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dippedanddripped · 5 years ago

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In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protest, the racial biases that still plague countless industries have come to light, and skateboarding is no exception. Last week, Na-Kel Smith took to Instagram with fellow skaters Kevin White and Mikey Alfred to open up about his personal experiences of racism within the industry. Now, brands are stepping up with Palace pledging $1 million to Black Lives Matter and the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and Supreme pledging $500,000 between a number of charities.

Given skateboarding’s countercultural roots, brotherly spirit, and general hatred towards cops, it may come as a surprise that racism is still a serious issue. But, the sport has yet to shake the systemic biases that stem from its origins in ’60s surfer culture in California, when it was an activity practiced almost exclusively by white male Californians. It was only in the early ’90s, when vert skating declined due to lack of investment in parks and competitions, that people took to the streets and a new wave of skating surfaced. Street skating was accessible to anyone, and with it came an upward curve in the number of black participants, diluting the skater archetype of the white male antihero.

Although the participant demographic has changed significantly, the professional industry itself remains largely white. That’s not to say there hasn’t been positive change. The last 10 years have seen a significant increase in the number of brands and media owned by and created for skaters of all backgrounds, genders, and race, and even the launch of a Pushing Boarders, an annual conference focused on addressing the social and structural issues in skateboarding. In spite of this democratization, those pulling the (purse) strings remain mostly white and the comradely nature of skating serves, too often, as a veneer for harmful biases and behavior beneath.

Following the protests and spurred on by pro skater Na-Kel Smith’s honest recount, lifetime skater Patrick Kigongo was inspired to put together the Black List, a crowd-sourced database of black-owned skate organizations, brands, and media. Kigongo grew up in suburban New York, moving to Washington D.C. to study international affairs, and went on to work in the NGO sector. All the while, he maintained an active part in the independent music and skate scenes, playing in bands, shooting videos, and working as a writer for a number of online publications, including the early arts and fashion platform Brightest Young Things. He’s now based in LA, where he works as a digital product manager and continues to write on race, foreign policy, pop culture, and skateboarding. We caught up with Kigongo to talk about the list and the state of racism in the industry today.

Why did you create the Black List?

After that first weekend of protests here in LA, I really started to ask myself, “What more can I do?” Then Na-Kel Smith jumped on Instagram Live giving what was a foundational speech with Mikey from Illegal Civ and Kevin White. What that conversation really did was touch upon something that every black skater — whether you are just a fan like me or a sponsored skater — has experienced. We’ve all experienced microaggressions. We’ve all experienced being targeted by the police. He is coming to this understanding as a young man, that a lot of this is not okay. Being in a van with somebody who ironically or un-ironically listens to Screwdriver, riding for companies that may or may not sponsor people who have white nationalist ties. He opened the door for a pretty serious conversation that has been on the sidelines in skating but has never been thrust into the spotlight. And that really got me thinking.

The skateboarding industry is very small. There’s really only a handful of factories that make decks or wheels, and there are only a few foundries that make trucks. None of those major manufacturing plants are black-owned. But there are a handful of black-owned companies. All these folks on social media were sharing black-owned bookstores, restaurants, and clothing companies, so I figured, why not do it for skating and see how many black-owned companies I could find via crowd-sourcing? And, more importantly, reflect this back out to the world to show these companies that not only are they not producing their goods in a vacuum, but also that this could actually be a potential foundation for consolidating some sort of political power.

How has the response been?

Overwhelming. It’s been very positive, people have been overwhelmingly kind. I even got to speak with a couple of legends who’ve reached out to say thank you. And more importantly, it’s been very humbling. It really shows how far skating has come.

Talking about Na-Kel’s speech, what do you think prevented him and other skaters that may have had similar experiences raising them earlier?

I think it’s two things. Number one, not having the vocabulary to describe what’s happening to you, and number two, the fear of consequences and repercussions within the industry. A lot of young skaters may only have a high school diploma and they’ve never held down any other type of job, so this is really the only thing they’ve got going for them. There is a fear that you will be blackballed, or that folks will look at you and say, “Oh, come on, man. He was just kidding. I’ve got lots of black friends. I thought we were bros.” There’s that real fear, that people won’t take you seriously.

Then there are black skaters who feel as though, “I’m just trying to do me, and work my way through this.” They just don’t know how many other black folks are working in the industry. They don’t know that they actually have power, and a voice, and also a huge audience. But now you’re starting to see the gears turning in a lot of these young people’s heads.

You’ve been skating for many years — how have you seen the skater demographic change?

I started skating the summer of 1994/95. This was a period where you had this twin explosion in skating and streetwear culture. You had this sudden wave of young black skaters in the videos and turning pro. For young people like me who grew up skating in crews where I was the only black kid, it was amazing watching videos like World [Industries], Blind, and 101’s 20 shot sequences, or any of the first Girl and Chocolate videos, and seeing a lot of black and brown faces. That was incredibly empowering.

But there were still only a couple of black-owned companies. And even if they were black-owned, the distributors who are getting those boards and clothes into shops all over the world were still white, and the shops were still mostly white-owned. It wasn’t until the early aughts where people stopped saying skateboarding was a white boy thing. You can really thank, first of all, Tony Hawk, pro-skater, for putting guys like Kareem Campbell on it, and also people with crossover appeal, like Stevie Williams. If you fast forward to 2011 with the rise of Odd Future, all of a sudden you saw a whole new generation of young, black kids, who were completely unbound by hip-hop or traditional skateboard culture.

Now, we’re really seeing that skating has smashed through a lot of those racial barriers, at least in terms of sponsorship and in terms of visibility. Not only are there black skaters all over the country, but we’re also all over the world. In Kampala, Uganda, a bunch of kids built a DIY park. When I was a kid when we would go to visit relatives, I couldn’t bring my skateboard. Where was I going to go? The streets were in awful condition, the war had only ended in 1986. It’s still a very poor country, but our kids, because of smartphones and the internet, have been exposed to skating. And this is not just in Uganda, it’s in Ethiopia, it’s in Eritrea, it’s in Ghana, it’s in South Africa, Morocco, Algeria. It’s all over the world. That’s a very, very humbling thing, to see how far skating has come.

