that Willie D used to do a political talk show on Houston radio.

However, what many people didn’t know was that the GB spent quite a bit of money paying legal fees and other court costs trying to get innocent people out of jail. Bushwick Bill and Scarface talked about this in great detail a few years ago when they came on our daily Hard Knock Radio show to protest the state of Texas executing Shaka Sankofa. If I recall correctly, Bushwick said they spent at least 200-250 thousand dollars in their efforts. That was another example of Hip Hop’s spirit of resistence.

Hip Hop Has Always Addressed Electoral Politics

Melle-Mel recorded a song called ‘Jesse’ praising Rev Jesse Jackson-It one of the earliest rap songs encouraging folks to Get Out and Vote

Moving into the arena of the Ballot Box, Hip Hop has been a participant in some form or fashion going all the way back to 1984 when Melle-Mel of Grand Master Flash & the Furious 5 recorded a song called ‘Jesse’ which highlighted Reverand Jesse Jackson‘s historic run for the White House. The song also encouraged everyone to ‘Get out and Vote‘ while at the same time taking then President Ronald Reagan to task for the economic harm he was causing poor people around the country.

See Ronald Reagan speaking on TV, smiling like everything’s fine and dandy
Sounded real good when he tried to give a pep talk to over 30 million poor people like me
How can we say we got to stick it out when his belly is full and his future is sunny?
I don’t need his jive advice but I sure do need his jive time money
The dream is a nightmare in disguise (Let’s talk about Jesse)
Red tape and lies fill your for spacious skies (Let’s talk about Jesse)
But don’t think that DC just did it first (Let’s talk about Jesse)
There’s a lot of DC’s all over this universe (His name is Jesse)

Later in the song, Melle-Mel smashes on the former President for his initial refusal to meet with Jesse Jackson after he offered to go to Syria and help secure the release of Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr. who was being hostage after his plane was shot down when he ‘accidently’ flew into their airspace. Ironically even though the song was popular in clubs and at rallies, many urban station never played the record. Jackson himself, told me he didn’t hear the record until the some 10 years after it was recorded. Talk about a disconnect between generations. Below is a video of a live performance of this song that’s damn near been erased from history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3IsCfMB0rk

In 1988 Luther Campbell aka Uncle Luke of the 2 Live Crew teamed up with one of his artists Anquette to back former US Attorney General Janet Reno who at the time was a Dade County (Miami) District Attorney vying for another term.

Anquette did this incredible James Brown inspired song called Janet Reno where she praised Reno for her legal prowess and for going after dead beat dads. The song helped Reno win the election which in turn angered her opponent a lawyer by the name of Jack Thompson.

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

Janet Reno

Janet Reno

Thompson sought revenge on Campbell and launched a campaign where he pressured officials throughout the state including Governor Bob Martinez and Broward County sheriff Nick Navarro to go after the 2 live Crew for violating state obscenity laws. Eventually Navarro won a ruling that deemed the group’s album As Nasty As They Wanna Be as obscene.

Local record store owners were warned not to sell the album or they would be arrested. Many shop owners protested but didn’t dare test Navarro. Things came to a head when 2 of the 2 Live Crew members were arrested for performing songs off the album. This is turn set off a huge legal firestorm around first amendment rights.

Campbell, fought this case all the way to the Supreme Court where Harvard Professor Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates testified on behalf of the 2Live Crew. He noted that the salacious material they recorded was rooted in the oral/song traditions of African-Americans. The ruling of obscenity were overturned. Again, all this legal drama was caused by Luke’s subversive efforts and Anquette’s song which help turn the tide in an election.

Now we could do an entire book on Hip Hop and Elections where we’d have to cover everyone from Diddy‘s Vote or Die efforts to Russell Simmons Hip Hop Summit Action Network to the Hip Hop Political Conventions that took place in 04, 06 and 08.

We’d also have to talk about the formation of Hip Hop Congress and the work they do on campuses around the country, the introduction of Rap Sessions and the political town halls they hold around the country, The League of Young Voters who put out Hip Hop oriented voting guides and recently has been doing work around the census and we’d have to cover Washington based Hip Hop Caucus that routinely engages elected officials on Capitol Hill and did the Respect My Vote Campaign in 08.

Below is a video of Diddy during his Vote or Die campaign speaking to a young Barack Obama in 2004 who at the time was running for US Senate in Illinois. In this interview Diddy predicts Obama would one day be President.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqzZWkMtz68

We would also have to talk about the recent victory of artist/activist Ras Baraka to the City Council in Newark. He used to serve as deputy mayor. We’d have to talk about the Honorable George Martinez who is currently serving as cultural Envoy, Hip-Hop Ambassador at U.S. State Department. Prior to him serving that position well known Brooklyn based freestyle artist Toni Blackman was this country’s Hip Hop Ambassador. I believe Martinez who also once served on the New York State Democratic Committee is currently running for Congress in NY’s 12th district.

Also running for Congressional office is author/ activist Kevin Powell. This is his second attempt and from the looks of things he stands a really good chance of beating the 28 year incumbent Edolphus Towns. The battle ground is in New York’s 10th district in Brooklyn. Below is an interview with him speaking on his run. It starts about 1:50 into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMUL14RujC4

Lastly we’d have to talk about Dr Jared Ball out of Maryland who is best known for his political mix tapes ‘Freemix radio‘ ran for Green Party nomination for president in in 2008 and long time activist Rosa Clemente who made history by securing the vice presidential nomination for the Green Party. She and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney had their name on the ballots in all 50 states and garnered impressive numbers even though their historic bid was overshadowed by Barack Obama’s historic run for the White House which definitely brought out and politicized many in the Hip Hop generation.

