RT @drgoddess: Essence doesn't honor the First Lady then bring R. Kelly on in the next breath. Learn a thing or two, other media outlets...Follow us Mrdaveyd on Twitter1 hour ago
RT @bmangh: How Wolf Blitzer totally bungled last night's housing question and let the GOP off the hook http://t.co/OHE4uxy5Follow us Mrdaveyd on Twitter3 hours ago
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 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?
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, that 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)
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..
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 withMomma’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 withhttp://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
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
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..
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..
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..
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.
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
———————————————————– 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.
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
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
———————————————————-
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
———————————————————-
Common Underfire for White Housevisit: 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.
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??
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
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..
I’m loving the way the Bay Area gets down on the dance tip..With so much of the music corporatized and dumbed down its refreshing to see true Hip Hop expression manifest itself through the dancing..
Peep out how these folks Paulie Rhythms & Boy Wonder of Soul Sector get down on the strutting and popping tip in the Mission one afternoon with Mikey Disko & Donnie Strutt in a low rider…Shout out to my former TA at SF State and local emcee Mandeep Sethi for putting this video together and capturing the magic.
Many of us recall last January when the Arab Spring broke out in Egypt, we cheered as Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was ousted as many talked about how the army was revered.
After Mubarak stepped down, most of us here in the US went about our day-to-day lives thinking that Egypt’s darkest days were over.. Because many of us here in the US pay little attention to foreign affairs, we were caught off guard when we ‘discovered’ that things were on and popping once again in Tahir Square..
The truth of the matter was all those thousands of people we saw early on in the square never left. Large demonstration numbering in the tens of thousands with demands for full equality never ceased. The only that ceased was CNN and other network news coverage….Sadly the young folks in Egypt who ousted Mubarak suddenly found themselves facing a new and more deadly foe, the once revered Egyptian Army.
Beatings and torture increased as more and more young folks determined to have a brighter tomorrow boldly faced down an institution that is pretty much funded with American tax dollars. In seeing the latest wave of brutality we see the army tearing down and burning tents that have now ‘occupied’ the square and we also have come to understand why they have been hell-bent on removing people from Tahir Square..
Tahir was as a gathering place was fueling the revolution.. It was more than symbolic it was and has been the proverbial town square.. In looking at the latest footage of an out of control army viciously beating and stomping out unarmed women, if such scenes will not soon be visiting us here at home.. Whats most interesting is that as the brutality you see unfolding in the videos below continue, the media controlled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is blaming the brutality on Egyptian protestors. Many who are into 30 second soundbites pick up on this and run with it, refusing to believe that those designed to protect the people would harm the people. Here many of us wanna hide from the fact that our money is paying for oppression all over the globe. Its hard pill for many to swallow..
Here is a you tube playlist of over 120 videos showing the brutality being waged against Egyptian demonstrators..
Our interview with a young woman named Al-Shimaa’ Haidar from Egypt who is now in the states.. She gives agreat overview of whats been going on in Egypt since Mubarak was ousted and contrasted her experiences in Tahir with the Occupy Movements here in the states which she’s been a part of..
Glad to see all the troops coming home, now that the war in Iraq is officially over.. However in a world with No Jobs, Increased Foreclosures & lawmakers pushing to make even more cuts while telling those who’ve fallen on economic hard times to ‘blame themselves‘, do these returning men and women who did 4 & 5 tours of duty, become police officers, FBI and ICE agents who enforce the status quo and crush those who challenge it, or do they follow the steps of those who see the inequalities in our society and fight for change?
One needs to bear in mind, that a sizeable number of people who joined our military did so because of what we call the economic draft.. Poverty and the inability to find jobs was impacting many in our communities long before an Occupy Movement or the notion of a 1% vs 99% emerged. The military heavily recruited desperate folks from our neighborhoods promising folks a new lease on life and the opportunity to establish some sort of economic foothold. Commercials greeted us daily with the slogan, Be All That You Can Be.. Many never dreamt they would see the horrors of war and be required to return to the battlefield over and over again..
The psychological impact of all that combat alone should be of grave concern..All of us should be asking about what sort of measures are being put in place for returning vets to detox? How will returning vets deal with PTS (Post Traumatic Stress)?
We already have huge population of vets who are out on the streets homeless, unable to re-adjust to society.. How are we handling them?
As I asked earlier, how will these returning soldiers react when they come home to see that we spent trillions to liberate Iraq while grandma, auntie and mother are living in communities where the poverty rate is at record highs and homes they once owned have been foreclosed on with no jobs in sight?
Will these returning vets see themselves as part of a struggling community and seek to align themselves with those pushing for change or will they spiral into the ruthlessness we seen demonstrated in places like Egypt where we have folks fighting for freedom and democracy while a standing army that we pay for with American tax dollars are pulling out all the stops to brutally suppress them?
