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Fear of An Arab Planet: 5 Videos & Groups Speaking Truth to Power & Repping Hip Hop to the Fullest

April 12, 2010 By

Here’s some hype videos and groups from the Arab world people should be up on. I’m always amazed at how so many groups from around the world use rap as a crucial communications tool to speak truth to power and now in the digital age provide images that let us know how life is in their neck of the woods. Below you have cuts from some of my favorites including Lowkey out of Britian, Narcy out of Montreal / Iraq, Clotaire K out of Lebanan/ France, Salome out of Iran and Dam out of Israel/ Palestine.. There are lots more to peep but we’ll start folks off with this batch..

Lowkey ‘Obama nation’ (Britain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=z4OI0GUCI_A&feature=related

The Narcicyst– P.H.A.T.W.A. (Montreal/Iraq)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=TtoHCUMpNMY&feature=related

Clotaire K ‘Lubnan’ (Beruit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT6AfnssdYk

Salome Scream To Let Your Voice Be Heard (Iran)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_FR23x7Nvk

Lowkey & Faith SFX – Alphabet Assassin (Britain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ToZUIdbgqjE&feature=related

Dam ‘I was Born Here’ (Israel/Palestine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE

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Rising Dissatisfaction Among Post Apartheid Blacks. Is South Africa On The Brink Of A Bloodbath?

April 12, 2010 By

Last week we ran a couple of stories that detailed some of the racial tensions brewing in South Africa. We also included a couple of videos. What was most disturbing and noteworthy was seeing the extreme anger being expressed by white Afrikaners who are claiming they want ‘their country back’. Does this sound familiar? Does it sound like the rhetoric being expressed by Tea Party types who seem to have been motivated by having a Black man in the White House  as opposed to the corporate heads (many of them white) who caused much of the economic upheavals they are railing about. Its hard not to hear about this anger among White South Africans and not compare that with what’s going on here. They want to celebrate and highlight what they claim is a unique culture and here in the US we have sitting governors publicaly harking back to the ‘the good ole days’ when the Confederate South was on the running things.

Sadly here in this country race trumps all logic and as we seen time and time again folks will vote against their own self interests rather than share power and resources with racial rivals. call it a warped sense of entitlement where some whites feel that they have a God-Given right to be economically, politically and socially better off then people of color. From what I’m reading about in South Africa, it seems like a resentment of no longer being in charge. In any case here’s a recent Africa Watch blog laying out some of what’s going on in South Africa…

-Davey D-

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

Rising Dissatisfaction Among Post Apartheid Blacks. Is South Africa On The Brink Of A Bloodbath?

http://africawatch53.blogspot.com/2010/04/rising-dissatisfaction-among-post.html

Julius Malema

Julius Malema, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader, and the recent brutal murder of the African Resistance Movement (AWB) creator Eugen Terreblanche may be the spark that lights the fuse of dissatisfaction at the limited gains received by blacks in post apartheid South Africa.

First Terreblanche is a white racist Afrikaner whose viciousness and brutality toward the killing of unarmed black South Africans came to light under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – he confessed his sins and walked away a free man.

Malema has received much scrutiny in the South African and British press lately, for, among other things, calling for the nationalization of South Africa’s mining industry, the singing and then banning by the courts of the song that includes the lyrics “shoot the boer,” and traveling to Zimbabwe and being met at the airport by 500 Zanu-PF youth members singing the above song, as well as being received on the tarmac by Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe.

The AWB (at their height they claimed a membership of 70,000) or what is left of it vowed to avenge Terreblanche, as the group has since toned down their call for revenge. According to news reports, “fear of growing racial tensions and polarization grew as condolences streamed in,” and the General-Secretary of the AWB blamed Malema. During a phone interview, he said to expect “revenge.” We are going to finish with funeral arrangements and thereafter have a summit conference on May one in Pretoria, where all of our leaders and members of the AWB will come together and decide on what actions we will take to revenge Terreblanche’s death.” He then linked the song with the lyrics “shoot the boer” reported News24.com, sung until recently banned by Malema as directly responsible for the killing.

“There were mixed reactions from political parties,” reported News24.com. Those included the Azanian People’s Organization (Azapo) that said Terreblanche died in a similar manner in which he murdered blacks. We are sad that Mr. Terreblanche died in the manner in which he died, murdered in cold blood. Sadly, this is how he killed black defenseless farm workers in Venterdorp.”

The Afrikaner author and political commentator Dr. Dan Roodt accused the ANC youth wing of creating “a crime of hatred towards Afrikaners” which, reported News24.com, could lead to “anarchy (and) Zimbabwean-style land evasions.”

In addition, the country is at the crossroad, he said, and appealed to the international community, including the European Union, the United States, and the United Nations to intervene and stop the potential for a bloodbath in South Africa.

Eugene Terreblanche

But all of this talk of a blood bath fails to consider that in post apartheid South Africa, the economy including 87 percent of the productive farmland, continues to be in the hands of whites. So Terreblanche might be the spark that lights the fuse, but the powder keg representing the unmet needs of black South Africans has been simmering for some time.

Then there is the land question, and all of the ink being abused in order to discuss white fear of a black takeover of the economy.

This question prompted then President Mandela to say in 1997 that: “Their task is to spread messages about an impending economic collapse, escalating corruption in the public service, rampant and uncontrollable crime, a massive loss of skills through white emigration and mass demoralization among the people… because they are white and therefore threatened by the ANC and its policies which favor black people.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPbExwBJiwY&feature=fvw

The current public discussion appears to be geared toward masking “racist narratives,” with a tendency to portray black wealth as something to be regarded with suspension, said Black Management Forman deputy president Tembakazi Mnyaka.

This is being couched in calls for “lifestyle audits,” which is a “smokescreen,” that Mnyaka claims, “the purveyors of this narrative seek to silence the emerging black economic elite and middle class, lest they are blackmailed by the now exposed banner that says: blacks cannot be wealthy.”