What do you think are the main barriers preventing more people of color working in the skate industry?

Firstly, there’s no formal network of transition out of being a sponsored skater, so we don’t have a system for people to ease out of being a pro skater, into being a designer, becoming a sales rep, becoming a distributor. The best you can hope for is maybe getting a job in the warehouse.

Secondly, I think for some people it just comes down to racism. I don’t think that it’s nearly as frequent [in skating] as in other walks of American life, but there are racists everywhere, so I’m going to assume that there are some people in distro companies and work for certain board or shoe companies who are racist and say, “They don’t really fit our image.”

Thirdly, I think it’s difficult to create a sense of real, actionable solidarity within skating. In the 1990s, there was some discussion about creating some sort of a skaters union, off the model of the NBA player’s union, something to get people health insurance, to negotiate fair wages, and maybe even normalize the funding for contests. And it didn’t go over so well. There was an incredible amount of opposition, because again, skating has deep roots in libertarian, right-wing California. And it’s very, very difficult to shake that.

And if it stays that way, the white-dominated industry will see no change.

Mmm-hmm. I’m 100 percent sure it is very similar in streetwear. One of the real difficulties in effecting any sort of change in skateboarding is that there’s no oversight and there’s no accountability within the industry. They’re so used to being able to operate in a way in which there’s not much public scrutiny. For this debate all of a sudden to not only be public but be keyed into what’s happening on the streets right now is a mindfuck. Especially compared to where skating was in the early to mid-’90s, when it was thoroughly a real subculture. But skateboarding is about to go into the Olympics. These guys are no longer going to be able to operate in a vacuum somewhere.

The conversation around skateboarding becoming more mainstream often focuses on the negatives, but the positives are that it is becoming more inclusive and diverse.

Right. All you have to do is go to any skate park in LA. What a radical shift to see lots of brown and black kids, lots of women, even non-binary people. Skating has shed a lot of its mean guy culture, and it will always retain a certain sense of camaraderie. Now, you roll up at a skate spot and it’s like, “Hey, what’s up? Good morning. Where you from, man?” You’re just saying, “Hey, I’m a human being. That’s a human being.” It’s beautiful. What’s really powerful is that in terms of getting into skating, anybody can do it. That’s why a lot of the non-profits like Skateistan or SkatePal in Palestine are becoming more successful, because there are no rules. Skating is really positive for kids because it normalizes failure. How many people who are pushing 40 are regularly trying to go out there and fail? It really humbles you.

I think it’s worth accepting what’s happening right now in terms of discussion about skating and race, and also skating and gender, as part of growing pains. We are being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. And that’s a really, really good thing. You don’t want skating to become viewed as this macho artifact, because then it just becomes embarrassing.

What would you like the knock-on effects from the conversations happening now to be, and more specifically, The Black List?

In the immediate short-term, I want some of these brothers and sisters to get paid. Start supporting these companies. Buy a shirt, buy a board, buy some hardware, buy something. If you’re a store owner, get them into your shop. The list continues to grow, which is a very, very beautiful thing.

In terms of what I hope happens next, I really hope that we can have a skate culture where people will not immediately shirk away from having small P political discussions, and that skaters in the skate industry will embrace one of the most important tenants of punk rock and hardcore, which is that the personal is political. How and where you spend your dollars is an inherently political act, and one of the most empowering and important decisions that you make every single day. And so that, instead of people saying “Oh, I’m not really political.” That they will understand off the rip that they as a consumer, they as a skater, have a certain amount of power.

I also want there to be more shine for skaters of color. Black History Month this year came and went, and although there’s actually a rack of skate podcasts now, where was the Black History episode? Where were the episodes with Lavar McBride or Kareem Campbell? I want that celebration. I want that feeling like this is something that’s super important. And I’m not just talking about an Instagram post. You want the skate media to actually be able to grapple with these kinds of questions.

What else do you think will facilitate these changes?

I think more things like Pushing Boarders. We need more spaces for these conversations to happen in a formalized space within the industry. That’s important. Going forward, you want to make it so that skating can enjoy the same bloom that basketball continues to have as it grows bigger around the world. Something where everybody can get into it, everybody loves it, and everybody is proud of it. Being an NBA fan, you compare players now to the late ’90s, early aughts, where you still have fights, you still had the commissioner beefing with players about, like, “I don’t want you guys to dress like thugs.” To see now, most ballers are serious, they’re investors, they’re part of the community, they’re speaking out on issues such as Black Lives Matter. You’re really proud.

Because the bad boy stuff was fun, but those stories always ended up the same with, “I spent all my money,” or “I burned so many bridges that I have no friends left in the game.” And now, you watch your team, you watch your favorite players, you’re really proud of them. I want skaters to be really, really proud of its subculture. I still want it to be rebellious — skating will always be inherently rebellious because street skating is all about challenging norms between your individual self and private property/public property. But I really want it to be something that’s inclusive, that people can look at and be like, “Why can’t you all be like them skateboarders, man?,” and that doesn’t have a toxic culture. I don’t use that term lightly, but in some ways, back in the day, it was toxic. You were constantly being policed by other people and it was cliquish and judgmental. It’s a lot more open now and I want it to continue to build on that openness, and remind people that this is a subculture, yes, but it is something that is open, and it is inclusive, and everybody has a home here. Except for racists, and hateful people in general.

