Thursday, February 3rd, 2005

Bush, Faith, Gangs, And The Hip-Hop Generation

As reported on SOHH.com, President Bush used his State of the Union address to propose a faith-based anti-gang initiative that over three years will give hip-hop generation youths “better options than apathy, or gangs, or jail” and “will show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence.”

He is not talking about anything new.

Gang peace work has always been an act of faith, of belief in a higher purpose. The peace that began in Watts in 1992 and took hold across Los Angeles after the riots led to an outpouring of peace movements across the country, and eventually set the conditions in place for Minister Farrakhan’s epochal Million Man March. In Los Angeles, community-based organizations like the Community Self-Determination Institute and Homies Unidos have been translating faith into miracles for over a decade. But they have often encountered resistance rather than respect from police and politicians.

What is interesting about this initiative, if he and the First Lady are serious about it, is that it could mark a shift in generational politics.

The hip-hop generation has been victim first of the politics of abandonment, then of the politics of containment. Here is an attempt at assimilation. They’re saying, we’ll address the hip-hop generation by appealing to their spiritual selves.

If the progressive left was smart, they’d be shaking in their boots. Hip-hop is the next Kansas. Can you imagine a hip-hop/Republican rapprochement based on moral grounds? Clearly the smartest minds in the baby boomer right-wing are thinking two steps ahead of the baby boomer left.

But here’s the essential bankruptcy in the Bush plan: Faith is necessary but not sufficient, especially faith dispensed from on high. For hip-hop generation youths caught in the cycle of violence, positive messages alone won’t solve the problem. As Bush’s tax cuts and war economics continue to make many youths of color expendable, the level of violence and desperation has been creeping back up in many inner cities. The hip-hop generation needs real jobs and resources in the neighborhoods, community-centered problem-solving, and a long-term commitment to their emotional, mental, and physical health. Anything less is bad faith.

In the meantime, someone kick some of these sleeping lefties in the head and tell them to stop playing their own politics of abandonment and containment with the hip-hop generation.

posted by @ 3:08 pm | 6 Comments



6 Responses to “Bush, Faith, Gangs, And The Hip-Hop Generation”

  1. Anonymous says:
    February 4, 2005 at 2:06 pm

    “The hip-hop generation needs real jobs and resources in the neighborhoods, community-centered problem-solving, and a long-term commitment to their emotional, mental, and physical health. Anything less is bad faith.”

    this iz real thing

  2. jamo says:
    February 25, 2005 at 10:09 am

    I enjoyed this post, and was thinking about it when you mentioned Bushs inner city reform plan at it at your book signing. Its crazy to think that there could actually be rappers at the last republican convention–didnt Doug E Fresh and Biz Markie appear?

  3. Anonymous says:
    March 7, 2005 at 8:35 am

    jamo, Biz Markie did a huge fundraiser with Bill Clinton up at Dream during the campaign.

    I don’t think he’s a Republican.

    I think what you might be talking about is this piece:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21812-2005Jan19.html

    Let’s not get all hyped up on Republican rappers while they’re still as rare as chicken teeth.

  4. Anonymous says:
    August 27, 2005 at 8:33 am

    I’ve noticed several sites on the Internet that promote a penis enlargement through “ancient” techniques of strengthening (and yes, lengthening) the penis through exercises. These sites claim that since the penis is a muscle, it can be conditioned and exercised for greater and permanent length and girth. Is this possible?

  5. Anonymous says:
    June 3, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    hip jop generation needs more than anything real jobs and resources out of the neighborhood, because the neighborhood is the center of failure in african american lifestyle, just think how many times you see a well known african ameerican on the news 84% of the time the trouble began with a problem in the neighborhood and escalated to something else and as far as mental and emotinal health blame the U.S. gov’t they have that effect on everyone,and physically we are natures best product to date

  6. Anonymous says:
    December 11, 2006 at 11:41 am

    I relly like thins quote, and so i’ll post it agin.
    “The hip-hop generation needs real jobs and resources in the neighborhoods, community-centered problem-solving, and a long-term commitment to their emotional, mental, and physical health. Anything less is bad faith.”
    I second that.

    My question is: WHY DO ALL POLITICIANS SOUND THE SAME?
    Why aren’t politicians representing the voice their constituancy the way they’re meant to be represented? People are ANGRY about their conditions, but I hardly see or hear politicians expressing any sense of urgency or anger about current conditions. If they are expressing any anger, it has to do with everything else, but not the people who are running the political system. Politicians never blame themselves. That’s why Trent Lott can make racilly insensitive comments but still have a very healthy political career. A politician who makes these kinds of mistakes is not EXCELLENT.If he/she is not aware of the voice of the people they represent, then there needs to be someone better. The voter, unfortunatly is limited to few options. I have never seen someone who never went to college, doesn’t have a law degree, and writes rhymes for a living run for public office. it;s a waste of time. You need money and television airtime to get votes.
    My point is: Anything less than EXCELLENT representation doesn’t belong in political.
    I think that whether republican or democrat, Hip Hoppers need to be in congress saying what is on their minds, and finding ways (other than in hip hop) to represent their people in the political arena. Let’s face it. Politicians are not listining to Common, Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z, or Dead Prez. Congress is not go

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