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RACE_DOWN
March 19, 2009
There's a real problem with
outbreaks of violence at
events featuring hiphop music.
The standard Bay Guardian line
is that the police are pushing This is essentially
for an unjustifiable (and true. Further, the
probably unconstitutional) ban police don't make much
on hiphop events. secret of the fact that This is one
they don't like to hear of those
What the Bay Guardian does about people doing cases where
not explain is that if you do hip-hop events. I'd be
a hiphop-oriented event, reassured by
you're almost guaranteed to a little more
have fights breaking out by hypocrisy.
the end of the night.
They clearly
Even if you *weren't* worried don't expect
about getting in bad with the to get any
police, very few people would be heat for this
happy with organizing events "musical
that are almost guaranteed to profiling".
end in violence.
It is also true that the problem
seems to be much worse at the
hip-hop events where the audience
is largely black people...
That's based on our experience running There was a hip-hop place
events at cellspace, and the experience down the street from
of the security guards we work with, cellspace that had a weekend
not to mention commentary by police. routine of calling in the
cops to break up fights.
That may seem like a gross over- That was actually a problem
generalization, and I don't blame for us: it made our
you. It would be good to have some neighborhood numbers look
independent stats, but I don't know bad, and we needed to get
where to get them for you. the cops to dig into the
paperwork more closely to
see what was going on.
I'm taking the risk of offending
people-- and leaving myself open
to charges of racism--
because I think that unwillingness
to talk about these subjects can Racism is not by any means
be dangerous. dead when it's been
forced into hiding.
What if I'm completely
wrong in my perceptions 22_FILLMORE
here? I could be
generalizing from too
small a range of
experience, I could be
confused by anecdotal
evidence, I could have, It's really easy to
in spite of myself, think you're one of
bought into media images the enlightened good
or gangsta rap myths. guys and still be
out to lunch.
If I've stumbled into some
error like this, I'm not LEAD_DOWN
going to get any correction
by staying silent.
And alternately, if my
perception of the
problems with hiphop/
black events *is* correct, This is a problem that
then what's going on? correlates with "race",
but unlike a lot of people
What can we do to work I don't think that "race"
through these problems? has much to do with biology.
What I think we've got here is a
problem with roots that are strictly
"social". Myself, I think the
trouble is that black kids have been
sold a bill of goods about
And actually, now that "blackness" and what it means to be
Sydney Poitier is authentically black. They feel like
president, we might they're not standing up for their
see some improvement rights if they don't live up to a
on this front... particular stereotype of how black
people are supposed to behave.
But then I wouldn't
want to minimize the
problems of racism
By the way: (and, if you like
Throughout here "classism") that
I'm talking about hang over the heads
a set of people of kids growing up
who are both poor and black:
poor and black.
There are reason
You *do* know that they're suckers for
this doesn't mean the idea that they're
that the two always supposed to be
go together, right? "rough", "crude",
"violent".
*Most* people who are
poor are not black. These are things
And there are certainly that are easy to be...
black people who are
not poor. When you don't
think you can
make it very far
up, then at least
you can compete
to see how low
down you can get.
POWER_OF_PUNK
Paris, "Days of Old" (1992):
Another sad case of the black-on-black.
It's a fact, some of our people don't know how to act:
Can't go to the club, can't go to the store,
Can't chill with your girl, can't go to the show,
Can't do anything without some fool acting up
You start to believe that black folk are savage but
before you do, allow me to say,
that in the old days we didn't act that way... Don't you hate it
when some white
Kings and Queens were the names of the righteous jerk quotes a black
but the sons of slaves are insane and we might just person's criticism
self-destruct and erupt without a chance to grow of black culture?
This ain't the days of old.
Spike Lee's "Do the
Right Thing" was
awfully popular with
white conservatives.
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