#the black list #Patrick Kigongo #skateboarding #na-kel smith #kareem campbell #Black-Owned Skate Businesses #minority businesses #sneaker blog #streetwear blog

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zidanesleftfoot · 5 years ago

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Like many kids before, of, and after my generation my love of football came from my father. I remember he had a collection of so many great football video tapes. Growing up in the 90′s the Liverpool one’s consisted of season reviews that saw Robbie Fowler and Steve Mcmanamann tearing it up and just winning one trophy. One video was a bit more special than the rest, it had “PELE” printed on the side and it was about the footballing life of the player who, at the time, was considered the greatest of all time. This journey of a Black man that started in Greyscale and ended in technicolour glory, racism didn’t exist to this child.

You grow up a bit, go to school, someone calls you a paki, start buying your own music, discover hip-hop and you realise that maybe what you saw in that video wasn’t the full story. About the same time, another Brazilian is breaking the ceiling of what we thought was possible as footballer. Ronaldo another idol, another player you love as a football fan. Another Black man.

You start secondary school, the education system consider you someone they can start challenging and so do your family, telling you the history of your ancestors. Your history teacher tells you about the enslavement of Black people, Public Enemy explain the emancipation never happened and your family say they were never considered citizens. Luckily at school we Black, Brown and White kids realised our strength lay in togetherness.

You’re edging towards being an adult, Ronaldinho is the latest great to light up the world, Brazilian and utterly untouchable. You’re a bit older, listening to the way pundits describe players, I even heard someone describe Ronaldinho as an incredible athlete, no utterance of him also being possibly the most skilful player to ever play the game. Oh and let’s not forget the greatest African player of all time, Samuel E’too, the clinical edge of the fantasy Ronaldinho and their greatness on the pitch realised by a cerebral and legendary player turned coach, Frank Rijkaard. Three black men from three continents showing the globe the best football in the most competitive industry in the world. Imagine thinking people were less than you based on the colour of their skin.

At this point in life you listen back to albums you were told are legendary and suddenly have the ability to start understanding them beyond the banging beats. I went back to the golden era of hip-hop; 36 chambers, The Infamous, Low End Theory, 3 Feet High and Rising, Ready to Die, All Eyez on Me, Aquemini, ATLiens and of course Illmatic. At the same time we had the first real generation of Black stars in the English league. Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Patrice Evra, Patrick Viera, Gilberto Silva, Jay Jay Okocha and the greatest Premier League player of all time, Thierry Henry.

My Dad took me to my first Liverpool game in 1997, a 1-0 home loss to Barnsley, how times have changed both on and off the pitch. Little did I know that my Dad had found it hard to go to games in his lifetime. The stardom of the Black players I've listed above signaled a change in times. Being black and playing in England, let alone playing for England, was now acceptable but before my time it was a contentious issue. The brilliance of the players of my teenage years was allowed because Black players from the 70′s and 80′s (John Barnes being one of my dad’s favourite players) defied the racist chants, bananas thrown on the pitch, to dazzle the crowds with their brilliance. So the overt racism had largely evaporated but the subtle tones of Black players being different never left the airways.

Leave school and now at University, young man in the big city, think I know it all and also exposed to more ideas, cultures and music than I could ever wish for. This period of fulfilment met with the most successful national football team of all time starting their success with Marcos Senna being the calming elder head of a midfield and also the only black man in the Spanish team. At the same time the greatest team of all time started their story by beating Manchester United in the Champions League Final. Barcelona had an injury crisis in defence that night in Rome so their manager decided that the best solution was to put Ivory Coast Midfielder, Yaya Toure, in the heart of the defence. A demonstration that the best manager of our generation saw that he had the intelligence and ability to play an unfamiliar position in the biggest match in club football. A commanding performance and then a transfer to England.

Yaya is an important story, he came to England primarily playing as a defensive midfielder, just turned out his most iconic performance in defence and ended up being one of the most beautiful players to play in England. It shouldn’t be denied that the first thing you saw was that he was an incredibly imposing figure, but so was Branislav Ivanovic, as soon as the match started you realised he was also probably the best footballer on the pitch. He controlled midfield with intelligence, assuredness and striking the ball in such a caressing way. So that’s why it was questionable to see pundits, old and young, describe him primarily as “powerful”, “a specimen” and “a beast”. Sure he was famous for some rampaging runs through midfield but let’s be honest, he saw a picture unfold in front of him before it happened and I'm sure Lionel Messi will tell you that dribbling the ball 30 or 40 yards is more about immense technique than it is about being fast and strong. He is one of an incredibly small group of midfielders to score 20 league goals in a season, hardly just an athlete. Yaya saw it as much and even came out saying that African players aren’t respected as players because of underlying prejudice.

At the time the story wasn’t picked up much, just another black man complaining? And why should we really worry? Yaya is African, our society is past these things in Britain (sound like empire much). Unfortunately for people of this mindset, things were about to hit a little closer to home, Kendrick released To Pimp a Butterfly, a revolution in Hip-Hop, an empowering record and a few years later Raheem Sterling turned the mirror on British society by slamming newspapers for fuelling the racial hatred of the social media age.

Kendrick released that album towards the end of the Obama presidency, before the Orange Man decided to start his racist rhetoric, it spoke of the destructive power of fame, his feeling of worthlessness as a black man in modern America, his pride in the roots of his community, policy brutality, depression, hope, the importance of family, the importance of understanding yourself. All this whilst America was being run by a Black President. Nothing changed. 8th of December 2018 and Raheem Sterling was racially abused by a couple of Chelsea fans as he went to take a corner during a league game, his face actually dropped as he heard them but he stoically continued. A few months earlier England had just reached the Semi-Final of the World Cup. All of the players put in a valiant effort, I get home and Raheem Sterling had apparently played poorly, my friends say he was good but the team just didn’t work out. Why is he being hated on? Are people still raging about the gun tattoo he got which actually had its provenance in denouncing gun violence? Probably not, as Raheem pointed out in an Instagram post, media stories about his personal life and that of other Black players, contrasted wildly to that of their White counterparts. Raheem buys him Mom a house, what an extravagant purchase. White Manchester City youth player being a house for his family, “a family man”. England Hero but nothing changed.

