The Hip Hop Caucus held a rally on Saturday at the Washington Monument, to raise awareness of an upsurge in hate crimes and police brutality against communities of color, and I brought the camcorder. I’d have posted the video earlier, but a seemingly endless string of technical difficulties prevented that.
The rally was held because, to put it one way, if what had happened to Megan Williams had happened to me, the whole country would know my name. Or in still other words, it was about all the things that mean that supporting robot overlords is a rational position for a Black person living in the United States to take.
Speakers, in order of their appearance, include three parents who lost their children to unprovoked police shootings, Michelle Battle, Rep. Albert Wynn, Hashim Nzinga, Malik Zulu Shabazz, Donna Payne and Rosa Clemente. The event had numerous other speakers whom I didn’t get a chance to record or interview, and the known affiliations of the speakers are listed below.
Three parents from the Stolen Lives Project talk about the children that were taken from them by unprovoked police violence:
Dr. Michelle Battle of the National Congress of Black Women:
Rep. Albert Wynn (D-MD), encourages attendees to carry on the torch of the civil rights movement and closes with a chant of “power to the people.”
Hashim Nzinga, chief of staff of the New Black Panther Party, on the need of Blacks to defend themselves. It was rather riveting, actually. These NBPP folks can give quite a speech:
Malik Zulu Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party and Black Lawyers for justice, as well as Megan Williams’ attorney. He speaks here about Ms. Williams’ kidnapping, torture and rape in Virginia:
Shabazz responds to my question after his speech about the use of the word “faggot” to describe Black men who don’t defend Black women. I had to ask, because it’s what Pam Spaulding would have wanted:
Donna Payne of the National Black Justice Coalition, the US’ only Black LGBT alliance, responds to Shabazz’ use of the word “faggot” and discusses the Hip Hop Caucus rally at which she was also a featured speaker:
Rosa Clemente, executive director of the Hip Hop Caucus, talks about the reason for the event and what she’d like people to know about it if they were watching a report on a major news network like CNN:
Your question about using the term ‘faggot’ was awesome.
nice.
I wrote this a while back about Megan as well.
Great meeting you – got your email but didn’t get back until late last night.
talk soon-
Get a better lawyer than Malik Zulu Shabazz.His mentor,Khallid Muhammad, was even worse.
http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/shabazz.asp
At a press conference in Morristown, New Jersey (July 3, 2003):
“If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10 percent, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center…We’re daring anyone to dispute its truth. They got their people out.”
http://slate.com/?id=116813
4,000 Jews, 1 LieTracking an Internet hoax.
Addressing the protesters at the Million Youth March in Harlem, New York (September 5, 1998):
I don’t care what the Jews say. You [crowd] are the only people that have been in bondage for over 400 years. You are the true chosen people of God, and it is not the so-called Jew.
At a “Day of Atonement” rally in Austin, referring to the one white reporter in the audience (October 1997):
He is a scribe, a Jewish writer. The number one enemies of Christ were scribes. If they were responsible for killing Christ, what chance does little ol’ me have? What make [sic] the European Jewish people so arrogant that [sic] what they have done to our people they don’t have to apologize for?
As a warm-up speaker for Khalid Abdul Muhammad at Howard University (February 1994):
Shabazz: Who is it that caught and killed Nat Turner?
Audience: Jews!
Shabazz: Who is that controls the Federal Reserve?
Audience: Jews! (faintly)
Shabazz: What? You’re not scared, are you?
Audience: Jews! Jews!
Shabazz: Who is it that controls the media and Hollywood?
Audience: Jews! Jews!
Shabazz: Who is it that has our entertainers…and our athletes in a vise grip?
Audience: Jews!
Who else is speaking so powerfully and directly to the concerns these youth face?
If America doesn’t want to give rural White youth over to Limbaugh and his slavering pack of John Birchers, and doesn’t want to give urban Black youth over to the racist beliefs of the NBPP, someone needs to address their real problems. Someone needs to make sure they have jobs, justice, good educations, and the promise of a better future than their parents had.
The Democrats have given over Appalachia to the coal companies and farm country to Monsanto and Cargill just as quickly as the Republicans. They have not boldly addressed sentencing disparities, or educational funding disparities. They have not answered for the fact that the police brutality faced by these Black communities often occurs in the bluest of Blue cities.
Too many young people are angry and disaffected. They know their lives will not be better than their parents’ lives, and their parents have often given up that hope as well. Meanwhile, the politicians promising tepid hopes have yet to confront the serious realities we face in such a way that would convince people that they could provide a solution. Because you can’t trust someone to fix a problem that they won’t admit exists.
Offer them something better, or this is what we’ll deserve to get. Because the NBPP speakers were exactly right about the seriousness of the situation that their community faces.
more on shabazz and. co.
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Black_Panther.asp
note that the original bpp has called the the new bpp a bunch of anti-semites
What a great essay. Thanks.
We learned from the 60s that the organized actions of people on the street can make a difference. We not have the foundations of a better America and a better Democratic party as a result, if we don’t forget.
This is a reminder that people on the ground and in the street can make a difference.
Yes, I was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act which followed it. They also showed that people can be changed at least a former southern Dixicrat like President Johnson, and the similar representatives earlier on the Supreme Court.