Below is Rosa’s acceptance speech for the Green  Party nomination at the Green Party Convention which was held in Chicago. She starts off by playing a song from Chicago natives Rebel Diaz. On stage with her is TJ Crawford who convened the National Hip Hop Political Convention two years earlier in Chicago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXB98dp9xM

From Paris to Brazil Fear of a Politicized Hip Hop

Never in our wildest dreams did marginalized Black and Brown ghetto youth living in the South Bronx, one of the poorest most dilapidated regions of the country ever think this culture of music, dance and oratory expressions we call Hip Hop would mean so much to so many people all over the world. From the slums of Nairobi, Kenya to the streets of Paris, France to the favelas in Rio, Brazil to the hoods in Detroit, to the streets in Gaza, Hip Hop’s presence is not only felt, but has been a driving cultural force in resistance movements especially amongst the young, poor and oppressed. Much of this was inspired by seminal artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, dead prez , X-Clan and 2Pac to name a few who embodied this spirit of resistance.

For those who think this is far-fetched, think back to 2005 when Paris erupted in riots and over 200 French politicians signed a petition calling for legal action against Hip Hop acts and their aggressive lyrics which they said incited the riots. Acts like Monsieur R and Sniper became the main targets and were actually brought up on charges and faced lawsuits because of their songs that encouraged resistance to the police and government oppression.

In fact, Monsieur R was facing 3 years in jail for his song FranSSe, not because he had topless white women rubbing against the French flag, who symbolized how France was a ‘slut’, but because the song talked about French colonizing various parts of Africa and he dissed Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle and threatened to pee on them. He was charged with offending public decency. Luckily he beat the case. Below is a link to the video of the song..

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ru9h

Although there were no government petitions signed, in the late 80s, the FBI’s assistant director Milt Ahlerich saw fit to shoot off a letter to Priority Records expressing outrage over the song ‘Fuck tha Police’ which was put out by NWA. In the letter he noted that “advocating violence and assault is wrong and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action“. Over the years NWA found themselves not being allowed to perform that song at many of the venues because of police pressure. The one time they did in Detroit, 20 plain clothes officers rushed the stage to shut the group down.

MV Bill is an artist we should all know

Several years ago in 2004 a corporate MTV-like 2 day Hip Hop festival called Hip Hop Manifest featuring Snoop and Ja Rule was boycotted by a coalition of Brazilian artists including the enormously popular MV Bill who stated in a Stress magazine article “The organizers are not interested in our issues, or what we rhyme about, they just want to buy our legitimacy, and I have a moral commitment to uphold the history that has created hip-hop. I pity the black man who sells our history for a price.”

What was at stake was these corporate media promoters refused to reinvest the profits into the poor communities in the area and lower ticket prices to make the event more accessible. Many of the Brazilian artists gave up hefty paychecks and a chance to get a serious international spotlight, but they felt strongly about the issue and held their ground. They also put a call out to Snoop and Ja Rule and other American rappers to recognize the injustice they were fighting and invited them to come to spend time in the poor communities.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be seen simply as idols. Ever since I began creating hip hop, my dream was to show Black people that we could be free and break the shackles.” Snoop, isn’t this beautiful?”, is the question Sao Paulo rap star LF posted to Snoop in an open letter.

Below is a video from MV Bill showing what life is like in the Favelas and the child soldiers that guard them…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhKyMtd0sfQ

M-1 of dead prez who recently went to Gaza always represents for the people

These are just a few of the dozens of examples that could easily be cited to show the resistence and political nature within Hip Hop. From the anti-police brutality albums, put together by artists like Mos Def and Talib Kweli, to the legendary voter registration rallies in Harlem once put on by Sista Souljah to the Stop the Violence Movement started by KRS-One, to the Orphanage recently opened by Immortal Technique in Afghanistan to M1 of dead prez making a trip to Gaza to the anti-police brutality work done by groups like One Hood in Pittsburgh or Hip Hop Against Police Brutality in Texas, to Knaan having his song Raise the Flag be used in the World Cup to Invincible and Finale using their song Locust to make a full-fledge documentary about gentrification in Detroit, Hip Hop doesn’t give lip service to politics.

From the anti-war efforts put forth by numerous artists (over 200 songs have been recorded at last count) to the efforts around the Jena 6 with artists like Jasiri X doing a theme song. tireless work put forth by artists like David Banner, Nelly, and others in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the recent efforts put forth by artists like Wyclef Jean, NY Oil, Mystic and many others to help bring relief to victims of the earthquake in Haiti, Hip Hop artists have proven to be responsive. Pick a subject, Immigration, Domestic Violence, Gulf Oil Spill, you name it and Hip Hop has and is there. The reason being that there are always people in our communities who will resist and are down to fight for freedom no matter what.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4P6v3pGGmI

Currently, Hip Hop’s biggest challenge is to resist all the attempts to dilute and redirect its potential to spark meaningful social and political change in the face of oppression. This especially true for Hip Hop that makes its way into corporate backed mainstream enclaves. The corporate agenda is to reduce Hip Hop down to a meaningless disposable song and to reduce politics to a voting over catchy phrase or sensationalistic headlines and scandal.

It’s no mistake that much of what I’ve written about has not been highlighted, celebrated, shown on TV or played on the radio. It’s not because people won’t find these acts interesting, newsworthy or popular. The end game is to lessen the influence of an artist and dumb down the audience so game can be run on us. That game of course is to sell us product and complacent ideology. The end game is to get Hip Hop to be used as a tool to drive consumerism vs activism and make the music and our people disposable entities to be discarded or conquered.