Raheem will always go down as an important part of English football and societal culture for me because of this. He sat in a position of power, saw that some things were worth the blow back and decided to risk his own comfort for those that come after him. This last weekend Jadon Sancho, the next star of the England team, had one of the best days of his career to date by scoring his first hat-trick but he decided to put the focus on George Floyd by displaying a message of support after he scored. So if you love football and struggle to understand why the events of the last week should bother you, or even worse, why you shouldn’t be opposed to them, then I hope I've given you an insight as to why our community is built and relies on the gifts of Black people.

Peace.

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zacvanlandingham-blog · 8 years ago

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Know your roots

The role of Punk Rock in the Black Lives Matter movement by Zac Vanlandingham

How has Punk culture and music addressed movements for Black social justice? As a Punk musician and songwriter, myself, this question holds a lot of interest for me. I intend to look at how Punk music and culture has tied into past movements for social justice and how it now ties into the Black Lives Matter movement. The history of Punk culture and music is tied into different kinds of Black music and culture. Punk rock is a sub-genre of Rock and Roll music. Rock and Roll music in the late fifties and early sixties created some of the first integrated audiences for music performances. White and Black audiences would attend performances by Black artists such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and James Brown. To name just a few. Another aspect of the beginnings of Punk music was that Jamaican immigrants in London were playing and performing Reggae music and this music started to become popular with the young white working class in London. Punk Rock was the result of these young white working class musicians feeling inspired by the unique beats, time signatures, and guitar strumming of Reggae music and putting their own spin on it. This relationship between Punk Rock and Reggae music would later be illustrated by the Bad Brains, who were a Black Punk Rock band who would transition into a Reggae group, and then would later return to playing Punk Rock. As I stated earlier my interest in the history of this music comes from the fact that I am myself a singer, musician, and songwriter in a Punk Rock band. My own background is that I am a straight, white, male who grew up with a middle-class childhood. The music that I enjoy listening to and playing however has caused me to interact, emphasize with, and become familiar with cultures and backgrounds that are different from my own. One of the aspects of Punk culture that is important to me is that individuals from many different backgrounds, cultures, and sexual orientations are made to feel welcome and to be a part of the Punk community. I intend to explore a few of the ways in which the Punk Rock community is currently engaging with the Black Lives Matter Movement. My own band has written a song highlighting the problems of police brutality and corruption and we routinely try to raise awareness on this issue, as well as many others. My own experience being the victim of a wrongful arrest made it easier for me to believe others when they said that they had had similar experiences. As a fan of both Punk Rock and Hip Hop, I’m interested in exploring the similarities between these two different forms of music. Both musical genres are politically aware and engaged and they both praise the DIY (do it yourself) values of the musical artists active in their respective communities. Punk Rock and Hip Hop are both viewed as rebellious subcultures acting in defiance of the dominant culture. Dick Hebdige describes the experience of being involved in a subculture in the following way. “It signals a refusal. I would like to think that this refusal is worth making, that these gestures have a meaning, that the smiles and the sneers have some subversive value, even if, in the final analysis, they are. Just so much graffiti on a prison wall.” (Hebdige145). I took this passage as meaning that for musicians and songwriters in these genres, it is a moral duty to use the music as a platform to criticize aspects of society that need to change even though it may not seem to make a difference sometimes. You may not be able to see the effects immediately, but if you keep singing, someone, somewhere, will hear you. “What today’s activists, organizers, and artists are giving us are new ways to see our past and our present. Even more, they are giving us the directive to address inequality and inequity now-to make it clear that if we do not do so, we will continue to be drawn back into the bad cycle...” (Chang8). It is important to continue using music to criticize injustice because, “the social structures that create premature death do not harm only those individuals who have the misfortune to come into contact with bigots or quick-trigger authorities who have not yet learned how to see. They also prevent people from getting adequate food, shelter, and housing. They limit physical, economic, and social mobility. They refuse to let us all be free.” (Chang3). Both Punk Rock and Hip Hop have used music to criticize corrupt and violent police actions. While the songs ‘Police Truck’ by the Dead Kennedys and ‘Fuck the Police’ by N.W.A may sound different from each other, they both carry the same message. Both songs convey the reality of police harassment. The fact that police have routinely harassed the musicians creating both music forms gives these musicians incentive to be involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. Salim Faraji says that “The #Black Lives Matter movement emerged in response to a series of violent police assaults that have killed countless unarmed African Americans around the country, including Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson and more recently Laquan McDonald. These criminal acts by police against their own citizenry have been exacerbated by the failure of the justice system to convict or in many cases even investigate the perpetrators which for many equates to a system of state-sanctioned police violence.” (Faraji4). After continually being exposed to harassment and being bombarded with these kinds of wrongful deaths happening in their communities the musicians from these scenes feel compelled to voice their discontent with what they know best, music. In the song ‘Police Truck’, the Dead Kennedys speak about the culture of corruption and cooperation in many police departments that keeps police officers from being punished for their crimes. “The left newspapers might whine a bit. But the guys at the station, they don't give a shit. Dispatch calls, "Are ya doin' something' wicked?" "No siree, Jack, we're just giving' tickets!” (Dead Kennedys “Police Truck” Give me convenience or give me death Alternative Tentacles. 1987). In the song ‘Fuck Tha Police’, N.W.A speaks about the police practice of profiling that results in minorities being harassed because of their appearance. “Fuck the police coming straight from the underground. A young nigga got it bad because I'm brown. And not the other color so police think. They have the authority to kill a minority. Fuck that shit, because I ain't the one. For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun. To be beating on, and thrown in jail. We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell.” (N.W.A “Fuck Tha Police” Straight Outta Compton Ruthless.1988). Black Musicians were being discriminated against and attacked even before Hip Hop existed. Brian Ward provides us with an account of the Jazz singer Nat King Cole being attacked during a concert in 1956. “Let’s get that coon!" someone shouted. Four white men ran down the center aisle of the Birmingham Municipal Auditorium toward the stage. Nat King Cole was midway through his third song of the evening, the romantic ballad "Little Girl." Three of the men vaulted the footlights and one, Kenneth Adams, grabbed the startled singer, who was hit in the face by a falling microphone, and wrestled Cole over his piano stool onto the floor. Plainclothes policemen, alerted to the possibility of trouble at the concert, rushed to rescue the singer, only to clash with uniformed cops who thought they were a second wave of attack. As the curtain fell and Cole was rescued, the Ted Heath Orchestra, a British band touring with Cole, stayed at its post and launched into "God Save the Queen." Shortly later, the shaken singer returned to the stage. "I just came here to entertain you," Cole explained. "I thought that was what you wanted. I was