Skyscraper Solidarity

“Being a vegetarian should
never be associated with being
a revolutionary or being open-minded.
That’s a dietary choice.
If someone wants to proliferate the
type of ignorance we’re supposed to
be fighting by thinking that,
you’re just fucking yourself.”
–Immortal Technique, “Beef and Broccoli”

Full disclosure: I was a vegetarian for a few years in my life. Most of my decision was informed by two things: (1) The utterly unidentifiable piece of chicken I got one day at Church’s; (2) The fact that the meat served in my college’s dining hall was vaguely undercooked and appeared to be only a half-step (if that) above dog food.

So, I guess I was a selfish vegetarian. As much as I love animals, and as much as I loved reading Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, I just cannot seem to buy into the argument that cows, chickens, pigs, etc. should not be killed just to go on my dinner table. I understand the argument and its nuances, but I think society has lulled me into a sense of complacency and nonsympathy for those particular animals (though I do find it peculiar that I will cry and cry when I see an abused dog). I have no problem with vegetarianism; it’s a dietary choice and not really much more. My biggest problems are with people who believe that their individual choice to be vegan or vegetarian will somehow turn America’s meat industry on its head. Guess what? It won’t.

The vegetarian lifestyle has been alive and well in America since the 1970s. The meat industry has been around for much longer than that, as anyone living in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood can attest to. In the thirty or so years that the vegetarian movement has been part of our dietary landscape, the biggest impact on agribusiness has been that mega-retailers like Whole Foods have enjoyed marked increases in revenues, due partially to the fact that they exploit the niche market created by socially conscious liberals and charge an extraordinary amount of money for things like organic whole wheat pasta and farm-fresh Gruyere. What has been created is a kind of shadow economy, which exists because well-meaning, environmentally aware people eschewed the mainstream economy. Is this better, or just different? Nobody acknowledges this question. I would assert that this analog doesn’t really solve anything, but rather just diverts from the status quo and creates its own set of problems.

But I digress.

My real problem with people who think they’re fueling the revolution with fruits and vegetables is that they don’t even acknowledge the fact that their energy would probably be better spent buying organic, free-range meat than by simply not consuming meat at all. When asked, most political vegetarians will voice their desire to reduce demand in the meat industry. This makes sense, especially since besides the injustices against animals, the meat industry takes a very real toll on human employees. But what do meat producers care about vegetarians? It’s unlikely with the percentage of vegetarians in America that demand will be crippled enough to make a dent on the industry. The real change will come only when people make choices with their money, like buying their meat from local, organic farms. You don’t like the way Smithfield treats their employees? Me neither. But it doesn’t mean I have to stop eating meat altogether, because that doesn’t really acknowledge the fact that the meat industry has to exist! It’s one of the main components of the American economy!

I know this was a rant, but I am sick and tired of people making themselves out to be the next César Chavez just because they don’t eat meatloaf.

Maybe I just feel sorry for them because bacon is so fucking delicious.

I guess Weezy is getting mad love these days, and I love the man to death, but I think that while his lyrics are largely devoid of any higher sense of awareness or responsibility to the Black community, Kanye West has always been a beacon of hope in the hip-hop game. Lil Wayne and the rest of those Cash Money rappers always rep the hell out of New Orleans, but where were they when Katrina hit? Kanye at least spoke out, donated money, and he also has the Kanye West Foundation, which facilitates educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged children.

I don’t mean to attack Lil Wayne in particular, but what does he give to the community? How is he using his success positively? As far as I can see, he’s pimping us out. I love Kanye largely because he critiques the glamorization of urban poverty as well as the clash between working class and middle class Black America. Kanye’s words ring true to my experience in a way that other rappers just can’t touch, or at least haven’t tried to touch. Though I think Lil Wayne and his ilk are outrageously talented artists, frankly, I’m getting a little sick of hearing the same empty words about empty wealth. I think that it’s almost a sin for these rappers to be going out and talking about how hard they’re balling in the face of so much devastation and destruction in our communities. Let’s be real: The reason why there’s so much tension in inner-city neighborhoods is not because Black and Brown people are somehow inherently more menacing and evil; it’s a direct result of capitalism and the class tension that is frequently brushed aside or altogether ignored in America. When Jay-Z or Lil Wayne or any of them buy into the same culturally and morally bankrupt values that fuel the White supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they are in effect ignoring their responsibility as public figures to call attention to the problems that plague our communities.

Of course, there has been a little bit of consciousness here and there from mainstream rap artists, but their repertoires as a whole speak to The Almighty Dollar more than they do to any sense of obligation to their people.

Enter Kanye. This verse, from a track called “Never Let Me Down” on his debut album, speaks volumes about his relationship with race as it is lived in America:

I get down for my grandfather who took my momma
Made her sit that seat where white folks ain’t wanna us to eat
At the tender age of 6 she was arrested for the sit in
With that in my blood I was born to be different
Now n—-s can’t make it to ballots to choose leadership
But we can make it to Jacob and to the dealership
That’s why I hear new music
And I just don’t be feeling it
Racism still alive they just be concealing it
But I know they don’t want me in the damn club
They even made me show I.D to get inside of Sam’s club
I did dirt and went to church to get my hands scrubbed
Swear I’ve been baptised at least 3 or 4 times
But in the land where n—-s praise
Yukons and getting paid
It gon’ take a lot more than coupons to get us saved…

Anyone familiar with Kanye’s music will recognize that this song is distinct because Kanye and J. Ivy’s monumental verses about feeling a larger sense of responsibility to the Black community based on their roots and spirituality seem to be completely disjointed from Jay-Z’s particularly haughty and insular bookending flows. However, I contend that this juxtaposition is just one element of Kanye’s sheer brilliance as a producer. I think he’s making a rather nuanced comment about the nature of ego in hip-hop. Though Kanye clearly respects Jay-Z, he also realizes that his style and lyrical content hasn’t really made any positive contributions to hip-hop or the Black community.