Will we see more soldiers who are of the caliber demonstrated by the Iraq Veterans Against the War or will we see soldiers who are of the caliber demonstrated by those who embraced and carried out the horrific torture techniques we seen demonstrated at places like Abu Ghraib? Even more troubling will find returning vets desperate for work and eager for some sort of stability being recruited by rich and powerful corporate executes to serve as a literal private army of sorts?
History shows that once upon a time African-American soldiers returning from World Wars 1 & 2, realized that the situation at home was dire especially along racial lines. The freedoms they fought for overseas in Europe were not afforded to many of us here at home who suffered under harsh Jim Crow laws. Many became disenchanted and pressed the issue. They demanded equality.
One of those returning soldiers was Civil Rights icon Harry Belafonte who recently spoke at First Congregation Church in Berkeley who spoke about what it was like for those returning from war after they tasted freedom. He noted that as many started to ask alot of questions about equal rights, the oppression toward them and us was substantially increased..
Belafonte talked about how lynchings and racial terror increased all over the country as society made attempts to put returning Black soldiers back in their place. Many did not take to the suppression lightly and at various points there were armed resistence and struggle. This inequality and subsequent repression also gave rise to the Civil Rights Movements and Black Freedom struggles..of the 60s and 70s.
My question is how will our returning brethren behave in 2011 when they return to this massive economic inequality?
This has been a good week for music, especially on the video tip as we’ve had three stellar offerings to raise your awareness and peak your conscience. Two of the videos deal directly with police brutality and I’m hoping folks will pay close attention, being that much that is shown happened over the past couple of years… As we peep these vids we should all be asking ourselves whats going on? How will folks be brought to justice and what will we do as individuals or a collective body of people..
The third video comes from Lupe Fiasco who gives us serious food for thought by laying out an array of movies many of us came up on and questions what sort of impact they may have had on the past few generations…
First up is a song called ‘Film The Police‘. It’s a remake of the NWA classic ‘Fuck Tha Police’ and features great performances from B-Dolan who steps in for Ice Cube, Toki Wright who fills in for MC Ren and Jasiri X who fills in for Eazy E..Sage Francis kicks things off as the judge ala Dr Dre.. He does a great job, but I gotta be honest it would’ve been nice to see what lyrics he would’ve spit on this song..Big shout out to producer Buddy Peace who actually reconstructed the beat..
The video has struck a chord with lots of folks as it chronicles a lot of violence we’ve seen directed at peaceful occupy protests. within a day of its release its garnered well over 40k views. These guys do a great job at connecting the dots to what has gone down in the Occupy Movement which all are a part of and what has gone on for way too long in communities of color…
The call to Film the Police doesn’t have a s strong a ring as fuck the police, but it speaks to the importance of us documenting and giving voice to our own realities especially at a day and time where police departments are fighting to make filming them illegal.
Next up is an incredible video from San Francisco rapper Metro P and Oakland rapper Mistah Fab. Their new song Price Tag hammers home the plight many in the Bay Area have been dealing with around the issue of police terrorism and the literal price tag on people’s heads.
They start off by bringing to light the Oscar Grant situation. They also highlight footage from the scandal that rocked San Francisco where police were found to have placed drugs and lied on the reports of 56 different felony cases …Metro P drops gems about the long struggle we as Black folks have had with the police as he takes us back to the March on Washington up to modern day situations. Mistah Fab’s lyrics focus on the point that far too many of us have started hating on each other vs turning that aggression toward the police..
On a related tip folks, we can’t really talk about police terror in SF without making mention of the drama surrounding Fly Benzo who has been kicking up a lot of dust by constantly stepping to SFPD.. His video ‘War on Terror‘ speaks to the issue and highlights the fact that he’s looking at 4 years for a trump up charges which all stem from him speaking out on police brutality in his native Hunters Point.
Our last featured video comes from Lupe Fiasco..This brother has been a roll lately and sadly is seriously underrated. He’s been speaking up on key issues and trying to make sure his music reflects the political sentiment many are feeling..
His newest offering is to a song called Double Burger w/ Cheese where he goes in the power of images and how they may have impacted several generations of Black Youth.. The video starts off by showing footage from the 1965 Watts Riots and then juxtaposes it with an array of videos and images from movies in the early to mid 90s that focus both on South Central LA and the crack era..
We see footage from everything like; Juice, Menace II Society, Boyz N The Hood, New Jersey Drive, Poetic Justice, Dead Presidents, South Central, Sugar Hill, New Jack City, Paid In Full,& Colors. Although many of the movies shown have strong anti-gang messages, many of us have come to romanticize and glorify the gang drama and trauma shown in them..
Many who have seen the video are really appreciating where Lupe is coming from. Each line he spits hits the issue hard. Sadly there are many who see the video montage and they fondly look back at the movies sans the politics.
Hip Hop icon, Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers is one of the dopest emcees around.. He’s also one of the most politically astute….
We caught up with him the other day while visiting the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh, Pa to get his take on staying fresh in the emcee realm and what the Occupy Movement means to him…
Needless to say Wise left us with some jewels..His freestyles are straight rewind material as they are full of relevant substance and clever wordplay..