Mnyaka believes those that support calls for lifestyle audits “manipulate” and “de-historize the context.”

He also says, “We are made to question whether apartheid and its attendant policies that dehumanized blacks and created the most unequal society in the world really happened: and if the conclusion is that it did, we are made to feel guilty about correcting its wrongs.”

This narrative includes post apartheid blacks being made to feel guilty for desiring ownership of productive farmland 87 percent of which is in the hands of white South Africans.

President Zuma has promised to overhaul the governments’ land reform program, as a government minister said, “one of the most visible legacies of apartheid that has failed.”

This land distribution program to date, according to land reform minister Gugile Nkwinti, has not been “sustainable and has not provided the anticipated benefits to the recipients.” In addition, Nkwinti says, of the 15 million acres that has been distributed, most of which is non-productive land, and “has been transferred through restitution and redistribution… and has not created any economic benefit for many of the new owners.”

So this doomed from the beginning  – failure at the redistribution of land stolen by whites under the 1913 Natives Land Act called, “the original political sin” by many, has no chance of meeting its mark. And at market prices, repurchasing one-third of that land and resettling black farmers by 2014 at a rate of $9.6 billion, is all but out of the question.

So maybe, ANCYL leader Julius Malema, with all his flaws, “is in fact the most appropriate leader,” according to South Africa’s Politicsweb, “for the moment.” Since he is unlike “the passive (Bantustan leaders) to the apologetic (liberal reformists like Desmond Tutu and Memphela Ramphela), the time has come for an explosive and radical character who will advocated for social equality without compromise.”

So the Youth League leader hits a nerve for his willingness to speak his mind regardless of the consequences. His criticism of the Zuma administration for under-resourcing of the National Youth Development Agency when President Zuma said he would support the NYDA during his State of the Nation speech shows why he has mass appeal among blacks and why whites fear his brand of leadership.

And then there is last week’s trip to Zimbabwe and his most recent call for he nationalization of South Africa’s mines. “We hear you are going straight for the mines, he said during a rally in Harare organized by the youth component of the Zanu-PF, “That is what we are gong to do in South Africa.”

“They have exploited our minerals for a very long time. We want the mines, now it’s our turn,” he said. The Sunday Times reported, Zimbabwe last month put in operation a law that requires foreign companies valued at over 500,000 US dollars to divest 51 percent of shares to non-white locals within five years.”

Malema apparently is taking his show on he road. In a tour designed to look at “nationalization programs,” the ANC Youth League leader will also visit Brazil, China, Chile, Cuba and Venezuela.

But of all the things, Malema has been criticized in the South African press, it is the media coverage of the “shoot the boar” song, the subsequent connection of the song to Terreblance killing, that has received the most ink. Malema’s singing of the song last month, according to published reports, in front of college students sparked a legal battle in which the ruling ANC challenged “a high court that ruled the lyrics as unconstitutional.” Boar means farmer in Afrikaners, and has negative connotations referencing white Afrikaners.

The killing of Terrblance appears to be in response to his unwillingness to pay two of his black farm workers, not motivated by listening to a song.

Jehron Muhammad can be reached at:Africawatch53@gmail.com

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KRS-One Explains why Bambaataa & Zulu Nation-boycott Nat’l Museum of Hip Hop

April 11, 2010 By

KRS1 speaks on behalf of the Hip Hop Pioneers the reason why they are boycotting the National Museum of Hip Hop. It sure changed the direction of the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y_e7Z7coek&feature=player_embedded

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Malcolm McLaren the Man Who brought Us Buffalo Gals and Fuzed Hip Hop and Punk is Dead

April 8, 2010 By

Malcolm McLaren was an important figure both in Hip Hop and early punk.. Many outside the US knew him for his work in the punk world. Most of us who were around in the early 80s  knew McLaren because of his work with the World Famous Supreme Team radio show and his hit records Buffalo Gals, Hey DJ and Hobo Scratch which for many outside of New York was the first time they heard scratching. A true pioneer on a number of levels..McLaren to me was one of those crucial bridges between punk and Hip Hop. That’s a history that is often overlooked and down played..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DeTR8n7eTU

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/malcolm-mclaren-dies-aged-64-1939621.html

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and impresario, has died. He was 64.

McLaren had had cancer for some time. His condition recently deteriorated rapidly and he died this morning in New York. His body is expected to be brought home to be buried in Highgate cemetery, north London.

Born in North London, McLaren was best known as the manager of the iconic punk band The Sex Pistols. After attending and dropping out of several art colleges in 1971 he opened a clothes shop on the King’s Road , Let It Rock, with Vivienne Westwood.

He achieved the notoriety that never left him when The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment single God Save The Queen stole the number one spot during the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977. His spokesman Les Molloy told The Independent: “He had been suffering from cancer for some time, but recently had been full of health, which then rapidly deteroriated. He died in New York this morning. We are expecting his body to be brought back to London and buried in Highgate Cemetery.”

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

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

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League of Young Voters Teams Up w/ Hip Hop Artists to Encourage Folks to Fill Out Census

April 8, 2010 By

The League of Young Voters Latest Initiative Aims to Get Our Nation’s Youth Involved in the 2010 Census Through the Innovative Platform of 99Problems.org
 
Los Angeles, CA (April 6, 2010) – Nearly a year after Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s first African American president, today The League of Young Voters Education Fund (LYVEF) announces the launch of it’s latest effort, the Numbers Don’t Lie Campaign – a new online initiative and call to action for our nation’s youth to get involved in the 2010 Census.  Numbers Don’t Lie is a project of the League’s news portal 99problems.org and will attempt to reach urban youth in their neighborhoods across the nation using viral videos and hip-hop culture to teach them about the importance of the census.
 