Return to Davey D’s Hip hop Corner

Filed Under: Essential Hip Hop Articles, Feature Tagged With: , , ,

Newt to Black People: Get off Food stamps Demand a Paycheck

January 9, 2012 By

Newt Gingrich

So today many of us woke up to the news of former House Speaker and Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich boldly stating that he was gonna address Black people at the upcoming NAACP Convention and tell us to Demand a Paycheck and Not Food Stamps...You can read the story of that HERE at the GRIO

We should be demanding that Newt Gingrich give back some of the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac money he got and own up to any role he may have played in the collapse of this economy..

We should demand that Newt Gingrich get some damn sense..Theres an estimated 100 million folks on Food stamps.. Black folks comprise of 30 million in this nations population.. Do the math Newt.. Why are there 100 Million folks on Food stamps..How about we get some economic justice jumping off…

Black folks aint running around here all on food stamps.. People who are on food stamps are those who are poor and that includes folks of all races. We should all be demanding economic justice and a guarantee for basic needs, food, clothing and shelter.. so there’s no need for food stamps

Lastly Newt needs to stop worrying about Black folks with his fraudulent azz .. If he wants to make demands to Black people, Perhaps we should make demands of him.. We can start by telling him to step his marriage game up and give John McCain back his wife….

Are Newt Gingrich & John McCain married to the same woman?

Is that Callista or Cindy?

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: , , , ,

Op Ed: Common vs Drake? Hip-Hop beef needs a funeral and a proper burial

January 9, 2012 By

Common vs Drake? Hip-Hop beef needs a funeral and a proper burial
by Brother Jesse Muhammad

Brother Jesse

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to a ‘friend’ that has been dear to many musical artists, fans and readers….that ‘friend’ is HIP-HOP BEEF.”

What forward-moving purpose does Hip-Hop beef serve? Can someone please educate me? I was a little thrown aback by the recent beef that spread quickly throughout the Internet and radio shows involving Common and Drake. Frankly, I found it pretty weak for Common, an artist I respect, to engage in such nonsense.

He supposedly took shots at Drake in his song “Sweet” from his newly released album The Dreamer, The Believer. I wasn’t impressed with the song; too much cursing. I wasn’t that impressed with the album either (I’m still listening to it though to see if my opinion will change). And now it continues with Drake supposedly clapping back in the song “Rich Forever” and as expected Common getting in more lyrical jabs in the song “Stay Schemin.”

Drake

No, I’m not siding with Drake. I don’t even listen to him much at all. I got his album along with Nikki Minaj’s just to see what all the hype was about. They didn’t move me. I just think they are doing an excellent job of mastering their moment.

Getting back to the eulogy for Hip-Hop Beef: I love Hip-Hop culture and trust me I’ve enjoyed true lyrical battles in our history but this mudslinging, name-calling, backbiting, buffoonery and randomly picking out other artists just for the heck of it has outlived its usefulness and has become a destructive force. The new trend now is grown men and women using Twitter to take shots instead of sitting down in person to solve our problems. I even read where Young Jeezy said one of his friends was killed due to an exchange of words on Twitter.

When it comes to Hip-Hop, I always sit and wonder who calculates when a beef should start? Who should be targeted? How long it should last? What dirt should be unveiled? Do some artists start beef to make up for poor record sales? Are they thirsting that bad for publicity? Is their marketing and lyrical engine that weak that they need to start a beef to save their careers? If an artist has millions already, why waste time attacking people? Is it out of greed? Is there really a winner in a beef?

Nobody in Hip-Hop can deny that The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been the most critical in putting an end to a lot of the beef in the genre. Back in 1997, Min. Farrakhan gathered a group of Hip-Hop artists at his home in Chicago to call a truce between East Coast and West Coast rappers. In attendance included Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Common (his name was Common Sense then), Tha Dogg Pound, Willie D, Fat Joe and more.

In 2001, Min. Farrakhan was the keynote speaker at the Hip-Hop Summit in New York hosted by Russell Simmons.”Every time you use your rap song against another rapper and the magazines publish your words, the people that love you then turn on the people that you have spoken against. Then, the one you spoke against speaks back against you and his group becomes inflamed against you. When you are a rapper and you understand your leadership role, you must understand that, with leadership comes responsibility. You did not ask for it. It is imposed on you, but you now have to accept responsibility that you have never accepted,” Min. Farrakhan said to the packed room.

He added, “Your potential to change reality is so great that, if you learned the skill of words and how to use words; if you learned how to say what it is you want to say, but say it in a way that gains universal respect, then the rap would evolve to an art form that will never be replaced. It will evolve to be that form that will set the stage for the next phase of its evolution.”

In 2003, Min. Farrakhan sat down with Ja Rule in the midst of his heated feud with 50 Cent. In his conversation with Ja Rule, which aired on MTV and BET, Min. Farrakhan told Ja Rule not to give in to the pressure of his listeners who wanted him to keep dissing 50 Cent but rather “teach them that there’s more to life than beef.

“A war is about to come down on the rap community. When you and 50 throw down, it goes all the way down into the streets. The media takes the beef between you and 50 and they play it, they jam it, they keep it going. Why would they keep something going that could produce bloodshed? There is a bigger plot here, Ja, and this is what I want you and 50 and our hip-hop brothers and sisters to see,” said Min. Farrakhan.

Where would Hip-Hop be if they had fully implemented the guidance of this wise man? As for the beef, let’s throw some dirt on the coffin and pay our last respects.

(Brother Jesse Muhammad is a staff writer for The Final Call Newspaper and an award-winning blogger. Follow him on Twitter @BrotherJesse)

Peep article Here: http://jessemuhammad.blogs.finalcall.com/2012/01/common-vs-drake-hip-hop-beef-needs.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk9oRpAZEGc

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News, Commentary, Essential Hip Hop Articles Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Is the Guy Who set the Fires in LA a Terrorist? Imagine if He was Mexican as Opposed to German

January 4, 2012 By

Harry Burkhart, a German national upset about the immigration status of him and his mother was said to be in court the other week for his mother’s hearing yelling “F— the United States!”

