President-Elect Barack Obama with his wife and daughters celebrating his victory at election headquarters in Chicago on Tuesday night (Source: NY Times)
Ladies and Gentleman,
Good Morning from over here at BlackRadioIsBack.com and FuseBox Radio Broadcast Land! :)
I am currently writing this commentary after getting a grand total of one and a half hours of sleep after finding out that our President-Elect is Senator Barack Obama through a long live BlackRadioIsBack.com blogging experience/phone call deluxe/e-mail, instant messenger, Twitter & text message explosion/searching the internet/listening to the radio/watching TV/hanging around the family process but still being full of a rush of thoughts and adrenaline.
The lengthy election process and movement that has led to Senator Barack Obama (Fox News and those other so-called "conservative Republican" Americans can use the middle name if they wish, doesn't change what's gone down) becoming the future President of the United States not only says a wonderful thing about the progress and hard work of Black America throughout the years but also of the solid contributions of the multiple Hip-Hop Generations of America.
It is a known fact that the multiple post-Civil War Reconstuction period social movements (Black Upliftment, Latino Upliftment, Feminism, the fight for same sex rights, etc.) that are now collective grouped into what is now called Civil Rights Movement made a huge impact in America with the the past 40+ years of social change with all Americans of Color and Women.
The children from all of those Civil Rights Movements are what I call the Hip-Hop Generations, those born from the mid-1960s to the present day - the post-Baby Boomers and Generations X, Y & Z.
For some in the U.S., the collective power of the Hip-Hop Generations for the gate has been a scary thing to behold in regards to both it's historically new found power and privledge.
After all, these kids were getting more fame, more money, more attention and more things in fields as diverse as from your average 9 to 5 gig to activism to entertainment - what was (and is) going to be done with that scenario?
Some confused members of the Civil Rights Movements became upset because they could not understand or totally control this new generation of young people who while not only reaping the benefits from their works did not mind questioning or pushing aside what they felt did not work for them with the new mainstream society that came about the previous generations' successes and failures.
There have been plenty of elders - blood related and otherwise - throughout the years that have made the effort to at least understand these youth so they could work in conjunction to pass on a positive legacy and make some quality moves. For these people, I am forever grateful.
Unfortunately, there have been others that let their despite show and cause a wave of mostly unjustified negative reactions.
The reasons throughout the years for these actions have ranged from everything to petty and bitter jealousies to a simple pre-fabricated Fear of a Hip-Hop Planet, created by a Mainstream News Media and Government that for the vast majority of the time does not care about anyone or anything but self-preservation.
Why is it that both generations don't get along the way they should?
Some members of the Civil Rights Generation have stopped doing that is natural to everything that exists in nature - the passing on lessons and ways from the past to survive a hostile world.
For some, it was better to pass the buck of shame then to look in the mirror, admit mistakes have been made and to go about working hard strong role in what at times can be an uphill battle with making a child (of any age range) into an adult.
This completely negative way of raising the youth has alarmingly created a mentally and physically nilistic way of life for the Hip-Hop Genrations of all ethnic, economic and social backgrounds in the United States in various ways, especially in the 21st century.
The "it is what it is" mentality of apathy and dejection settled in people's hearts and with that, has stunted what was an amazing 100+ years of societal growth in this country due to new ideas and concepts forming new types of people. Maybe for some parties, that was the point.
A group of people only care when others do the same.
To have your parents and other older people you instinctively look up to say that "Young People", "Black People", "Spainish People", "Hip-Hoppers", etc. will never play a part creating real change over and over again is a terrible thing to place in someone's mind. It should not cause any surprise when things go backwards instead of forwards when this occurs.
The entire journey of the Obama Presidential Campaign should honestly make a lot of folks who say these groups of people are not important in this country as well as it's impact on the world should hopefully sit down, think hard and reassess what's really good so that progress can occur on a consistent basis.
According to the hard numbers of voters, the amount of young voters (18 to 29 years old), women and Black American's who came out played a HUGE role in pushing the win for Barack Obama.
The tried and true ways of the Civil Right Generations and those before them of working within and beyond the system played a valuable role in this political win - the knocking of doors, signing people up hand to hand, going on mainstream media outlets, etc.
However, the gifts, ambition and technologies of the Hip-Hop Generations pushed things over to a new plateau.
What is going to show in history as the best example of this is the creative usage of the Internet by the Hip-Hop Generations as a both quick news (and more importantly, Independent Media) source and way to organize played the greatest role of any technology that has ever existed for any sort of election.
Look at what happened:
* A regular person could recieve constant updates on what was going on on the Election Trail - the good, the bad, the ugly and downright messed up - from all political parties.
Actions and speeches were exposed immediately for the masses to interpet AND respond to on their own with like-minded people as well as different other different communities to share ideas, especially with YouTube and other forms of internet video.
Everyone having the ability to become their own news and/or propaganda organization with various websites and blogs ended up being an overall positive thing in making folks feel like they were some sort of small part of the political process.