The Numbers Don’t Lie project has been rolling out a series of viral video PSAs hosted by DJ Willie Shakes (Core DJs, Star Trak’s Chester French).  DJ Willie Shakes, has been touching down to talk with tastemakers, hip hop artists and celebrities at the local level in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Tallahassee, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland (ME), Houston, and the Bay Area to talk about the ways in which the Census is important to each individual community. The Numbers Don’t Lie viral video PSA series enables each featured interview to give their own spin on why the 2010 Census is important to them, as well as the neighborhoods they reside in and come from, in order to reach young voters in an organic and impactful way on such a meaningful issue. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7weK5Go2lA

  “The Census is so important. It decides how trillions of dollars will be spent in our community,” said LYVEF’s Executive Director, Robert “Biko” Baker, who prior to taking his current position served as The Source Magazine’s Political Correspondent. “Every 10 years young people don’t get counted because they don’t understand how important this process is.  We are going make sure this doesn’t happen. We are going to meet young people where they are at, and make sure they understand how important this process is to their future.”
 
All content created from the Numbers Don’t Lie campaign is currently showcased on The League of Young Voters’ online platform 99Problems.org.  Launched January 20, 2009 99Problems.org is a site that combines new media, investigative journalism and pop culture to engage a young demographic on local inner city issues from a hip-hop perspective.  The site was influential in banding together awareness among urban youths and minorities for the 2009 election of President Barack Obama and aggressively courts the urban, hip-hop, and underground arts communities of America with thought provoking and investigative news stories about real people harnessing political power to make changes in their own lives.
 
Los Angeles based Cashmere Agency has signed on to be a part of this exciting campaign, spearheading the League of Young Voters marketing campaign surrounding this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAgRp8vJvA&feature=related


About The League of Young Voters Education Fund
The League of Young Voters Education Fund (LYVEF) empowers young people nationwide to participate in the democratic process –with a focus on non-college youth from low-income communities and communities of color. LYVEF makes civic engagement relevant by meeting young people where they are, working on issues that affect their lives, and providing them with tools, training, and support to become viable players in the civic process. 

In 2008, LYVEF educated hundreds of thousands of new voters about the importance of voting. You can find out more about The League of Young Voters Education Fund by visiting www.youngvoter.org .

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Chamillionaire: Hustling & Grinding in a Hi-Tech World…

April 8, 2010 By

We caught up w/ Houston rapper Chamillionaire who has been making a lot of noise as of late, not just for him reuniting with childhood friend and fellow Paul Wall after 7 years and going on tour, but also because he’s been making some behind the scenes moves into the tech world. In fact much of our conversation centered around us discussing ways in which rap stars can move away from simply setting up record companies and use their creative ingenuity to set up the next Google or Youtube.  

“It’s not always about making money with these companies, sometimes its about getting information so later down the road you can make money”, Chamillionaire noted. He explained that in the age of music going digital rappers need to be thinking outside the box and trying to figure out other ways to leverage their brand  and resources above and beyond simply selling records and merchandise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOV0EvGpB1I

We talked to Chamillionaire about how he stays on his grind and asked if he saw any differences in the way the Bay Area makes it happen compared to our sister city of Houston which shares a strong independent rap scene. He noted that one can definitely tell when they are in the Bay Area. The music and overall swagger is unique on to itself. However, the people’s work ethics and drive to succeed on their own terms are pretty similar.  He noted how Paul Wall and Bay Area rapper Tha Jacka had just departed the tour bus as I arrived to go shoot their own videos. Chamillionaire marveled at the way folks collab with each other and

Along that vein we chopped up it up about the large yet often overlooked Latino/Brown Hip Hop scene in Texas. Chamillionaire noted that he was impressed how large it was and how some artists coming from Brown communities are killing it in terms of the people they can reached. he talked about Houston rapper SPM and how succesful he was while many withing ‘mainstream’ Hip Hop circles were clueless. Chamillionaire talked about how some of his songs are popular in brown communities and the influence is so strong that he’s started rapping some of the songs in Spanish which he puts on his mixtapes.

We also talked about mixtape game and whether or not they were still relevent in today’s climate. We also chopped it about whether he would continue doing his  ‘Mixtape Messiah‘ series. He noted that after 10 years he decided to retire that series and launch a new one called ‘Major Pain‘.

We concluded our interview by talking to Chamillionaire about his upcoming album called Venom where he explained that he wanted to move away from being ‘political correct’ topics and explore more edgy type of material . “I wanted to be a bit rebellious on the album”, He noted.

Chamillionaire also laid out who he feels are some of the most important rappers in Texas that we should be paying attention to as well as his favorite songs including ‘Turn It Up’ and ‘Hip Hop Police’.

Click HERE to Here Breakdown FM podcast featuring Chamillionaire

Below are the links to our two part Breakdown FM Podcast.

Chamillionaire Interview pt 1

Chamillionaire Interview pt 2

Below is another interview that  our friends from Check the Levels  out in Austin did with Chamillionaire during SXSW

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

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Did a Racist Coup in a Northern Louisiana Town Overthrow its Black Mayor and Police Chief?

April 7, 2010 By

 Waterproof, Louisiana, and the region around it may be majority Black, but White Power is determined to prevail by any means necessary. White parish officials replaced the town’s African American mayor and arrested the Black police chief for kidnapping when he placed a lawbreaker under arrest. “They are determined to let you know you have a place and if you don’t jump when they say jump you are in trouble.”

As you read this story you can listen to the interview we did yesterday with investigative reporter Jordan Flaherty and Chief Miles Jenkins.. Its unbelieveable that such things are still going on in 2010 Here’s the link our Hard Knock Radio podcast   http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/33537/

Shout out to Black Agenda Report who first ran this piece..

 
Did a Racist Coup in a Northern Louisiana Town Overthrow its Black Mayor and Police Chief?
by Jordan Flaherty
 
“We hope the justice department will look into this and bring some much-needed reform to this part of the world.”
 