This same Harry Burkhart was just arrested, accused of setting more than 50 arson fires in Los Angeles including one at the popular Hollywood and Highland Entertainment Complex.

In typical fashion we are now hearing news story after news story talking about the mental illness Burkhart may be suffering. We’re hearing stories about how he was agood man gone bad. We should show some sort of sympathy because he’s upset about having his family torn apart….

Harry Burkhart

Oh yeah three other facts y’all should note.. 1-Burkhart just arrived in the US on October of 2011.. His visa is set to expire at the end of January.. 2-He’s wanted for questioning in Germany for arson fires he’s accused of setting there..3-Burkhart’s mother is wanted for 19 counts of fraud back in Germany.

Is this a case of a distraught young man who loves his mother and acted out? is this a case of a young man who momentarily lost his way? Should we really be upset after all he didn’t kill anyone he just lit a few fires? Damaged property can be replaced. The love a man shows for his mother is universal and should be embraced and upheld-right?

Imagine if you would for one second, if those 50 arson fires was set by an undocumented Brown man-lets call him Julio. Let’s say 50 arson fires were set by Julio Gonzalez, upset that his wife, parents or kids were immigration legal limbo and set to be ousted from the United States. Could you imagine the outrage? Could you imagine the scorn that would come across every news station about the ‘evil ways of Brown folks?

We would have law makers climbing over themselves demanding we build more walls along the border and we would be empowering the police and any other law enforcement officer to check the papers of anyone fitting the description. Brown and immigrant communities would be under siege and sadly far too many of us would cheer. We would be asking are there any more Julio’s out there setting fires?We would be looking into Julio’s background trying to see if he was gang member and if his actions were part of a larger plan.

Brown students or farm workers from immigrant communities are always seen as criminals even if they are lawfully here..

No one would dare suggest that we show sympathy and understanding to Julio for ‘monetarily losing his way because immigration laws were tearing his family apart.. And don’t let us discover that the object of Julio angst was wanted in her home country for criminal activity like Burkhart’s mother. Don’t let us discover Julio or his family member was wanted in Mexico or El Salvador for 19 counts of fraud.

Terrorism? Yes, Julio would be considered a Domestic terrorist if he set 50 fires in a big city like Los Angeles and you could bet some overzealous Congressman like a Peter King would be demanding we hold hearings about the community Julio came from and whether they represent a threat to society.

In the case of Burkhart.. No one is asking aloud if Burkhart’s actions are connected to a larger plot? After all, we had the firebombing of Mosques in NY at the same time as LA was being set ablaze-coincedent or connected?

Burkhart is a German national.. Can we connect him to the growing Neo-Nazi movement here in the US? Can we connect every German both here and abroad to Nazism? Should German Americans be concerned that the heavy arm of the law will see each person of German decent as potential arsonist? Do we start looking at Germans as Anti-American?

As this case unfolds one should keep in mind the way we have come to view the case of Burkhart and hows its being isolated and framed. He’s a troubled young man who has mental problems. Contrast that with the words we’ve heard used to describe undocumented farm workers, street vendors or undocumented students pushing for the Dream Act to be passed-They and anyone who even looks like them are seen as lawbreakers who should be swiftly and harshly punished removed from our land. They are seen as threats to society while Burkhart is not..

Something to Ponder..

Davey D

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: , , , ,

New Years Resolution for 2012: Make Room & Follow the Lead of our Sistas Within Hip Hop

January 2, 2012 By

With 2012 upon us, we wanna encourage folks to seriously take some time to invest and make room in the cypher and at the proverbial Hip Hop roundtable table for our sistas who hold it down on the mic. There have been far too many discussions about where are the female emcees and why don’t we see and hear more of them, when in reality they are all around us..

Its up to each of us within Hip Hop to insist that promoters make sure that women are included in their line up.. We’re not talking about a token opening act, but a fair amount woven in the main line up.. Its up to us to insist that radio deejays including myself are consistently playing women emcees in our offerings. Male emcess…How about inviting more females to spit a hot 16 on an epic song?

B-fresh photography

It’s up to each of us who claim to love Hip Hop to be familiar above and beyond a casual name drop. We should know folk’s music. We should know the release date of albums. We should know when and where folks are touring. They should be apart of our discussions and debates. We should allow room for the diversity of expressions and not fall back on the tired stereotype of all female emcees sounding the same. We should also follow the leads of our sisters understanding there is much we can learn from them and whole lot of flava we can soak up to improve help improve ourselves.

As males within Hip Hop we should not limit our attraction or engagement to female emcees based on overt displays of sex. yes we know there are the Lil Kims and Foxy Browns who made their mark going that route, but just like we’ve had male groups like 2Live Crew who brought that to the table, we dont limit the male experience within rap to that group, hence whey should we limit our sistas?

Below are 3 great websites that’ll hopefully get people familiar with female emcees in 2012. One of them, Hip Hop Sisters is run by Hip Hop legend MC Lyte. The other one Femmixx focuses on female Hip Hop producers as well as deejays and emcees.. That’s run by Tachelle Wilkes.

Another site The Illest Female Rappers, focuses on independent female rappers..while the Womyns Hip Hop Movement focuses on a soon to be released compilation put together by DJ Kuttin Kandi dedicated to ending domestic violence..

