It's interesting. The last post was on November 29th. Pretty much the day of the
Bobby Hutton Memorial. It was an incredible experience to see old skool, OG panthers, including Emory Douglas, Billy X and some cats from Philly and the east coast all mixed in with the next generation of socially conscious individuals.
What is it about artist that makes them so cool? Just the idea that someone has heard the call to art. to creation, to self expression and made that the center of their existence is pretty much the coolest thing someone can do.
Some folks can find this fulfillment in their profession, or their personal lives. You can count those folks as lucky, due to the simple fact that the average part time worker at Micky D's makes more than 99.9999% of artist in this country.
In any event, the struggle to survive as an artist is the struggle to sustain oneself on the sustenance of ones work and life, rather than ablity to live on their work.
And then, these same folks are the first, and ALWAYS the first to step forward when a social issue comes forth.
One can just look at the enormous amount of art produced during the Obama campaign as a litmus test of the enormity of the fundamental humanist ideas and feelings that were aroused... and hopefully it is also an indication of what the actual experience of an Obama campaign will bring.
And then.. AND THEN, Oscar Grant... to summarize, too many Black men have been gunned down and killed. Too many times they've been let go. But to have someone stand above another black man, on a transportation platform, with the new year a few hours old, in plain view of hundreds of individuals, cuffed, on his face, knee on his neck, video and photographs being taken, absolutely on threat to anyone or anything... and to be shot in his back and killed, slaughtered, executed.. with no context, no personal back story, no history, no event that was being reacted too... TRAVESTY!
In truth, the backstory is assumed. it is the story of slavery, inhumanity, injustice, institutional racism, disrespect, hatred, fear, brutality and the tradition of complete and utter disregard... sadly, that is the backstory.
Enough. I don't condone wanton violence, and neither does anyone else who has participated in the marches and/or is disgusted with this execution.
But let's not forget. Martin Luther King, delivered his "I have a dream" speech and within a generation, we have a Black President who will be sworn in the day after the national MLK Holiday. The NAACP was started 100 years ago (next month) in response to a race riot in Springfield, Illinois... Where Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama had their political base. August 28th, the day Obama accepted the Democratic Nomination, was the anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech.
Let's celebrate, knowing that we have a Black President, not in an era where Black Presidents are a far gone conclusion, rather, we have a Black President, at a time when Black men of similar background and age, are being gunned down in cold blood, cuffed, subjugated, face down in front of hundreds.
We still have a great deal of work to do, even after Obama takes his Presidential oath to defend a constitution that defines a Black man as 3/5ths of a human being.
This nation DESERVES to have a racist, prejudice, inhumane document as the basis of this countries existence. This is the price the forefathers have to pay. It is the price we all have to pay. It is the stain and indelible, un-eraseable mark upon this country that will hopefully serve to make this nation incapable of forgetting his past, and of forgetting it's obligation to always stay vigilant to continually erase the mark of injustice from this nation.
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