In Waterproof, a small northern Louisiana town near Natchez, Mississippi, the African-American mayor and police chief assert that they have been forced from office and arrested as part of an illegal coup carried out by an alliance of white politicians and their followers. In a lawsuit filed last week, Police Chief Miles Jenkins asserts a wide-ranging conspiracy involving the area’s district attorney and parish sheriff, along with several other members of the region’s entrenched political power structure. These events come at a time when the validity of federal power is being questioned because of the race of the US president, and in a state where white political corruption and violence have been and continue to be used as tools to fight Black political power.
 
About 800 people live in Waterproof, a rural community in the south of Tensas Parish. Tensas has just over 6,000 residents, making it both the smallest parish in the state, and the parish with the state’s fastest declining population. The parish’s schools remain mostly segregated, with nearly all the Black students attending public schools, and nearly all the white students attending private schools. With a median household income of $10,250, Waterproof is also one of the poorest communities in the US. The only jobs for Black people in town are in work for white farmers, according to Chief Jenkins. “Unless you go out of town to work,” he says, “you’re going to ride the white man’s tractor. That’s it.”
 
“White political corruption and violence have been and continue to be used as tools to fight Black political power.”
 

Mayor Bobby Higginbotham (pict right)

Bobby Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof in September of 2006. The next year, he appointed Miles Jenkins as chief of police. Jenkins, who served in the US military for 30 years and earned a master’s degree in public administration from Troy University in Alabama, immediately began the work of professionalizing a small town police department that had previously been mostly inactive. “You called the Waterproof police for help before,” says Chief Jenkins, “he would say, wait ‘til tomorrow, it’s too hot to come out today.” He also sought to reform the town’s financial practices, which Chief Jenkins says were in disorder and consumed by debt.

 
Chief Jenkins asserts that a white political infrastructure, led by the Parish Sheriff Ricky Jones and District Attorney James Paxton, were threatened by their actions. This group immediately sought to orchestrate a coup against the two Black men, including clandestine meetings, false arrests, harassment, and even physical violence. Court documents describe how Paxton, Jones, and their allies formed an alliance “designed to harass intimidate, arrest, imprison, prosecute, illegally remove plaintiff from his position of police chief, prevent plaintiff from performing his law duties as police chief and/or force plaintiff to leave the town of Waterproof.”
 
“If you’re educated and intelligent and know your rights and in this parish, you are in trouble.”
 
Ms. Annie Watson, a Black school board member in her 60s who was born and raised in Waterproof, worked as a volunteer for the mayor. She says that the mayor and chief, who had both lived in New Orleans, brought a new attitude that Parish officials didn’t like. “The Mayor and the Chief said you can’t treat people this way, and the Sheriff and DA said you got to know your place. If you’re educated and intelligent and know your rights and in this parish, you are in trouble,” she says. “They are determined to let you know you have a place and if you don’t jump when they say jump you are in trouble.”
 
Ms. Watson explains that Paxton and Jones were threatened by Chief Jenkins’ efforts to professionalize the town’s police force. Aside from representing a challenge to Sheriff Jones’ political power, this also took away a source of his funding. “Before Mayor Higginbotham, all traffic tickets went to St. Joseph,” she says, referring to the Parish seat, where Sheriff Jones is based. “So he cut their income by having a police department.”
 
Jack McMillan, an African American deputy sheriff in Tensas Parish, says he tried to warn Chief Jenkins to back down. “You’ve got to adapt to your environment,” he says. “You can’t come to a small town and do things the same way you might in a big city. Like the song says, you got to know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em.”
 
Tensas Parish
 

District Attorney James Paxton

Tensas and the nearby parishes of Madison and East Carroll all share the sixth judicial district – currently represented by District Attorney James Paxton. Buddy Caldwell, DA for the sixth judicial district from 1979 to 2008, is now Attorney General for the state of Louisiana. The sixth district parishes all have majority Black populations and mostly white elected officials, which Chief Jenkins and Watson attribute to political corruption and disenfranchisement of Black voters. Prior to the registration of 15 voters in 1964, there was not a single Black voter registered in Tensas, despite having more than 7,000 African American residents (and about 4,000 white residents), making it the last Parish in Louisiana to allow African Americans to register.

 
Waterproof is “Reminiscent of the bygone days of southern politics,” with a white power structure maintaining political power over a Black majority, according to veteran civil rights attorney Ron Wilson, who is representing Jenkins in his civil rights lawsuit. “At any and all costs, even jeopardizing the life and freedom of my client, they will ruin him to maintain power. This case is ultimately about whether an African-American can be guaranteed the rights that are assured to him in the Constitution.” According to court papers, this Jim Crow alliance dominates elected power in the area, and “even on the local level, where the office holders tend to be African American, they are powerless to control their own destiny.” According to Chief Jenkins, the District Attorney once boasted that he controlled the votes of Waterproof’s Black Aldermen.
 
“Waterproof is ‘reminiscent of the bygone days of southern politics,” with a white power structure maintaining political power over a Black majority.’”
 

Chief Miles Jenkins

Chief Jenkins says he faced an immediate campaign of harassment from Sheriff Jones. “They just wanted this town to be white-controlled,” explained Chief Jenkins. The police chief described being arrested multiple times under the order of District Attorney Paxton and Sheriff Jones. The charges, says Jenkins, range from charges of theft for a pay raise he received from the town’s board of Aldermen to criminal trespass for going to the home of a citizen who had been stopped for speeding without a valid driver’s license, to disturbing the peace for an incident where individuals threatened the police chief with violence for issuing traffic citations. Ms. Watson says the charges were invented out of thin air. “It was a sad case of lies,” she says, adding that, “The majority of the town of Waterproof supports the chief and supports the mayor.”

 
Chief Jenkins says he was arrested and declared a flight risk by District Attorney Paxton, despite living and owning property in the Parish. “In all my years,” says attorney Ron Wilson, “I’ve never seen a police officer, and certainly not a police chief, charged for something like this.” Chief Jenkins alleges he was attacked and choked by a deputy sheriff, who he says shouted, “Shut up…We are in charge…We are the sheriff and the sheriff controls Tensas Parish. The sooner you all learn this the better off you will be,” an action that Ms. Watson says she also witnessed.
 