born here. Those folks have hurt my back. I cannot continue because I have to go to a doctor.” (Ward21). Nat King Cole’s music was not even very political. If he could become an object of hatred for racists and become the victim of a brutal attack, it should illustrate how much more hatred musical artists would later receive for speaking about issues involving race relations in their music. Since both Punk Rock and Hip Hop are politically outspoken, they both receive a lot of criticism. The crossover hardcore band, Body Count mixes together elements of Hip Hop, Hardcore Punk, and Heavy Metal in their music. The band is led by lead vocalist and Rapper Ice-T who is mostly known for his solo Hip Hop career. Body count’s first album Cop Killer along with the single of the same name was released in 1992. The song and album Cop Killer were a response to the Rodney King trial in which the four police officers who were caught on video assaulting Rodney King were acquitted of all charges. The spoken word into to Cop Killer which is entitled ‘Out in the Parking Lot’ addresses the issue of police officers profiling and harassing people because of their appearance. "This next record is dedicated to some personal friends of mine, the LAPD. For every cop that has ever taken advantage of somebody, beat 'em down or hurt 'em, because they got long hair, listen to the wrong kinda music, wrong color, whatever they thought was the reason to do it.” (Body Count “Out in the Parking Lot” Cop Killer Sire/Warner Bros. 1992). Because the issues that they were addressing in their first album have still not been resolved and are now being discussed again openly due to the Black Lives Matter movement, Body Count have released a new album called Bloodlust. The song ‘No Lives Matter’ is meant to bring awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement. The song begins with a spoken word intro in the same style as the intro to ‘Cop Killer’. In this intro, Ice-T directly speaks about the Black Lives Matter movement. “It’s unfortunate that we even have to say, 'Black Lives Matter', I mean, if you go through history nobody ever gave a fuck. I mean, you can kill Black people in the street, nobody goes to jail, and nobody goes to prison. But when I say, 'Black Lives Matter' and you say, 'All Lives Matter', that's like if I was to say, 'Gay Lives Matter' and you say, 'All Lives Matter'. If I said, 'Women's Lives Matter' and you say, 'All Lives Matter', you're diluting what I'm saying. You're diluting the issue. The issue isn't about everybody. It's about Black lives, at the moment but the truth of the matter is, they don't really give a fuck about anybody, if you break this shit all the way down to the low fucking dirty-ass truth.” (Body Count “No Lives Matter” Blood Lust Century Media. 2017). In the chorus of the song ‘No Lives Matter’, Ice-T points out that the police also target poor people of all races because the poor are the most vulnerable and the least likely to have the resources to defend themselves from a corrupt law enforcement and legal system. “Don’t fall for the bait and switch. Racism is real, but not it. They fuck whoever can't fight back. But now we gotta change all that. The people have had enough. Right now, it's them against us. This shit is ugly to the core. When it comes to the poor. No lives matter.” (Body Count “No Lives Matter” Blood Lust Century Media. 2017). The song ‘Black Hoodie’ on the same album deals with the issues of excessive force, profiling, and the lack of accountability in our law enforcement systems. Like ‘Cop Killer’ and ‘No Lives Matter’, this song also begins with a spoken word intro by Ice-T in which he discusses profiling and police brutality. “All these people out here tripping off police brutality like this shit is something new. Give me a fucking break. I've been talking about this shit for over 20 years. And now you can kill a motherfucker just because of how he's dressed. Are you fucking serious?” (Body Count “Black Hoodie” Blood Lust Century Media. 2017). In the chorus of this song Ice-T provides us with an account of an unarmed man that has been shot by the police solely because of his appearance. “Got on a black hoodie, its hood up on my head. I didn't have a gun so why am I dead. You didn't have to shoot me and that's a known fact. And now I'm lying face down with bullets in my back. Got on a black hoodie, its hood up on my head. I didn't have a gun so why am I dead. You didn't have to shoot me and that's a known fact. And now I'm lying face down with bullets in my back.” (Body Count “Black Hoodie” Blood Lust Century Media. 2017). Throughout his career, in both his solo work and with Body Count, Ice-T has dealt with themes of racial injustice in his music. The Hardcore Band Prophets of Rage like Body Count also mixes together elements of Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, and Hip Hop. The band is made up of former members of Rage against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill. The members of the band provide an example of multiple races working together. DJ Lord and Chuck D from Public Enemy, who are in the band are Black men. B-Real from Cypress Hill is Latino. Bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk are white men. Guitarist Tom Morello is of mixed descent. He has a white American mother and a Black father from Kenya. The members of the band are engaged in political activism and are supporters of the Black Lives matter movement. Their first public performance together was a protest show in which they played opposite to the Republican National Convention to protest the open racism of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. They have also played free shows for demonstrators at some of Black Lives Matter’s rallies. In the song ‘Prophets of Rage’ they stress the importance of being politically involved and aware of events happening in the world around us. “When choice became the people's voice. Shout loud. Put your hands up in the crowd. Raise your fist up (fist up). While I lift up (lift up). Fucking everything wrong with the system (system). People hungry and dying'. They ain't got a home. This is the nature created. From the terror dome (terror dome). Let's turn the page. Shaman burn the sage. Clear the way for the prophets of rage. Can you kick it like…?” (Prophets of Rage “Prophets of Rage” The Party’s Over Caroline. 2016). A newer Punk Rock band that addresses the Black Lives Matter movement is the band Big Joanie. They are a black feminist punk band from London. The band consists of three Black women. The women in the band Big Joanie are outspoken political activists and are also part of the current Afro-Punk movement. The basis of the Afro-Punk movement is that while there has always been a black presence in Punk Rock as demonstrated by bands such as Pure Hell, Death, Bad Brains, and Body Count, they did not feel as if they were visibly represented enough. The Afro-Punk movement seeks to increase the visibility of these diverse and talented bands by giving them their own spaces. There is a touring Afro-Punk festival, which tours worldwide, and there is a documentary about Afro-Punk that features a lot of these newer bands and gives credit to the older artists that inspired and influenced this musical movement. Right here in San Antonio, we have the bands Angry Red and Lonely Horse that are connected to the Afro-Punk movement. Many of their songs deal with the frustrations of living in the Black experience. Big Joanie wrote the song ‘Crooked Room’ to describe the experience of living as black women in a society where most of the rules of proper behavior are dictated by white males. Taylor Burton of Grinnell College says of the song ‘Crooked Room’ that, “they expressed the difficulty black women have to overcome when finding confidence in a world where they are portrayed negatively in all forms of popular media.” (Taylor Burton, Afro-Punk History, http://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/afro-punk/). This is how Big Joanie describes living with this experience. “Can’t think straight. Chorus of noise. Can’t think straight. Locked in your room…The crooked room gets you. In the end.” (Big Joanie “Crooked Room” Sistah Punk EP Sistah Punk Records 2016). Another Punk Rock band that acknowledges the Black Lives Matter movement is the band Pussy Riot. Pussy Riot is a feminist punk band from Russia that is comprised of three white Russian women. They wrote a song called ‘I Can’t breathe’ to protest the police killing of Eric Garner by the NYPD. I think it’s interesting that a band from as far away as Russia can recognize problems with how our police officers interact with the public but many people here still refuse to acknowledge that a problem exists. In the song ‘I can’t Breathe’, Pussy Riot describes