However, this verse is nothing short of stunning, especially following Jay-Z’s words. It strikes me as a particularly sincere choice for Kanye to open the verse with a narrative about his mother’s childhood, but I also like that he acknowledges his duty to be different because of that history. Whereas by the end of this song, Jay-Z claims to be God, the Pope, Michael Jordan, Jeff Gordon and the Eighth Wonder of the World, Kanye strives hard to be humble by positioning himself as a human-size figure within a much broader historical and spiritual context; he even goes as far as performing only one-quarter of the verses in this song.

I could go on and on about how Kanye is much more than you think he is, but think about that for a moment, then listen to The College Dropout, which can say a lot more in just over 75 minutes than I can in writing this.

I get mad at our corrupt, white supremacist hierarchical society so often that I probably sound like a broken record.

No matter how much we rally, protest and march, it never seems to be enough. Is it possible to have a nonviolent revolution in the United States? Sometimes I question if our collective principles are enough to fight this system and the powers that be.

Here we are, the day after the Sean Bell trial and not a whole lot has changed. The three police officers who gunned down Bell, an unarmed man, on his wedding day were acquitted of all charges yesterday by a judge in Queens. After work, I joined a rally outside of the courthouse, followed by a march through Jamaica, right to the site where Bell was murdered. I felt a lot of emotions walking down those streets, yelling to the top of my lungs. I thought the outpour of support from activists from all over the city was something unlike anything I’d felt before. Once we started marching, it was like all the energy and outrage were culminating into a beautiful demonstration against the repeated attacks on our community. I also felt a lot of solidarity with all the Queens community members who honked their horns, yelled out of windows and gathered outside of beauty salons to watch us rally through the streets. There was just something 500 angry people screaming “fuck the police” that got me all fired up inside.

But it also makes me sad that we have to do this. The event itself was a great demonstration in the face of the injustices that were carried out in that courthouse yesterday, but the fact remains that an innocent man was killed, and police officers murder dozens of unarmed black and brown people for no reason every year. These people have become powerful symbols in their communities of the systematic annihilation of people of color, which has brought together hundreds of discussions amongst scholars and activists, and has brought tremendous attention to the problems plaguing corrupt policing and the severe lack of “Professional Standards.”

But why does it happen every day? How many marches and rallies and protests do we have to assemble before we change our own government? Is true revolution in America possible without force? I’m getting more and more skeptical about the principles of nonviolent demonstration as I grow older. The thing that frustrated me the most about the march yesterday was that the police were, in effect, leading it. Even though we were a crowd of hundreds, there were police flanking us on either side, and we were accompanied by miniature police cars in the very front of the march. There were calls to break formation and veer to the side, or even make an about-face to throw the officers off, but ultimately we all respected the organizers of the rally and kept everything peaceful and orderly.

While I understand that they wanted to make sure that nothing got out of hand so that the media couldn’t blow anything out of proportion, there’s also a part of me that thinks a protest is supposed to be raucous and a little out of control. Still, though, on the other hand, the families of the victims don’t need to have their loved one’s memory associated with a bunch of rowdy activists; The time and place for that behavior comes sometimes, but yesterday wasn’t the time. I’m still torn.

It kills me that whenever I decide to bring a child into this world, this is what he or she will be born into. I know now that this world is not kind to people who look like me; and they are even less so if you happen to be born a male. The children at the rally really made me reflect on how I want them to grow up and have more freedom than we do in 2008.

America’s supposed to be free, but for who? When I can take a train from the richest city on the planet 45 minutes into a neighborhood where police were allowed to assassinate a man in cold blood with fifty shots, I ask you, where is the justice?

Q: How far back does this video clip set the Black race?

Can we all agree to squash the “Crank Dat” phenomenon?

“Spirit of Truth” never gets old, I guarantee you

OH NO HE DI’INT…or did he?

If anyone reads this with any regularity, I apologize for being M.I.A. lately. I’ve been bogged down with work and have barely had time to breathe.

I promise, I will update legitimately soon.

In the meantime, I’ll tell you some things I’ve been thinking about this week:
-Ayah Young has a great article about the “Stop Snitching” movement and its ties with the Black community and hip-hop music
-Krazy Klinton Kampaigning: Harlem-based Clinton-supportin’ Reverend James David Manning calls Obama a “pimp” in his sermomn
-What? WHY? WTF??!?!?!!!?!!!?!!!11one
-Hey! My boss was on “Hardball with Chris Matthews”!
-Robin Blackburn’s take on the Bear Stearns/JP Morgan Chase love affair and what it could mean for social reform

Photos from The New York Immigration Coalition’s March for Immigrant New York.

Today, we marched for:

+The needs of immigrant students in the NYC public school system
+Funding for English classes and immigrant legal services
+Affordable housing and renewal of rent stabilization laws
+Access to quality affordable health care
+Protection of workers’ rights

(Photos after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

via Media Matters:

“[...]America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”

Yo, Pat B., I am definitely loving the passive voice, effectively taking blame away from the whole slave ship thing. It totally says, “Well, they came over on the slave ships…it’s irrelevant who brought them here in the first place.”

I would post more here, but you really have to read the original to believe it. I’ll post a response later, when I’m not outraged and exhausted.

I was Googling my domain today to see what came up and apparently there’s a quote by Eugene Debs:

“Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper.”

Interesting quote and source, especially considering my line of work. Here I was, thinking I was clever for putting these two words together, and now Eugene Debs comes and steals my thunder.