Civil Rights, Hip-Hop, and Hope

The beginning of Pollard’s lecture he stated that our generation has the power to name ourselves. Our generation has grown up with digital and wireless technology as well as hip hop and R&B. Moreover, he believes that it is up to our generation to answer the U.S. philosophical question; do we really want a just world? On the one hand the principles of equality and rights for all mankind are displayed throughout our constitutions. However, on the other hand there are several incidents such as the eradication of the Indians and slavery which have directly contradicted America’s “principles”. This concept led to a discussion of what happened in previous generations.

African American youth in the previous generations decided to change the world they live in. This is evident by the Greensboro, Nashville, and Wichita college student sit ins. MLK described this as youth negroes stopping their imitation of white and starting to organize against their crimes. These students believed in the concept that African Americans don’t need to look for leaders because we are all leaders. From the work of these students organizations like Snick and the Black Panthers were created and flourished. Furthermore, the actions of these people and groups led to the creation of Africana studies in colleges and universities. Black studies then paved the way for other progressive studies such as Latin studies and women studies. Another contributor to our generation was hip hop.

If you talk to any true hip hop culture they will tell you that it’s more than music. Hip Hop is a culture. It is rebellious in nature and promotes the challenging of authority. Groups like the Last poets showed lights on the problems of the people. This culture continued the militant rebellion of the black powers and expressed it creatively mirroring the culture of Jazz and the blues. All of the information presented in the lecture expresses the important challenges of our generation and why we natural have the tools to face them.

By: Stanford Fraser