I have to give it up to every MC, every singer, every DJ (radio, mixtape, club and podcast DJs - BIG UP!), every actor, every writer, every publication (BIG shouts to Don Diva, Vibe and The Source for their excellent special issues on the election) and every average bro or sis on the street who wanted to express in their viewpoint what was good and spread the word about the election.
Whether via music video and song, opinion piece, article, interview and whatever other way folks could think of to let the young people know in their own unique way the importance of voting (many of thse folks taking part of the process for the first time), letting people know about election law and election fraud, dispelling rumours and so forth is not inconsequential.
To have folks as diverse in the Hip-Hop community from Chuck D of Public Enemy to Jay-Z, Pharell to Young Jeezy, T.I. to Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip to Bun B of UGK, Talib Kweli to Jim Jones and plenty of others it would be impossible to name right now being all for the same cause and reaching different audiences for a common cause is and was a beautiful thing.
Websites with various unique content all talking about the U.S. Presidential Election as different as Bossip, The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, Black Poltics On The Web, The Loop, Oh Hell Nawl, SOHH.com, The Nation and the BBC amongst plenty of others were personally on the daily to see where other people's minds were at on this election and other aspects of the news.
* One could look at your presidential candidates' platforms in depth on their respective websites to get more then the "sound bite" version of what was good with them.
* Volunteer and fundraising efforts for poltiicians of all stripes - from the "major" two political parties to independent party folks like the Green Party, Libertarians, etc. - were revolutionized with direct internet communication, allowing the average man to actually see they were playing some sort of role with things directly.
Getting everyone from the youngest eligible voter to the oldest (stories of people in their 80s to 100s going to the polls or filling in absentee ballots) to let their voices heard (with one of the highest turnouts in recent history in the United Staes) is the very definition of forward looking Democracy in Action.
Both the Civil Rights and Hip-Hop Generations all political stripes voted not because of a legal obligation (even most dictatorships in this day and age at least go through doing a sham vote to not look like total tyrants), but a moral and social obligation in their hearts to right a very wronged ship of the Bush 43rd Presidency of the past 8 years.
Whether you voted for Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain or any of the Third Party candidates, this should be a moment to be all who engaged in the process should be very proud of.
So now, everybody, here we are.
The proverbial New Day in America has come with a loud shout for C-H-A-N-G-E being heard from all points.
I am very happy that I can look forward the period twenty days after my 30th Birthday (New Years Eve 2008), having a Black American will be sworn in as President of the United States on Inaugaration Day (Tuesday, January 20, 2009 - right after the official holiday observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday).
I will not front and say that as a Black Woman and a member of the Hip-Hop Generation in America, that I am not extremely happy or proud of all of my people right now. A qualified and intelligent Person of Color in this poltical office (hell, of any background really) is very long overdue and one could only be happy both a popular and electoral vote count made that abundantly clear.
Also, now the world will see this amazing feat that was accomplished due to the diverse Civil Rights and Hip-Hop Generations working together to make this happen:
Black America
White America
Latino America
Young America
Old America
Rich America (a suprisingly high number)
Poor America
And So Forth and So On...
Now, since one thing has been accomplised, it's time to take all of that energy, emotion and brainpower expended for this political race and to place it in other parts of your local, state, national and worldwide communties.
Volunteer in your community, spend quality time with your families, friends and neighbors, use your local libraries and bookstores to both absorb and share knowledge...do whatever you can do in your daily power to make a difference.
The deeply embedded issues of how America and the world percieve Race, Class and Social issues have not disappeared due to the election on Senator Obama to become President Obama in the least (there still needs to be a REAL national dialouge about that).
But, with his election by a multitude of different peoples, one part of the glass ceiling now as a few panes missing and shattered to let a bit of the sunshine in. It's not going to be so easy to Plug and Play stereotypes about the incompentance and immorality Black Americans and all Americans of Color so easy anymore - and that is a damned wonderful thing.
It will take the work of both generations - those on the inside of the system, activists on the outside, everyone in between and the Independent Media as the Eye in the Sky to cover & critique it all - to make sure that not just Barack Obama and future polticans do that they need to, but most importantly, making ourselves, live to the best of our potential to continue the direction of true, long lasting and positive change from the best directions possible.
The alarm from director Spike Lee's School Daze has rung for all to hear:
And it seems like folks are waking up from our national dorms of defeat and deceit after a long, drugged slumber - now time to stay up and awake for whatever else comes.
Peace and Happy To Be An Active Part of History,
Mary Nichols (DJ Fusion)
FuseBox Radio Broadcast
BlackRadioIsBack.com
1 comments:
Interesting post.
This has been one of the most interesting times that I have spent in these United States.
We needed to have the stimulius that Obama provided as a group of people period.
It was amazing to see our elders, us, our children, our grandbabies and grandchildren gathering together with all manners of people to do one thing.
Isn't it cool that we have seen this story unfold and helped to make the outcome as we desired? That's our story within history. We used our desire, energy and resources to help make it possible. Those of us who participated in the many activities, informational pools and wrote our hearts out on the subject had a hand in how the story moved along.
Post a Comment