“The chief was even charged with kidnapping for one incident in which he arrested the former town clerk for illegal entry.”
 
Chief Jenkins says his police car was shoved in a ditch, and when he arrested the people who had committed the act, the DA refused to press charges. In fact, he says the DA refused almost all charges he presented and released anyone he arrested. The chief was even charged with kidnapping for one incident in which he arrested the former town clerk for illegal entry. “That’s the most ludicrous notion I’ve ever come across,” says Wilson. “That a police chief can be arrested for kidnapping, because he placed someone under arrest who was breaking the law.”
 
A grand jury has returned indictments of Chief Jenkins and Mayor Higginbotham, and Higginbotham’s trial is scheduled to begin this Monday. The mayor faces 44 charges, including multiple counts of malfeasance in office and felony theft. The charges appear to be based on the results of a state audit of Waterproof that found irregularities in the town’s record keeping going back to before the election of Higginbotham – irregularities that the mayor and police chief say they had repaired.
 
Patterns of Violence
 

Mayor Gerald Washington was killed shortly after being elected

Mayor Higginbotham was elected at the same time as two other Black mayors of small Louisiana towns, both of whom also received threats based on race. In December of 2006, shortly after Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof, Gerald Washington was shot and killed three days before he was to become the first Black mayor of the small southwest Louisiana town of Westlake. An official investigation called his death a suicide, but family members call it an assassination. Less than two weeks after that, shots were fired into the house of Earnest Lampkins, the first Black mayor of the northwest Louisiana town of Greenwood. Lampkins reported that he continued to receive threats throughout his term, including a “for sale” sign that someone planted outside his house.

 
Waterproof was Klan country from the Reconstruction era until well into the 20th century, and violence frequently broke out in the area. Seven Black men in Madison Parish were lynched over a period of three days in 1894 for the charge of “insurrection,” apparently because one man refused to follow an order from a sheriff. “The Klan was very active here,” says Ms. Watson, recalling her childhood in the 50s and 60s. “We had crosses burned on people’s lawns. The school principal had a cross burned on his lawn. A man named Sun Turner was shot and killed on the streets by the Klan.” Waterproof is an hour south of Tallulah, the site of a notoriously abusive youth prison, and a little more than hour east of Jena, where accusations of systemic racism brought 40,000 people from around the country, including many civil rights leaders, to a 2007 march. Like Jena, Waterproof is also home to a prison that contracts to hold federal immigration prisoners.
 
“Gerald Washington was shot and killed three days before he was to become the first Black mayor of the small southwest Louisiana town of Westlake.”
 

Sheriff Rickey Jones

When asked for comment on Chief Jenkins’ lawsuit, Tensas Parish Sheriff Ricky Jones denied that race was a factor, claiming that Jenkins had abused his office and that many of the local citizens who filed complaints against him were Black. “I’m not going to support any type of corruption,” said Jones. “Certainly not from him.” District Attorney Paxton, also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, disputed all accusations from Jenkins, suggesting that he had tried to help Jenkins when he was first elected. “A lot of this will become clear when the case against Mayor Higginbotham goes to trial on Monday,” he added.

 
Flood Caldwell, one of the town’s aldermen, is currently serving as the town’s mayor. Jenkins points to Caldwell’s appointment as further evidence of a coup, saying that the town aldermen, under the direction of DA Paxton, illegally voted to remove Mayor Higginbotham. “No one recognizes Caldwell as mayor except the DA and his friends,” says Chief Jenkins. The office of the Louisiana Secretary of State confirms that they still have Higginbotham listed as mayor, adding that they cannot comment further because of pending litigation.
 
Wilson says this case is ultimately about the repression of Black political and civil rights. “I think this has been going on in Tensas for a while,” he says. “I think they’ve gone too far in this case, and someone finally has come along and says they won’t go along.” Wilson hopes this lawsuit will bring federal attention. “We hope the justice department will look into this and bring some much-needed reform to this part of the world,” he says.
 
Chief Jenkins says he took the Sheriff’s job to serve the community, “You’ve given this country the best years of your life and you get treated like an unwanted stepchild,” he says. “I didn’t realize there was so much politics to just doing your job.”
 
Ms. Watson believes that this is a struggle for self-determination and basic civil rights. “I was born in 1948,” she says. “Ever since I was born, Blacks never had a say in this parish, until Chief Jenkins and Mayor Higginbotham. They spoke up, and tried to change things. That’s why the parish is going after them.”
 
Jacques Morial of the Louisiana Justice Institute contributed to this story.
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and audiences around the world have seen the television reports he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, Press-TV, GritTV, and Democracy Now, as well as his appearances on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, and several other programs. His post-Katrina reporting for ColorLines shared an award from New America Media for best Katrina-related reporting in ethnic press. Haymarket Press will release his new book, FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six, in 2010. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org.
 
Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Court Rule For Comcast Net Neutrality Falls on Our Watch-That’s a Damn Shame!

April 6, 2010 By

Just getting word about the FCC being defeated in court against Comcast over the issue of Net Neutrality. The courts ruled that the FCC has no authority to enforce Net Neutrality principles. This now opens the doors for any of the large telecoms like AT&T and Verizon who have spent millions of dollars  lobbying politicians, paying off traditional Civil Rights groups for their silence or advocacy and hand picking ‘pundits to murky the issue by setting up all sorts of distracting debates, to start regulating content. In short, the doors are now open for these telecoms to create toll lanes on the web where the more you pay the faster and more accessible your website, home page etc, to the masses. Here’s the actual decision  http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/201004/08-1291-1238302.pdf

The Internet was attractive to so many of us because it leveled the playing field. It allowed the little guy with a good idea to have voice right alongside the mediocre, slow-moving big guy with lot so f money. The net allowed a lot of folks to come up. The principles around Net Neutrality allowed a small outfit like Pandora to smash on the staleness of a Clear Channel. It allowed scores of Indy artists who we got to enjoy at last week’s Paid Dues concert in LA to be just as relevant and accessible as the corporate backed auto-tune drones that made so many of us thankful we could escape via the internet.