the frustrations people feel when hearing about one unarmed police killing after another all the time, without any officers being punished for their actions. “It’s getting dark. New York City. It’s getting dark. New York City. I need to catch my breath.” (Pussy Riot “I can’t Breathe” No Label/Pussy Riot self-released 2015). A significant fact about this song is that it is Pussy Riot’s first English language song. They felt that the issue was so important that they needed to let activists in America and anyone here that must deal with these issues know that we have their support. I think that what this band from so far away, from a completely different country, from a completely different culture, represents in acknowledging the Black Lives Matter movement, is that there is a very powerful truth behind the movement that cannot be ignored for much longer. Another band that is part of the Afro-Punk movement is the band Rough Francis. Three of the five members of the band are Black men, the lead singer, one of the two guitarists, and the drummer. The three Black men in the band are brothers. Their names are Bobby (Jr.), Julian and Urian Hackney. An interesting fact about the three brothers in this band is that they are the children of Bobby Hackney, who is the singer/bassist of the black proto-punk band Death. The song ‘Blind Pigs’ by Rough Francis criticizes the treatment that young Black men often receive from police officers. “On their knees and on the ground. They beat them down. They beat them down. On the roofs and on the ground. They beat them down. They beat them down.” (Rough Francis “Blind Pigs” MSP 2 Riot House Records. 2015). Their fathers band Death also uses their music to criticize unjust systems. “Always tryin' to be slick when they tell us their lies. They're responsible for sending young men to die. We have waited so long for. Someone to come along and correct our country's law, but the wait's been too long.” (Death “Politicians in My Eyes” For the whole world to see Drag City Records. 2009). Now as we get into some of the history we will see why the Afro-Punk movement and its connection to Black Lives Matter are important. Originally Rock and Roll was primarily a Black musical invention. Maureen Mahon says that, “Rock 'n' roll, a great American innovation, is also a great American hybrid. Music critics and historians usually recognize rock 'n' roll as a fundamentally American music form developed through the creativity of young black and white working-class, southern musicians in the late 1940’s and 1950’s.” (Mahon283). She goes on to say that, “As rock 'n' roll expanded beyond its core black constituency and began to appeal to white teenagers, the form itself became associated with whites in the American popular imagination. Indeed, by the mid-1980s, black Americans who engaged in rock as musicians or listeners stood out from the black mainstream for their allegiance to a music that no longer seemed to be "really black.”” (Mahon283). The importance of the Afro-Punk movement is that black musicians are reclaiming the music that their culture and community helped to create. Not only was Rock and Roll created by a culture of predominantly Black musicians, but the music that it evolved from, the Blues was as well. Blues Music topics included living with the frustrations of the black experience. It also cried out against injustice and engaged in activism. Phillip Kolin says of the song ‘Blues for Emmet Till’ that “Blues" reflects the spirit of the times - the fear and outrage over Till's murder and the urgency to seek justice. Written before there was a carefully orchestrated civil rights movement, the ethos behind "Blues" anticipates the subsequent protests that Till's murder occasioned, e.g., Freedom Riders for Emmett Till, Rosa Parks’ historic refusal to sit in the back of the bus just three months after Till's murder, and later the marches on Montgomery and Birmingham.” (Kolin456). The creators of the song ‘Blues for Emmet Till’ would go on to become involved in the Civil Rights movement and would continue to use music as a tool of protest. “The creators of "Blues for Emmett Till" were passionately involved in civil rights battles. Aaron Kramer (1921-1997) was regarded as "the leading resistance poet of the McCarthy era" (Kramer). A prolific poet, editor, critic, translator, he had recorded for Folkways Recording as well as for the Library of Congress and throughout his long career collaborated with many musicians who turned his rhyming poems into songs. Clyde Robert Appleton (1928- ), an African American composer, singer, and educator, was a lifelong activist in the civil rights movement, first in North Carolina and then in Arizona. Graduating from Park College in 1954, Appleton taught at Shaw College, Purdue University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In 1965, he led the historic Black Belt Conference (on "Civil Rights and Anti-poverty") in a round of civil rights songs, and wrote articles for Jazz, Educator, The Churchman, and his "Singing in the Streets of Raleigh, 1963: Some Recollections" appeared in The Black Perspective in Music (Autumn 1975), providing a first-hand account of the music that bound together a generation of young African Americans. "Blues" thus underscores a powerful collaboration between a white resistance poet and an African American composer, both determined to denounce the villainy behind Till's murder.” (Kolin456). The event of Emmet Till’s murder continues to affect musicians in our modern era of music. “For the hip-hop generations, Emmett Till's narratives inspire powerful connections to the civil rights era, African American migratory patterns, the violence of white supremacy and racism, and the troubled sexual politics between black men and white women.” (Peterson617). Black musicians have always used music as a tool of protest and as a way of declaring their humanity. A trait that Punk Rock and Hip Hop share with each other is that they are both political and outspoken. Derrick Alridge says of Hip Hop that, “While Hip Hop has not dramatically changed oppressive institutional structures or organized itself at anywhere near the level of civil rights organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), or the NAACP, it shares with the CRM a critique of the problems that plague U.S. African Americans and other oppressed people throughout the world.” (Alridge228). As Rock and Roll continued to evolve it split off into different subcategories. Some of these subcategories like Soul, Funk, and Hip Hop were ways for black musicians to hold onto their musical creation and present songs from a uniquely black experience. It is important for the black community to be able to maintain control of the music that they create, so that they can maintain a sense of identity. “While the end of formal colonialism has not eradicated racism, postcoloniality has unsettled Black identity, producing new struggles around gender, sexuality, class and location.” (Noble111). Many Black musicians are now feeling as if it is their duty to reclaim the music forms that their communities and cultures helped create. Kesha Morant says that, “From work songs and spirituals during slavery to the gospel, soul, and funk of the civil rights movement, Black music offers a new historicist interpretation of the African American experience. Through Black popular music, the struggles, faith, and joys of a people are expressed. More than mere entertainers, Black musicians are the village griots, the revisionist historians, and the voice of a people. African American music solidifies messages of societal concerns, offering snapshots of social conditions and defining moments within a society.” (Morant71). The Afro-Punk movement reclaiming Punk Rock is important to the Black activist musicians in the scene because they are aware of every music form created by their culture and community being coopted by the White culture and then losing their effectiveness as a protest tool. This same series of events happened with Jazz music as well. Jazz was an important part of the Harlem Renaissance. Along with authors, and other kinds of artists, Jazz musicians in the Harlem Renaissance were creating art from a uniquely black perspective. As the decades came on though, Jazz like Rock and Roll, and the blues, drew the attention of white musicians and listeners. Andy Fry says of Jazz that, “African-American musicians in the 1950s and 1960s were typically happy to share the bandstand, and even to celebrate the music’s power to break down barriers between “races.” But they rightly protested when the discourse of “universalism” was used to promote the careers of nonblack musicians who already had huge structural advantages (and had not, historically, been so willing to share the stage).” (Fry718).

