Mothers Day | Hip-Hop and Politics

Mother Today is Mother’s Day.. a day when all of us should take some time out, reflect and give heartfelt thanks, hugs and show appreciation to our first teachers… Today is one where we should uplift those who have bore life and have nurtured us, often times against seemingly insurmountable odds…Many of us claim to love our mammas, but far too many us go all out to mistreat the mothers and future mothers around us..Some lay hands on our mothers, others verbally abuse our mothers.. Still others sing, rap or listen to material that debases our mothers.. That needs to stop..

What good are flowers and cards when we refuse to see our mothers as invaluable? If the women around us are only seen as bitches, hoes and creatures who need to be pimped or physically checked, then Mothers Day will only be a Hallmark Card holiday and not something that should be a kickoff to behavior and collective action that could be more meaningful..

The worth of a people will always be judged by the treatment of the women around them… There are many mothers who have gone under appreciated, uncared for and who have been scared and damaged by a society that gives lip service to ending oppression and to a community that has brought into the destructive ideals of that majority culture.. Perhaps this Mother’s Day our greatest gift should be us making firm commitments and us taken bold steps to helping our mothers and future mothers heal.. Our sisters, aunties, grandma and mothers deserve our unconditional love and uncompromised support..

A toast and much love to all mothers who have managed and continue to manage the storms of male supremacy impacting them daily. May we all learn to be better sons for our moms, better husbands to our wives, better fathers to our daughters better boyfriends to our girlfriends and better men so those coming behind us will see and respect the humanity in the women around us..

-Davey D-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY

This mother’s day if we wanna honor the mothers in our lives & around the world how about we END the poverty so many mothers are experiencing?…

We can honor the mothers in our lives and around us by ENDING the abuse of women.. We can start by not calling women out their names. Talk about giving a gift to the mothers of the world, try to forever ban the word “BITCH’ from your lips.. Looking back at how many men got bent out of shape at the notion Jay-Z was pondering taking such action and how relieved they were when he said he would still be calling women bitches, I would say erasing that harmful word from our lips when referring to women, might be a gift of the ages..

Lets make this a mother’s day where we uplift those mothers around us who are in dire straits i.e Marissa Alexander the Florida woman sentenced this week to 20 years for defending herself against an abusive husband is one name that comes to comes to mind..But there are so many others. How about all of us take a firm stance against domestic violence. Let’s create a climate where the mothers in our lives can feel safe, and free of such a heinous act.. If your a man who puts hands on women and you’re running around giving out mother’s day cards.. how about you get some help.. serious help? Try calling this hotline.. and stop the damage you’re causing 1−800−799−SAFE (7233)

Today lets comfort the mothers in our community who are in pain..Many have lost precious children to violence i.e. Sabrina Fulton who is Trayvon Martin‘s mom.. Rekia Boyd‘s mom, Alan Bluford’s mom, Oscar Grant‘s mom.. These are just a few of the countless who lost children to police violence..Can we make a commitment to help ease their pain? Can you join in their public and private fights to seek justice?

We must not forget the moms who live in our community who are in pain because of the senseless violence we inflict on each other.. How about we make a commitment to end all bloodshed as away to honor our mothers? Forget the Mother’s Day card.. How about we go all out to affirm life? Let’s end war in our hood and war overseas. Let’s convince our government to stop sending drones that result in the deaths of mothers..Let’s encourage our government to pressure countries that we do business with to stop the practice of rape as a weapon of war.. How about we end female genital mutilation? Let’s end the mass incarceration of women and the shameful deportation and detention of mothers from their children…Those would be some serious gifts that would honor the mothers who struggled for such aims in the past and presently and would benefit from it greatly in the future.

Let this mother’s day be one in which we end the ‘war on women‘ If we wanna honor moms lets stop allowing them to be political punching bags for those unscrupulous politicians who would sell their souls for political gain vs doing whats right by the mothers in their lives. Do the mothers in your lives have health insurance? Are they working 2 & 3 jobs & still not making it? Are these moms making the same wages as the men around them? Are they being abused? Let’ honor our moms by ending those sorts of shortfalls.Here’s great article that came out this morning from Alternet outlining 11 things we can do to really honor Mother’s Day.. 11 ways to Really Help Mothers This Mother’s Day

This mother’s day let’s make a commitment to change the world and make room for our mothers to truly shine, be respected and loved and more important have a seat at the table.Lets honor all those heroic mothers from Harriet Tubman to Fanny Lou Hammer to our own moms who tireless sacrifice, put up the good fight day in and day out to help bring us all brighter tomorrows

As we close out here are two Mother Day mixes that’ll hopefully help all feel inspired this Sunday..One is by myself..(Davey D) the other by DJ Sloepoke out in LA.. the links are below..

Below is the mix by DJ Sloepoke.. you can peep it HERE

http://thesoundstrike.podomatic.com/entry/2012-03-10T19_19_08-08_00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTq84OWZc6Q