The principles of Net Neutrality have allowed scores of grassroots organizations to put up good fights and organize effectively. One example, is Basta Dobbs, the campaign against former CNN host Lou Dobbs that saw 32 cities simultaneously hold press conferences demanding his removal from the airwaves because of his constant racialization of immigrant communities. Organizers acknowledged  that a lot of their success was owed to their ability to reach the masses online.  Today there is a current campaign against CBS and comedian Adam Coralla making disparaging remarks against Filipinos got legs thanks to online efforts and the principles governing Net Neutrality. 

Many of us found out about the Troy Davis case through the Internet

Awareness around death penalty cases like the one involving  Troy Davis  owe much success to the internet spreading. The same with the plight of the Jena 6. Imagine if the students protesting election corruption in Iran were prevented from reaching us here in the US because Comcast or AT&T decided to restrict content? many of us got to know and support their plight because Net Neutrality was in tact. The current student protests here in the US around tuition hikes became known to many thanks to online organizing efforts. There’s a long list of how the little guy was able to make some headway against money, power, position and corporate privilege, thanks to the internet and the Net Neutrality allowing us to reach the masses.

Today’s ruling allowing Comcast and other telecoms to get around Net Neutrality  is bad news on a number of levels. First, it again underscores the power of judges and why we must pay attention in each election to make sure who is in position to appoint and who is actually running to sit on a bench. In this case these were appointed judges. Not sure of their backgrounds as of yet. But we do know the last few unfavorable police rulings like Sean Bell’s killers being acquitted came at the hands of a Bush appointed judge. What were finding is that as elected officials or in this case the FCC do the people’s bidding against the interest of corporations, these companies are running off to the courts which have been stacked over the past 8 years and getting favorable rulings. We can dwell deeper into judgeships on another day.

Second, is that we go through Congress to craft a law specifically protecting Net Neutrality or to grant the FCC authority to regulate and oversee this provision. The challenge is thanks to intense lobby efforts  by the telecoms we may have huge problem. For years, the telecoms have tried everything they could to get things deregulated so they could rush in and start setting up shop. In  previous attempts to allow Congress to grant the FCC such powers to govern Net Neutrality, Congress was stifled by the telecoms…

Sadly former Mayor Shirley Franklin has been among the handful of Black and Brown Civil Right icons doing the bidding of the telecoms who want to get rid of Net Neutrality

AT&T and their lobbying efforts have been a bit more insidious, with them taking advantage of the technological ignorance of many, they’ve been able to exploit the economic hardships experienced in many poor Black and Brown communities by showing up with money in hand to sponsor events, people and needy politicians in exchange for silence or outright advocacy by newly minted handpicked, artificial experts. In other words folks who have been brought off and are now in the pocket stomping for the telecoms. One keen example of this is former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin as outlined in this report Shirley Franklin fronting for the Big Telecoms . The angle Franklin and others of her ilk take around the buzz word ‘digital divide’, making it seem like that if we demand the telecoms back off from this Net Neutrality fight they in turn would not continue to help provide access to marginalized communities.

 This is akin to me showing up at a conference on drug sentencing talking about in order for us to have this discussion we must address the issue of domestic violence. In other words they have very little to do with each other unless we wanna get creative and draw colorful lines to connect the dots as directed by the telecoms or we have a personal financial or political and now increasingly social stake in this.  Some of these big time telecoms have enticed folks by working behind the scenes and elevating their profile of their hand pick pundits making sure they get to be on talk shows or start being seen prominently in the blogasphere.

What’s most frustrating with todays ruling is that after writing, explaining and doing radio shows on this important topic for more than 5 years  there are many within this Hip Hop / urban community who I routinely engage who seem to know more about Ice Cube’s latest dis than they do about the Internet’s governing principles that allowed them to get the information in the first place.

For example, this past weekend in Washington DC there was a Hip Hop Bloggers conference and from what I saw Net Neutrality was mentioned only once  and only by someone from the Future of Music Coalition which has been fighting to preserve it.   While many of my peers waxed poetic about how they garnered fame and followers at a date and time when this important principle was at stake, it was sad NOT to see this as a front a center issue. The irony here is that many of us know a Dallas Penn, Okayplayer  or 2 Dope Boyz more than we know the news reporters working the local beat at a corporate owned newspaper. We know AllHipHop or HipHopDx better than we know the NY Times or Washington Post..

As I long explained, non corporate self-styled journalist, Hip Hop heads, urban youth and snarky college kids gaining a foothold to the masses without going through a high-priced, media gate-keeper was problematic.  Many of us laughed at and took glee over hearing how the local papers were unfolding and how local radio stations were crumbling. We looked at our Iphones,  Ipads and other gadgets and arrogantly proclaimed we were the new kings and queens on the block. We did that while ignoring two basic facts which is 1) power concedes nothing without a vicious fight and many of us were blogging but not fighting. We weren’t fighting by educating ourselves on this issue and we weren’t educating our readers on the importance of preserving the new media arenas that they come to love and depend on while escaping the doldrums and oppressive nature of traditional outlets. Voice was given to the Voiceless on the Internet and Net Neutrality   was and has been the main pillar why.

Second, many of us have long shunned politics. It’s an ugly business. It’s corrupt. It’s far from fair. Many of you have had the privilege to get on an unimpeded internet and share all sorts of theories and perspectives on why politics should be avoided. We know about the Obama Deception movie. We know about the Bildenberg group, We know about Illuminati etc.  All of these perspectives and many more have been freely delivered to the masses of people because of Net Neutrality. However, it’s this corrupt political arena where rules are made and policy shaped. As I remind people daily, many of us live in communities, where street politics, workplace politics are just as ugly yet we take time to know and understand them. We learn when we can wear red and blue. We learn what side we can tip our cap. We learn who is backbiter, ass kisser and saboteur in the office. Engaging politics is not beyond us. But to avoid the politics around something we didn’t build and essentially don’t own in terms of infrastructure, but use everyday is as foolish as going to a neighborhood in LA and not know ‘what time it is’..  