Folks should be familiar with Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen which focuses on Health, Nutrition and Physical Activity using Hip Hop Culture.. They are celebrating their 5th year and currently they’re looking for artists to be down with their upcoming Be The Cure event in march.

Since Hip Hop has as its 5th Element Knowledge, we urge folks to get familiar with http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/ They bring attention to a lot of issues that are of importance to the Hip Hop Generation coming from an unapologetic, uncompromised feminist perspective. They dont take no mess from nobody..

Over the holidays I put together a youtube playlist that has over 100 female emcees. Its by no means a definitive list, but hopefully it’ll turn folks on to some artists they can add to their repartoir. You can access that playlist below or by clicking this link

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4DA130E1819B4915

In 2012 lets push the envelop, do some serious crate digging and be the change we say we want….

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: ,

Wrap up 2012.. Skillz Really Delivers on this One..

January 1, 2012 By

Skillz really out did himself on this years Wrap Up 2012.. he brought up hella incidents I completely forgot about.. props to him for being the official time keeper for our generation…I forgot about homeless guy with the Golden Radio Voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSn0XUkzheE

Filed Under: 2012 Daily News Tagged With: ,

A Look back at Some of the Most Dubious & Outlandish Moments of 2011

January 1, 2012 By

2011 proved to be a year with some dubious, sometimes humourous, shocking and outlandish moments.

For example we had an outrageous moment when Barack Obama wound up showing his birth certificate the world to prove his American Citizenship. Thanks to constant public doubting by people dubbed birthers and led by then potential presidential hopeful and business mogul ‘Klansman’ Donald Trump, President Obama finally caved and showed us along form birth certificate. After doing so, one would think that would be the end-It wasn’t. Donald Trump and other still think the certificate is fake. The response to this incident from comedian political commentator Baratunde underscored how many felt .

In 2011 we had the situation where a Homeless Woman was Facing 20 Years for Sending Her Child to Better School. This was disturbing on so many levels. First you have someone who is trying their very best to make sure her child doesn’t get in the same economic predicament as she found herself in. The best way to do that is to make sure that child gets a darn good education.

The fact that we have wide disparities in public schools should be cause for alarm. This mother, Tanya McDowell obviously could not afford to move into the more affluent district so she basically lied about her address and sent her child to school. One would think we would applaud the effort and try to find ways to accommodate this woman and her child. Apparently she had enraged school officials in Norwalk, Connecticut who pressed charges and demanded she pay back the school district.What made this story even more outrageous was the fact that similar scenarios had gone down 4 other times this year, but only McDowell was being charged and fined

when she lied about her address in order to send her child to a school outside her assigned district

We had other scenarios like Public Enemy hypeman Flava Flav Opening a Chicken Spot in Iowa which closed down after four-months. There was a lot of controversy about employeee not being paid..Flav emphatically refuted the claim..In recent days he says he’ll be reopening the the chicken spot in Las Vegas.. Flav also introduced a line of flavored vodka (LeFlav) which included bubblegum..

V-Nasty

We had the controversy with white woman rapper from Oakland named Kreashwan who made alot of noise when she dropped the song ‘Gucci Gucci’.. The song was pretty good and people were with it, but raised eyebrows when she introduced her crew ‘The White Girl Mob‘. People began to sour when it became known that her partner V-Nasty routinely uses the N word and made no apologies. People really flipped out when fellow Oakland rapper Mister FAB offered up a ringing endorsement of the V-Nasty and defended her use of the word.. The video FAB put out was definitely an Outlandish Moment for 2011.

We had a dubious moment when it was revealed that longtime Hot 97 deejay and producer Mister Cee was arrested for lewd conduct. He was caught having sex in public and supposedly that wasn’t the first time.. That alone got everyone talking, but when word got out the person he was having sex with was another man, folks really got to talking.To Cee’s credit, he didn’t miss a beat literally with all the drama. The next day he was back on the air rocking the tables like nothing happen..

Rayvon Mcintosh

We were shocked and dismayed around the story of Rayon McIntosh. This was a brother who made headlines when he was shown beating two women with a metal club in McDonalds.

The back story to this went as follows: McIntosh was following company procedures when he inspected the large bill two unruly female patrons handed him. The pair verbally went off and one reached over and struck him. Emboldened, they then jumped over the counter and went after him..McIntosh responded by picking up an iron rod and whupped the two women, fracturing the skull of one and cutting the arm of another..Peep the video HERE

When it was discovered that McIntosh shad been incarcerated for 10 years prior to working at the franchise, folks went off.Many said he went too far, others argued the women got what they deserved. McIntosh was later fired and arrested, spending 7 weeks in Rikers Island. Charges were eventually dropped and he’s now suing McDonalds especially since it had been revealed he had been pushing the company to get security.

Disgraced presidential hopeful Herman Cain gave us lots of dubious moments in 2011. This loquacious pizza chain owner was the gift that would not stop giving. We recall him bragging about his woeful ignorance on foreign policy. We recall his over simplistic approach to solving the economy with his 9-9-9 plan. We cringed when he asked if it was ok to ban mosques. Cain seemed to take pride in sometimes being abrasive. He asserted he was just being frank and straight forward. We say Cain was a loudmouth and abrasive as away to distract from his ignorance. The best dubious moment for Cain was when he told those who are unemployed to Blame themselves..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHMEC8Xk9cg

One of the most Outlandish moment for 2011 came at the hands of Lt. John Pike. For those unfamiliar with Pike, he’s the douche bag police officer for UC Davis who decided the best way to disperse a group of peaceful protestors upset that their tuition which had already doubled was being increased again, would be to pepper spray them. His was the spray can heard and seen all around the world. He also gave us a glimpse of just how sadistic police officers can and usually are toward the folks they are suppose to protect and serve.