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djrelentless · 8 years ago

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“Can We Stop Racism Or Is It Here To Stay?”

May 6, 2014 at 4:30am

There's a trend that seems to be spreading like a wildfire. No…..it's not a style of dancing or a fashion trend. It's a behavior that has grown over the past couple of decades. I'm speaking about race relations and the effect it has on our culture. Many would like to believe that this is a United States thing, but it is actually happening all over the world.

From as far back as I can remember there has been a stigma towards darker skin (even amongst the people of color). I have written about this before. I have talked about this before. How racism is alive and well even though many would like to pretend that prejudice does not exist. I watch many people…..white, black, and all the shades between say and do racist acts everyday and honestly sleep at night thinking that racism is someone else's problem. I've said it before and I'll say it again……peace, harmony, goodwill and justice begins with each of us. Only we can make a real change in our lives. This applies to every aspect of our lives. If you are an alcoholic or drug addict….if you are a public figure…..or if you are just an innocent bystander. This is the key to making all our lives right.

It seems like every other day I am reading some article about some horrible person spewing hateful words or ideas about someone of another race or hue. L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Rancher Cliven Bundy, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, Paula Deen, Miami Dolphin's Richie Incognito, even an entire Super PAC in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell's wife and countless others have grabbed headlines over the past couple of years for their ignorance and bigotry. And who could forget the career ending statements that Mel Gibson said about Jewish people? But this is not limited to our caucasian brothers and sisters. In a black on black racist comment, rapper 50 Cent said back in 2006 that Oprah's show was for old white women. Louis Farrakhan for many years has said many anti-semitic statements in the press. And I'm sure the folks at Toshiba Japan didn't think twice when they released this racist gem of a commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBXzHx-jAIo

But how do these things get said or released without anyone thinking twice about what they are about to do? Well…..racism and racist attitudes are taught and tolerated. And this applies not only to racism but homophobia and trans-phobia as well. Recently, RuPaul's Drag Race made an apology to the transsexual community by announcing that they would stop using "she-male". You would have thought that the world had come to an end. Gay men and drag queens were up in arms because their rights to use terms that some transsexuals found offensive were in question. So, it's okay to use the terms "tranny" or "she male" if we are gay or drag queens. You know…..just like how the black people use "the n-word" as a term of endearment for each other. We are taking ownership of those terms and making them our own. Yeah…because we as gay people are living in the wrong bodies.