When it comes to Net Neutrality, I realize it’s a boring, complex issue. There is no easy soundbite that adequately explains it, but some of the most important things impacting our lives can’t be explained in a tweet or a Facebook status update.  Us being a headline news society will be the demise of us if we’re not careful. We should never trade away aor allow basic principles to be removed even if we had a work around or alternatives.  Somebody told me they wasn’t tripping off the ruling cause they had enough money to sustain themselves and they knew other work-arounds. That shortsighted thinking of ‘I got mine you better get yours’ is what has wrecked havoc on far too many of us… Hell I could call it a day and not trip my damn self.. I’m good on a number of levels as well. In fact maybe this latest ruling might eliminate a bunch of people and I can be one of the few destination places free of technological impediments. It could be all good until I’m the one being smashed on.

It’s kinda like the Fox News mouthpiece Glen Beck who uses a platform granted by his employer Rupert Murdoch to talk crazy, mislead people and basically try to blow up the spot around Net Neutrality. It’s easy for him be dismissive and hostile, because he’s one of the few privileged folks in the world who has a daily TV talk show. He works for a powerful media mogul who spent the past two or three years buying up all sorts of newspapers and could stand to benefit handsomely if all these ‘pesky’ blogs and upstart news sites suddenly disappeared or simply weren’t able to be as accessible on line as his offerings.  

So what should we be doing? For starters call your Congressperson and tell them you want Net Neutrality. the same way you want clean water coming out your tap.  You can stay up on some of this by checking out my website daveyd.com. You can also go to the Center for Media Justice . You can also check out Kurthanson.com,  FreePress.org and Future of Music Coalition

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , ,

An Open Commentary To Adam Coralla’s & Teri Hatcher Comedians Who Like to Poke Fun at My Filipino People….

April 5, 2010 By

 

I am not much of a fan of boxing. Occassionally, I’ll sit beside my partner Rob at home to support his love for boxing and UFC. But most of the time, I am eagerly waiting for the fights to end so I can change the channel or I am either sitting there cringing at the sight of blood or bickering about the politics of these brutal sports that often pin people of color against each other while waving money and all sorts of other material things at them as though they were animals. I haven’t even begun to mention the loads of gender stereotypes this sport just breeds. But to be quite honest, I really don’t know much about the politics of sports but I see what I see – almost every sport have treated their players as though they can be bought and sold. And yes they are often bought and sold. Whether it’s to matches, traded to different teams or that Arrid Extra Dry commercial – they are bought, traded and sold. Sadly, it is often at the expense of their own lives and well-being.

However, even knowing all this, and as contradicting as this may sound – I still somehow have some sort of respect for boxing and UFC. And it’s not because of the excitement by the techniques of left hooks and uppercuts. To be honest the punches gives me too much awful memories of my own days of experiencing violence growing up. The respect that I give to this sport and the kind of “understanding” that i have when I see people go crazy over the bloody sports is because of what it means to our communities – people of color communities. It becomes more than just a sport, or a match for money or a match for the title when boxers from our communities like Muhammad Ali, Erik Morales and Manny Pacquao fight in the ring.

 
As a Filipina-American growing up in America, long before ABDC and the Jabbowockeez existed, i hardly ever saw any Filipino (a)’s on television. If I did, it was often stereotypes of a Filipina as a maid or a prostitute or a mail order bride. Or you’d often just hear derogatory names, terms all in bad context whenever the Philippines or Filipino’s were ever mentioned. Often times you’d just see Filipino’s acting in other Asian roles as Chinese or Japanese when you knew they were Filipino. Or you would know that Lou Diamond Phillips, Nia Peeples, Nicole Scherzinger were all born of Filipino blood but you hardly heard them ever talk about it on television or interviews, or if at all. My point is, I never really did see my brown skin on television. And if they were on television, it was almost as if they were ashamed to even admit they were Filipino because the industry limited them into characters that were anything else but themselves. Characters that often deem and oppress our Filipino people.

So, when someone like Manny Pacquiao steps out onto the ring – he becomes so much more than just a fighter. He becomes our hero. A hero that represents the thousands upon thousands of Filipino’s in the States and in the Philippines that have been waiting for someone to represent them more than just on TV but to win a championship that proves so much more than “boxing”, but a championship of surviving. While I don’t know what Manny Pacquiao’s political views are, I do know that he is no different than what Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos meant to the black community. Manny Pacquao knows what his celebrity status means for his Filipino people, which is why he makes the efforts that he does to give back to our Filipino people. Unlike what comedian Adam Carolla recently stated about the Philippines being “nothing but “Manny Pacquiao and sex stores”, Pacquiao knows that the Philippines is more than just that… which is why he fights so diligently, swiftly, quickly and passionately. And he does this for us.

I am not trying to romanticize Pacquiao, or place him up on a pedastal because although i respect that many of our people view him as our hero I personally don’t view him as an icon. I view him as another brother from our homeland doing what he needs to do to survive, doing what he can do for as long as he can for his people. Just like the rest of us should be doing. Especially now more than ever, because of racist, sexist, ignorant comedians like Adam Carolla who think it’s funny to poke fun at the expense of third world countries like the Philippines.

Adam Carolla

Someone like Adam Carolla wouldn’t understand why Manny Pacquiao means so much to us, simply because everyday he can look at television and see people with the color of his skin not having to resort to boxing to make a name for themselves. Carolla wouldn’t know that the Philippines is so much more than just sex stores because people with the color of his white skin purchase more than 5,000 Filipina mail order brides yearly into the United States. Adam Carolla wouldn’t know the beautiful islands of our country because it is rare to see when imperialist countries all over the world suck all our resources dry. Of course, Adam Carolla would find this all funny, because he has the luxury to never live this life. He has the luxury to never have to walk down daily the slums of the Philippines looking for food to feed his children. He never has to sell his body and be used as a commodity as does the 150,000 young Filipina women who are trafficked into prostitution in Japan.

