The little town just 20 miles north of St. Louis made national headlines a few days ago when protests turned to riots over the death of unarmed 18 year-old Black resident Michael Brown. Riots since then have only intensified and clashes with the police becoming more common. A no-fly zone has been established and something of a ‘media blackout’ has occurred as two reporters have been arrested and pictures show police firing tear gas at what seems to be other journalists trying to report on the situation.
Ferguson, Missouri is effectively under Martial Law. Images of heavily armed men aiming upon angry crowds light up social media as politicians (now including President Obama) craft their state-sponsored “opinions”.
In response to repressive anti-Immigration legislation SB1070 and HB56, Jasiri X, Rhymefest, and Paradise Gray traveled to Arizona and Alabama courtesy of the Sound Strike to see first hand how these unjust laws break up families, fracture communities and destroy lives.
“Who’s Illegal?” asks the question, can a nation on stolen land, built by stolen people define another group of human beings as illegal? “Who’s Illegal?” was produced by GM3 and directed by Paradise Gray.
Directed by Emmai Alaquiva, “Don’t Forget About The Hood” illustrates how the issues of the poor and urban communities have been all but forgotten in this current election season, and wonders what happened to all of the energy and organizing that took place in the wake of the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin.
“Don’t Forget About the Hood” was produced in collaboration withhttp://hoodievote.org with Da Ricanstrukta providing the powerful soundtrack
LYRICS
See cause we broke they forget about the hood
So when you vote don’t forget about the hood
I ain’t telling folks don’t get up out the hood
just when you living good don’t forget about the hood
Let’s say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hood
I’m talking to the those you know that’s living in the hood
that ain’t getting what they should
we won’t forget the hood
We the lost and forgotten called rotten so we tossed to the bottom
Let em tell it we the source of the problem
They call us gangbangers and illegals
Cane slangers of da evil
Like we the main danger to the people
So our issues don’t get the same anger or treated equal
if you not one of them change raisers they don’t see you
So the hood every week is ignored
Before these politicians speak to the poor they reach for the door
now voter ID is the norm
Police brutality’s not reformed poverty’s even more
Tens of thousands of human beings they still deport
And they made it a felony if you come back and get caught
We need to stop cheering for sides like its a sport
Vote for your self and your own hood time is short
Cause doing nothing ain’t a option
Do something get it poppin
Real action over talking
The whole world is watching
So when you vote don’t forget about the hood
Get out and vote but don’t forget about the hood
I ain’t telling folks don’t get up out the hood
just when you living good don’t forget about the hood
Let’s say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hood
I’m talking to the those you know that’s living in the hood
that ain’t getting what they should
we won’t forget the hood
Do we remember Trayvon or is the pain gone
Do we remain strong or did we move way on
Remember when we all had pictures in our hoods
Did we forget about the hood
Zimmerman’s still free I don’t know about you but it kills me
This murderer could be found not guilty
Remember how we organized fortified for the ride
Polarized but mobilized I thought it was so divine
What happened to that energy we need it now more than ever
Many people kept working I will not ignore their effort
Give voice to the voiceless that’s why I record this message If you really for the hood for who or for what you reppin
That the million dollar question
Millionaires is who we follow but they hollow in they lessons
What’s the point of a weapon pointed in the wrong the direction
If your hood is what you reppin how strong is your connection
credits
We have to learn about power and violence in a whole new perspective. I’m down for the revolution. I’ve been told it cannot happen without bloodshed, so I’m bracing myself for that inevitability. BUT I am really spending my time in preparation by learning and understanding the system that oppresses us: finding its weaknesses and how it maintains control.
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Often we have sat so idle for so long that our pain and anger has festered into disease that is sure to be toxic to any and everyone.
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We should let our anger push us to participate in our local governments which direct the local law enforcement. We should use our anger to make us treat voting day like a national holiday and plan months ahead to take the day off and/or make arrangements to cast our votes.
After the funeral, as Kirkpatrick, Bryant and his children were leaving the church, they were approached by a group of plainclothes cops. Kirkpatrick says he was asked, “Is that your cousin, Calvin Bryant?” When he confirmed Bryant’s identity, he says, police followed them down the block and arrested Bryant.
In addition to an outstanding bench warrant, Bryant was charged with resisting arrest. According to the arrest document, “The defendant did resist a lawful arrest by flailing the defendant’s arms and pushing the deponent while the deponent attempted to place the defendant in handcuffs.”
Bryant and Kirkpatrick vehemently deny that accusation. “I didn’t resist arrest,” Bryant says. “I didn’t have time. I was holding my kids’ hands so I wouldn’t have been able to throw my hands up.”
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What Bryant and his lawyers do find troubling is the time and place of an arrest that could have been made somewhere else, and at any other time.
“Why on earth choose this moment?” asks Scott Hechinger, one of the lawyers working on Bryant’s case. “There’s about a million other ways to arrest this guy. Get him at his house the day before, the day after, any time over the last four years. Why choose the funeral service—the service that they caused—to inflame tensions? The timing just makes you wonder: Is this to make a statement?”
“Being nice to your oppressor and tending to their emotions and standards has never freed any oppressed group. Audacity and bravery are required.” –SHENITA ANN MCLEAN
So many of the problems in the United States today could so very easily be solved with a tiny bit of common sense and basic humanity. In the following list (below the image), I propose changes that should happen immediately (yes, utopian), changes that would actually be automatic if we were at all sincere about continuing our “great experiment with democracy.”
Note: This is another in my continuing series on Possible Racial Futures for the US. This one is based on the last chapter of “The White Racial Frame” (2010) by Joe R. Feagin, a White American sociologist.
The US is capable of becoming less racist and more democratic, as shown by Reconstruction in the 1800s, which freed slaves and made them citizens, and Civil Rights reforms in the 1900s, which overthrew Jim Crow.
But both Reconstruction and Civil Rights were later seriously weakened because they left two things in place:
Ideological: The white racial frame (white racism).
Economic: Huge racial inequalities in wealth, income and education.
Therefore you need:
Ideological: The liberty-and-justice frame of the Founding Fathers along with an understanding of stereotyping and institutional racism.
Economic: Reparations, especially for Black and Native Americans.
Silence is a racial message and a “tool of whiteness.” In order to support the goals of their diversity mission statements and work toward a “racially just America,” schools need to take a more proactive approach to teaching white students about race and racial identity.
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Students must develop a sense of how systemic racism works on an individual, community, and institutional level.
Many white people do not have an urgency about racial injustice.
Many white people live in segregated communities where they do not see racial injustice. Unless people tune into the right media channels, they are not going to have a feeling for the insidiousness of racial injustice.