Pike was suspended and the chancellor of UC Davis has apologized. Some think that should resolve the issue. We found it disturbing that police agencies across the land didn’t come out and denounce Pike’s action. Talk about thin blue line..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4

There’s a long list we highlight a few…

Kim Kardashian: Yes this woman could’ve won this award for any number of violations. First she did a full court press blitz where she appeared on damn near every TV network news show and Late Nite show to encourage folks to tune in and watch her get married to NBA basketball player Kris Humphries. She was trying her best to match the hype of the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton. Sadly the marriage lasted for less than 90 days..

But that wasn’t the worse of it..Folks got pissed at Kim because she was casted to star in Tyler Perry’s new movie ‘The Marriage Counselor‘. There was a backlash as folks petitioned Perry to get Kardashian canned.

Like I said those two incidents along get Kim a DUBIOUS AWARD, but what sealed it for me was when she was kicked off stage during a Prince Concert for not dancing… Y’all remember this right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKunZnUSl_s&feature=related

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Penny Chapman: This is a Philadelphia woman who gets on a crowded bus with her 4-year-old son.. Apparently he’s acting up and so she decides to swat him on the butt to discipline him.. Homegirl decides to calmly call her people.. who show up at the next step with assault rifles and start shooting into crowded bus..Whats scary here is seeing just how violent folks can get and how impervious someone like Chapman who is a mother could be in calling for retribution over something so minor. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/06/earlyshow/saturday/main20089055.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qR6HJrZUtU

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Governor Scott Walker: He’s the union busting Governor of Wisconsin who took advantage of lackluster turnout during the 2010 mid-term elections. Once in office he ran full tilt toward trying to strip away bargaining rights of public sector unions. His actions set off a fire storm of protests at the state capitol in Madison throughout the month of February. As many as 100 thousand folks were routinely showing up with people camping out and ‘Occupying’ the Rotunda building months before there was an actual Occupy Movement.

The thing that stood out about Walker was how he positioned himself as this free thinking independent type of guy. It was later discovered that he was beholden to the billionaire Koch Brothers, who are best known for founding the Tea Party. Someone did a prank call to Walker pretending to be David Koch, what emerged from that conversation was Walker’s willingness to do whatever it took to crush protests at hand. Among the tactics expressed was sending in folks to disrupt the proceedings. It was also scary to hear how subservient he was.. It made me wonder who was really the Governor of Wisconsin We encourage folks to listen to the exchange between Walker and the fake David Koch.

We also want people to look at how things unfolded and were ultimately handled in Madison to get a better understanding about some of the things that unfolded during the Occupy Movement. Again Madison and the fight over union rights was the Occupy before the Occupy.

Peep the tapes HERE

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One of the lewd pictures Wiener sent to twitter followers.

NY Congressman Anthony Weiner: Here’s a guy who seemed to have it all in 2011 only to lose it all in what many would describe as an Epic Fall from grace.. Wiener was a firebrand who was the pride and joy in many left leaning circles because of his willingness to take on his Republican colleagues and pretty much blow up their spot. He had garnered a reputation for being the man who would set it off anytime anywhere and with anyone … Time and time again Wiener would come out on top.

Adding to Wiener’s lure was the fact that this one time storied playboy bachelor had landed and married powerful a woman named Huma Abedin who is an aid to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which means homeboy had access and was making his presence felt in high circles.

With all that in mind one has to wonder what would possess the outspoken Wiener to send lewd pictures of him and his private parts over the internet? What would possess a 46-year-old married man to act a fool with no regard for his wife who was pregnant at the time? Even more disturbing is what would possess Wiener to go on TV and hold press conferences where he would lie over and over after he was busted? At the time I penned a story suggesting that Wiener may have been influenced by the Ying Yang Twins.

What made Wiener’s fall so Dubious was it came at the hands of conservative commentator Andrew Breibart who runs the website Big Government. At the time Breibart had soured his reputation by stretching the truth and out right lying in some of the exposes he unleashed about his liberal rivals. Most notably was the case story around Shirley Sherrod

Unfortunately, for Wiener, Breibart had peeped some of the exchanges he was having on twitter with female followers. When Wiener accidentally tweeted a picture of an erect crotch shot Breibart grabbed it before it was deleted and the rest his history. You can peep the time Line of the Weiner scandal HERE

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Psychology Today: Who could forget the over the top insulting article put out by this supposed esteemed magazine titled: Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?

In this piece which has since been pulled from the website they ran down all sorts of backwards pseudo science ranging from Black women having higher testosterone levels on down to sistas having mutant genes..Here’s some of the outlandish claims written by the author London School of Economics’ evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa

I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level
of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone .
Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other
races, and testosterone, being an androgen (male hormone), affects the
physical attractiveness of men and women differently. Men with higher
levels of testosterone have more masculine features and are therefore
more physically attractive. In contrast, women with higher levels of
testosterone also have more masculine features and are therefore less
physically attractive. The race differences in the level of
testosterone can therefore potentially explain why black women are less
physically attractive than women of other races, while (net of
intelligence) black men are more physically attractive than men of other
races.

The fallout from this article resulted in Psychology Today apologizing for the article and the author Kanazawa almost losing his job. He apologized to school officials, admitted some of his work was flawed and forbidden from publishing articles in non peer reviewed publications

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Superman Renounces His Citizenship: Everybody loves the Man of Steel Superman aka mild mannered reporter Clark Kent who has long used the tage ‘Truth , Justice and the American Way… Key words ‘The American Way..

Well in 2011, Superman noted that he was tired of having his actions construed as a instruments of US policy. As a result he renounced his citizenship to the US in a comic book plot. He says he’s tired of having his actions construed as a instruments of US policy-Oouch!