But there are so many privileged Adam Carolla’s and Desperate Housewives Teri Hatcher Comedians in the world, aren’t there…? So many comedians who think they can get their ticket into fame with racist and sexist jokes. To me it’s just another way for the white supremacist to tear us down – take one of our known shining heroes like Manny Pacquiao and take one of largest known thing our country struggles with like sex-trafficking and prostitution — and blast it upon the rest of the world by making fun of it….. Yeah, just another way of tearing us down.

But what people like Adam Carolla doesn’t know is that we are all Manny Pacquiao’s as we are all our mothers and our sisters and our daughters trying to survive from sex-trafficking. And my people are strong, we are survivors… and we have fought a million wars for thousands of years. We have fought being invisible, we have fought racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, imperialism, and all kind of isms and oppressions….. we have done more than just boxed.. and wrestled. we have nursed, we have doctored, danced, sung, beatboxed, break’d, tagged… and DJ’d our way through —- we have held our fists in the air…. letting you all know that we exist… that we are no longer invisible… and that it’s going to take a lot more than just the petty ignorant jokes to take us down. Because we’re here… we’ve been arrived… and we will survive you. We always have.

Below is a note good friend Kevin Nadal, PhD sent earlier requesting everyone to sign a petition against Adam Carolla. It also includes a link of his derogatory, racist jokes.. – pls take the time to read and sign.

Thank you for your time
DJ Kuttin Kandi

============================================
Dear Kababayan, Friends, and Allies,

Radio host and comedian Adam Carolla has recently made several
disparaging remarks about Manny Pacquiao and Filipinos. He has
insinuated that Filipinos “pray to chicken bones” and that the
Philippines is nothing but “Manny Pacquiao and sex stores.”

Hear more about his hate here:
(Warning: This is vulgar and may not be suitable for children).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOSqFWwdtAE&feature=player_embedded

As a community, we must stand up again and let it be known that we
will not allow such hateful words to be made about our community.
These messages of hate help to promote the negative stereotypes about
Filipinos and Filipino Americans and we must put an end to it.

Please read and sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilAmAC/petition.html

And please forward this to your colleagues, family, and friends.

Sincerely,

Kevin Nadal, PhD

I AM RAISING A CALL TO ACTION AGAINST CBS CORPORATION TOMORROW,
TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2010 AT EXACTLY 9:00 AM EST (12:00 pm PST)
These are the numbers in which you should call:
CBS Corporation
CBS Headquarters51 W. 52nd StreetNew York, NY 10019-6188
212-975-4321

complaint line: 212- 975-5005
Investor Relations
51 W. 52nd StreetNew York, NY 10019investorrelations@cbs.com1-877-227-0787

ALSO PLEASE FILE A COMPLAINT TO THE FCC AGAINST ADAM CAROLLA’S SHOW on
KACE through IndustryEars.com

————————————————————————————-

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

South Africa: Will Killing Of White Supremacist Trigger Racial Violence?

April 5, 2010 By

Its hard not to think of the extreme discontent that is being expressed here in the US in the aftermath of President Obama being elected especially along racial lines. There’s in increase in hate groups stepping forth. We see more contentious racially tinged confrontations..We also see an increase in domestic terrorism..Wonder if that sort of anger feared in South Africa will make its way over here…

-Davey D-

As South Africa get ready to host the World Cup, the killing of far-right white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche, could not come at a worse time. Today, President Zuma called for calm after Terreblanche was found hacked to death with machete on his farm in the country’s North West. The 69-year-old leader of the white supremacist group Afrikaans Resistance Movement (AWB) fought to preserve apartheid in the 1990s.

The police found Terreblanche dead with facial and head injuries, a machete on his body, and a heavy knob-headed stick nearby. The police has arrested two men, aged 21 and 15, who were Terreblanche’s farm workers. The two men said they had an argument with Terreblanche over not having been paid for work done on the farm.

While President Zuma urged all South Africans to remain calm, some opposition parties warned that the far-right leader’s killing had created a potentially explosive situation. Terreblanche supporters are organized as a militia, they wear khaki uniforms and the AWB has a swastika-like symbol, which is displayed on their flag (see photo). In the 1990s, the AWB violently opposed South Africa all-race democracy and campaigned for autonomous white states. Their campaign included bomb attacks ahead of the 1994 elections which ended the white minority apartheid state.

Terreblanche founded the AWB in 1972. He wanted to create all-white states within South Africa in which blacks would only be allowed as guest workers. Terreblanche threatened to take the country by force if the white government capitulated to the African National Congress.

Apartheid ended 16 years ago, however, the end of the shameful system did little to address the economic inequality between whites and blacks. Especially in the North West, farms remain overwhelmingly in white hands, and violence on farms is very high. Between 1997 and 2007, 1,248 farmers and farm workers were killed on farms, mainly in racial incidents.

Terreblanche murder comes amid increased race tensions over a popular song with the refrain “Kill the Boers” (Afrikaans for white) which has being adopted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) youth leader Julius Malema. Members of Terreblanche’s AWB are calling the killing a “declaration of war” by blacks against whites, and Andre Visagie, AWB’s secretary-general said the AWB would “avenge Terreblanche’s death”.

“We will decide upon our actions to avenge Mr. Terreblanche’s death. We will take actions which will be decided upon at our conference,” Visagie told the Agence France Presse.

Members of the AWB are Afrikaners. The Afrikaners are descendants of the Boers, the first white colons who arrived in South Africa 300 years ago. Their short lived republic in Transvaal and Northern Natal was broken-up after the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer war. The AWB has had a revival since 2008, and there is no doubt that Terreblanche’s death will re-open old wounds and exacerbate racial tensions again in South Africa.

via South Africa: Will Killing Of White Supremacist Trigger Racial Violence?.

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