When the Donald Sterling story first broke, it occurred to me as I read a sea of blogs and posts about how "political correctness" had gone overboard that this was a deeper issue than what everyone had been talking about. Even famous transsexuals like Punk legend, Jane County went off saying that it was ridiculous for us to be policing words of drag performers. I read an interesting article with my good friend Lady Bunny talking about the evolution of political correctness and drag. And although I have watch my share of drag shows and late night club entertainment, I have never really subscribed to the type of humor that attacks others or makes fun of someone because of their race or sexual preference. Now…don't get me wrong. I have laughed at plenty of politically incorrect jokes. I've even told some myself with close friends. But like Uncle Ben said in "Spiderman", "With great power comes great responsibility." If you have a huge platform such as a TV show I feel that you have to be more responsible with what your content is.

My take on this was that if you allow one idiot to say whatever he wants then you have to let all the idiots say what they want. There is no "some people can use this word and others can't".

So, when I watched last weekend's Saturday Night Live and writer Leslie Jones made a cameo on the SNL News and did an editorial which contained many jokes about "slave-breeding" and the term "mandingo", I was a little uncomfortable. But when I read what she tweeted in defense of her skit I became angry. With the news of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls who have been announced to be sold as child brides it seemed very irresponsible on the shows part to even let this skit air at all.

http://jezebel.com/saturday-night-live-ignites-shitstorm-with-slave-breedi-1571864050?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

And with all the hate speech that is flying around, it seems unfathomable that anyone would have the nerve to go on such a public format such as television or even the internet and say such hateful things. Not that we can stop people from being racist or having racist thoughts, but there was a time when no one would even dream of saying such horrible things publicly at all. But with the ability to hide behind our keyboards we can say and write whatever we want. This still does not explain folks like Cliven Bundy talking so candidly about how he feels that the negro was much happier when he was a slave. The negro had a skill when he was picking cotton. Well, that's where this trend comes in.

It's my theory in the U.S. that since the O.J. verdict race relations have changed. The 90s brought the rise of Hip Hop Culture into the mainstream along with the new and improved Gay Lifestyle. Public Enemy and Ice-T sparked senate hearings with their music while k.d. lang posed on the cover of Vanity Fair with Supermodel Cindy Crawford. The country was changing very quickly and this verdict drew a strong line in the sand. Most believed that O.J. killed his wife and her friend. The question was….do you believe he should go to jail or should he get off because of all the injustices that black people had endured for years. That was the real situation. This polarized race relations forever. The Rodney King beating set the whole scenario up and many folks of color sided with the idea that this was pay back to "whitey". Neither side never looked at each other the same again. I even broke up wit a Puerto Rican boyfriend that was down right overjoyed because O.J. got off on a technicality.

So, by the time Obama got elected this sense of entitled racism had festered into Fox News' Tea Party and the uncontrollable "Party Of No", The Republicans. Such blatant racism that it has almost become the norm to see and watch them set out to do anything to discredit our first Black President of America. You know…there used to be a time when there was a certain respect for the man in the oval office. Never have I seen such hatred for the leader of the U.S. in my life (and I've watched Nixon and both Bushes in office).

But the black and white facts of this page of history is that racism is at an all time high. I mean….how racist can you be to be Jewish, having an affair with a mixed raced girl, owning a NBA team and loathing the very people who are making you a rich man? It makes me think of my days of being single in Manhattan during the late 90s early 2000s and going to the Westside Club in Chelsea. I would hook up with these circuit party muscle gym boys who would never be seen out in public with a black boy like me, but loved to bottom for the mandingo in the darkness of a bathhouse.

I even went home with someone back when I lived in Florida who picked me up in a bar and we had an amazing night together. But when I woke up it was another story. The reality that he was really drunk and that he was raised a racist set in. He informed me that I needed to get out. "But aren't you gonna take me home" I said since I don't drive. "I don't care how you get home…..you just need to get out of my house, nigger!" Well, the next thing I remember is his roommate breaking up the naked fist fight that followed that statement. I bring this all up to give examples of how racism is grown and taught to us from childhood. I grew up with a grandmother who hated white people, but I am married to a white man. I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, but I yearned to live in a diverse city. It was not enough to just have friends of different races and beliefs at school. I wanted a place where everyone could live and learn from each other.

So, if we could just stop and take a good look at ourselves and how we are helping stop racism or perpetuating stereotypes maybe we could make some progress in ending racism. Last year when I called out a drag performer for doing blackface during Pride week, another performer was trying to defend her and actually said "Don't you think by causing this fuss that you are sending the message that what she did is wrong?" She along with many people on the scene felt that I was wrong for even saying anything at all. Like I was causing trouble for questioning their way of life. They didn't even see how this could be offensive. That doing blackface was not racist in anyway at all. (sounds familiar?)

Like when black people get upset when some young white suburban kid says "nigger". Or even when someone thinks it's okay to use "chink" or "spic" as a normal way to describe an Asian or Latino person. Throwing these terms around teaches others that it is okay to minimize a race or culture down to a slur. If no one says anything, then the cycle continues. Comedians like Andrew "Dice" Clay and Lisa Lampanelli made careers out joking about races and sexual preferences. But where do you go after you become the number one comedian? I mean....your jokes would have to be more offensive and more shocking in order to continue your fame. And where are they now? Shows like "Family Guy" and "South Park" have helped desensitize people about stereotypes. Smart writing in entertainment like "All In The Family" and "The Colbert Report" which actually showed the effects of racism and that kind of thinking are somehow too sophisticated for some audiences. So, how do we fix a problem when many don't even realize that there is a problem?

I may be wrong, but most of the problems in our world stem from racism, sexism and homophobia. Instead of us learning from each other and enjoying diversity, we are taught from an early age that there are differences between everyone…..that someone is always better than someone else. It can take years to unlearn racism, but if we could imagine ourselves in someone else's shoes we might realize that we are more the same than we might have thought.

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