Maybe Superman looked out at and realized he was no longer working for the people but instead uber rich corporations who want to suppress the people. Maybe Superman looked out and saw the over the top antics of racist and sexist policies championed by the Tea Party…

Maybe Superman got tired of seeing that Justice is only for the Rich and Powerful and the American Way is increased imperialism at all costs.. Who knows..Maybe it was slow box office sales.. In any case its a reflection of how this country seems to fall out of favor with folks all over the world everyday..

All this took place last Spring in a what is now a collector’s item Action Comics #900

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Common Underfire for White House visit: Back in may of 2011 there was manufactured Fox News style ‘outrage’ over rap star Common‘s appearance at the White House for a Poetry event. At issue was Common standing up for exiled former political prisoner Assaata Shakur and current political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal

Dave Jones of the Fraternal Order of Police in New Jersey was upset that Common over his 20 year career, did a couple of songs/poems addressing police brutality…songs I should add, that most people if queried would be hard pressed to name…They were ‘Letters to the Law’ and ‘A Song for Assata’.

He raised a stink and in your tried and true typical scenario Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O’reilly went reaching for an old standby tactic-Demonize a Black person or some or some sort of cultural expression to get ratings, bring attention or distract from an issue. That’s been done for decades and with each deployment there are scores of willing participants who are eager to engage these clowns in a feeble attempt to go toe for toe…

I’m not a big fan of folks going on Fox and engaging them over outlandish claims, but it was good to see TV host Jon Stewart defend Common and hold it down during this memorable exchange.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im8WhG-8FGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7fIjufCPsg&feature=relmfu

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: , , , ,

Tragedy in Oakland Another Toddler Killed by Senseless Gun Violence-How We Gonna Change in 2012?

December 31, 2011 By

Usually this at this time of year, I like to reflect on all that gone down over the past 365 days and figure out what sort of steps to take in order build upon past victories and successes. I also like to reflect on what sort of steps to take to avoid and recover from setbacks and pitfalls..I also like to celebrate the best and worse of a particular year around this time… However, none of that can really be addressed until we focus on one of the most pressing issues at hand-Our Children and they way we in society treat them.

Last night in the city of Oakland a 5-year-old named Gabriel Martinez jr was shot and killed as he stood next to his father outside a popular taco truck the family owned on 54th and International. According to early reports some cat purchased food, pulled out a gun, shot Gabriel and rolled off in his car with a female in tow. Words cannot began to express the heartache, frustration, anger and bewilderment felt when we heard this being reported on the evening news..

Many of us in the city of Oakland and the Bay in general are at a loss for words. What do you say to this? How do we tackle this? This was the third toddler killed in Oakland this year and the 6th or 7th that I can recount being shot and injured in the Bay Area this past year. For an area that prides itself on being organized and forward thinking in its politics, how is this happening on our watch?

2 yr old Baby Hiram was just buried 2 weeks ago. He was shot in the head my cowardly thugs

Earlier this month Oakland grieved as 2-year-old Baby Hiram Lawrence was laid to rest. He was the victim of a shooting that took place during the filming of a rap video in West Oakland. That fateful night, 7 others were hit during the incident, Baby Hiram was shot in the head while being held in his father’s arms. For days everyone hoped and prayed that he would make a miraculous recovery. The family sought several opinions from different doctors before he was taken off life support.. Hiram’s passing left many vowing that such a horrific crime would never happen again. People were still reeling from a toddler being killed over the summer.

3-year-old Carlos Nava

In early August 3-year-old Carlos Nava was shot as he walked with his parents from a pizza shop also on International Blvd not too far from last night’s shooting. The bullet that hit him was intended for a rival drug dealer who stood nearby. Carlos’ death was painful as shocked community members tried to make sense of what took place and why.

‘What type of person runs around shooting kids?’ is what everyone asked..

The easy answer is; one who sees no value in life. Its a person whose values are disconnected from the majority of us. It’s someone who is an aberration.

The easy answer is to take an incident like this, isolate it and put the sole responsibility on the perpetrators. The easy answer is to get him off the street, lock him up and be done with it.. Case closed, problem solved…Only it’s Not..

Unfortunately these horrific shootings I cited reflect a larger more difficult mindset and societal attitude that far too many of us simply want to sweep under the rug. These incidents reflect an ugly truth all of us have to own up to…As much as we purport, we don’t really care about our kids.

We live in a world where we claim that children are blessings. We talk about how their cries, their shouts, their enthusiasm and excitement is welcome music to our communities. We say our children represent hope and endless possibilities. of better tomorrows. We say children touch our hearts and marvel how they are reminders of times when things weren’t so complicated.

Children are supposed to be our top priority and the reason for which we all live. However, our collective actions show a sharp contradiction. It ranges from the policies we support to the way we respond or don’t respond when we hear stories about children being killed, raped, kidnapped etc..How we respond to these disturbing scenarios, uphold children and show how value them is a reflection on all of us.

Close to 25% of American children like the ones shown here live below the poverty line and are homeless

Right now we’re talking about 3 toddlers killed in Oakland and make no mistake those who pulled the trigger are scum of the highest order. They need to be caught, punished and held accountable. But as we reflect back on this tragedy and all that has gone down in 2011, do we have the luxury of disconnecting the callousness behavior exuded with those children being shot from the indifference we as a society have shown in allowing policies to fall in place that put our kids on the short end of the stick?

For example, it was just last week Oakland Mayor Jean Quan noted that the city had spent over 5 million dollars to combat the Occupy Movement. There was no money to be found (500k) to keep 5 elementary schools from closing in spite of spirited protests. Much of that money went to police who are seemingly on top their job when it comes to removing tents or as was demonstrated yesterday, protestors from trees, but ‘overwhelmed’ when a toddler is shot on crowded streets.

We recently saw Governor Jerry Brown approved over a billion dollars worth of budget cuts to take place in California with Childcare, public schools, school transportation and healthcare being primary targets.He says we must live within our means.. You mean the children who will be impacted by these cuts were spending up all the state’s money??

Newt Gingrich says Child Labor Laws are Stupid

A few weeks ago we heard GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich complain that child labor laws designed to stop exploitation of children was getting in the way of job growth. He called them stupid and suggested that we get rid of the janitors and replace them with kids.. When pressed Gingrich re-affirmed his remarks.

Overall we’ve seen our economic policies to result in almost 25% of the kids in the US living below the poverty level? Let’s stop and also think on that for a minute..

Today as we close out of 2011 and make our way into 2012, this country which prides itself on being a super power rooted in deep Christian values has a quarter of its kids living in poverty. Many of us try not to grasp onto that because we are either caught up in reality TV shows where folks toss around and spend money like it grows on trees or we believe the hype that suggests poverty is not systemic. We like to believe that there’s a logical explanation for starving children and it’s not because we don’t care. Sadly before many of us are willing to look at the larger picture we are more apt to point a finger a do a Herman Cain impression and tell those who are poor ‘Blame yourself’.

While a billion children starved most of us were caught up in Royal Wedding in 2011

We’ve been caught up in weddings involving über rich people like the Kardashians where the nuptials costs well over 10 million dollars and land ends in divorce in less than 90 days. We won’t even talk about the lavish spectacle called the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton that dominated our nightly newscasts in 2011.

$34 million was spent on this weeding as TV news networks here in the US spent millions to cover it including having full anchor teams on the ground providing round the clock coverage. Could you imagine if similar efforts were put into finding out why we have kids starving and impoverished in the US or why we have close to 50% of the children on planet earth living in extreme poverty meaning about 1 BILLION children are malnourished? Could you imagine if those networks gave that same type of ‘investigative’ coverage as to why children are being shot? Let’s think about that for minute.

While we’re thinking let’s take a look at these two stunning reports that CBS news magazine 60 Minutes did earlier this year but was ignored by many..

Kanye & jay-Z Celebrated Over the Top Opulence in 2011

While kids all across the globe were starving and living in extreme poverty or here at home living in cars, many of us were caught up ‘Watching the Throne‘ in 2011 as popular artists like Jay-Z and Kanye celebrated over the top opulence in what many claim was the album of the year.

Not only did we get caught up, some of us got upset when community minded artists like Chuck D of Public Enemy tried to ‘gently remind them’ of the bigger picture. He noted that it’s not always cool to stunt and bling in the middle of the worst recessions since the depression of the 1930s. In response to Ye and Jay’s song Otis where they drive around in a sawed off Maybach automobile, Chuck released a song called Notice, Know This.. He wanted to underscore the fact that the man whose music Kanye and Jay Z sampled from, Otis Redding was the antithesis to what they portrayed in the video. He was a humble man who lived modestly and tried to start a musician’s union

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=161ZRrJZESA

As we get ‘caught up’ in the materialism of life, our kids are getting caught up in all sorts of scenarios that leave them in poverty, short-changed educationally and seen as disposable. The 5-year-old toddler killed in Oakland last night is not something we can shove aside and do business as usual. His death requires all of us to step up our efforts to transform this community and this world and ways we never imagined for the better…

Oscar Grant was killed 3 years ago by police resulting in his daughter being fatherless..Today we have children being killed by thugs in our community leaving parents childless. How will we end this in 2012?

3 years ago, the city of Oakland and the world rang in the New Year only to be greeted by the unthinkable. In the wee hours of the morning, an unarmed 22-year-old father of a 4-year-old girl was made to lay face down on a BART subway platform with his hands behind his back. A larger heavier white officer who was kneeling on this young man’s back pulled out a gun and shot this brother killing him instantly on the eve of this country getting its first African-American president.

Oscar Grant died and in his savage death a movement was spawned. It was a movement that brought people from all sorts of communities together who spent a good two years pursuing justice for Oscar and his family. Many say the Oscar Grant movement was transformative. At the very least it heightened awareness on police brutality and exposed the major flaws in the justice system. It’s because the organizing that went on around Grant that folks in Oakland were able to be effective with some of the activities and direct actions they undertook with the Occupy Movement.

What sort of movement will arise out of the killing of this 5-year-old Gabriel Martinez Jr in the wake of Oscar Grant and the in backdrop of the ongoing Occupy Movement? What sort of steps will we take to transform our community and truly make the violent death of young children a thing of the past?How will we heal our community?

A local artist named Jahi suggested that 2012 be the year we go all out with some sort of ban the gun campaign.. Someone else suggested that we start Occupy /patrolling our neighborhoods with the full intent of making it safe for our kids.. Others say we will have to go all out to make love and upliftment as a commonly embraced value and not death and nihilism which so many hold…We should keep in mind as a country we have supported policies like drone strikes that have missed their targets and killed innocent children in places like Pakistan.. So we really have a lot to reflect on..

Tomorrow on New Years Day a massive march and rally commemorating Oscar’s death and acknowledging all those who have fallen prey to police violence is scheduled to take place… It’ll be a big miss if we don’t make mention the death of Gabriel and pledge our commitment to stop the carnage in our community not just by sadistic police, but also by sadistic individuals who see Black and Brown life as cheap and as disposable as the police often do..

We have our work cut in 2012.. Let it be a fulfilling year… please let us all rise to the occasion..

written by Davey D

Filed Under: 2011 Daily News Tagged With: , ,
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