by Tyson Amir
I go hard on white people because white supremacy and privilege are so prevalent the world over, but white people are not the only ones who have attempted to steal our legacy. Hip-hop has become a global phenomenon. You'll find people in every country on the planet imitating black culture and attempting to do hip-hop. You have folks in Asia, Europe, South and Central America, Australia, the Malay Peninsula, everywhere on the planet. One other group that needs to be called out is Arabs and Arab rappers. Hip-hop has spread to all parts of the Arab world, and you can see its usage by young folks in Arab countries and folks of Arab descent in parts of the Western world. I would really be hypocritical to go hard on the white supremacist west and not mention Arabs and their false cultural claim to Arab supremacy over blacks. Just like the foundation of Western civilization was largely based on money and resources extracted from the planet via the triangular slave trade, the Arab world profited from a slave trade that primarily traded African bodies for more than 1,000 years. The Arab slave trade moved millions of bodies, the majority women to serve as sex slaves, out of the African continent to slave markets in various parts of the Arab world. A major contributing factor was the expansion of Islam and its allowance of slavery as a legal social and religious practice. A lasting vestige of this horrific historical epoch is the development of the term Abeed (I'm using an English phonetic spelling of the Arabic word). Abeed can be translated in English as slave, and it is exclusively applied to black people because in the Arab cultural psyche black people's only purpose is that of a slave. It doesn't matter who you are, if you have black skin and you're in any part of the Arab world you might hear this term cast down upon you.
This is an interesting fact: Both white Western society and Arab society have produced terms to denigrate black people. White folks call us niggers, and Arabs call us Abeed; they are different words from different languages but in essence they mean the same thing. Both terms are derived from slave trades largely predicated on the exploitation of black peoples. In Western and Arab societies, blacks are considered the lowest of the low in the social hierarchy. Arabs as a people are diverse; they compete amongst themselves as to who is the highest class of Arab. Is it Lebanese, Jordanian, Saudi, Kuwati, and so on and so forth? They also respect their tribal lineages. Arabs are very proud of maintaining their familial bonds, and, like any people with rich history like that, they should be. Their Arabic dialects are different depending on what part of the Arab world you are in, but one thing that is the same across the Arab world is calling black people the racial pejorative Abeed.
I feel this is important because these young people who are produced by a culture that has castigated black people for centuries are now appropriating black cultural heritage. I can't speak on the character of these rappers because I don't know many of them personally. It is possible that maybe some Arab rappers use the term Abeed in their everyday lives when referring to black people; maybe they don't. The point I'm attempting to make is you cannot practice hatred of black people and think you can have access to our cultural artifacts. You cannot belong to a culture that has an age-old practice of demeaning black bodies and think you'll get an invite to use our culture freely. Especially if you aren't doing anything to fight the racial bias that exists in your own culture towards black people. Your taking of our culture without paying homage or respect to black people makes you a thief. Pay homage and respect to the people who created the art form and show that homage and respect by working to support their struggle and ending the racist bigotry alive and well in your cultures today. Do that, and you can come hang out; if not, then you're a thief who is stealing our art form for your own personal gain and you are not welcome here.
Hip-hop as a Tool for Education
Black culture and our artistic expressions have all contributed to the survival of black people here in America. Hip-hop is one of the most recent manifestations of black cultural expression. Hip-hop is many things, but one of the major aspects of its purpose is as a tool for liberation. Mainstream America seeks to blind you to that fact with its corporate takeover. Hip-hop is the backing track to commercials, selling us products we don't need by exploiting our culture. Despite the commodification of our hip-hop, the liberating pulse can still be felt. In spaces that corporate America has yet to pollute, you will find hip-hop being used in its purest form, to nurture, educate, and liberate black people.
I say all this because many young black kids are placed in schools that are designed to fail them. Look at any meaningful metric pertaining to education, and you'll see that blacks are at the bottom of the list. We are the most likely to be pushed out or drop out. We are held back the most. Our children are designated as learning deficient more than any other group. The schools we attend are underfunded when compared to white majority schools. Education is a flawed endeavor when it comes to blacks. There are success stories, but the institution is woefully inequitable when it comes to black students. The bottom line is schools were not designed to educate our youth, and that is why they are doing such a good job of not educating them. We often do not have independent educational services in our communities to help support growth and development for our youth. At this moment in time, we cannot provide an alternative to a system that has been failing our children.
What we do know is that the same child that a counselor may label ADD, ADHD, or learning deficient can have thousands if not millions of rap lyrics memorized. That same child who might not be interested in a third-grade textbook can listen to an entire album of their favorite artist and give you a detailed explanation of why he or she is their favorite artist. Hip-hop has revealed an intelligence in our people that is undervalued by the institution. That hip-hop intelligence needs to be fed with vital information to help the growth and development of our children. This is where the reforming revolutionary power of hip-hop lies, and for those of us who recognize its power, it is incumbent upon us to create the material to give more substance to our audiences.
I'm not saying that other types of songs with other content cannot be made. I strongly feel every artist has to question what they are writing and what they are writing it for. A substantial percentage of artists are writing lyrics that are inspired by mainstream artists. These mainstream artists are all vying for spots offered by the four major record labels. If you're trying to get a deal, there are basically four major record labels that control what is and what is not hip-hop music. They are interested in profit not art. They want "artists" who will sell units and generate views. Therefore, they bank on a formula of finding what sells best and keep putting out more of that to keep money coming in. To do that, these four major companies are tied to the six major corporations that own 90 percent of the U.S. media. These people literally have the power to create any image they want and feed it to the masses. Some artists think they are being innovative and original in what they write and how they carry themselves, when they are actually reproducing what some old white man in a suit at a table deemed is rap or hip-hop. That white man cares nothing about the people who created this art and culture, why they created it, and what they really want and need. It's a cold game.
That's the music side of the equation, and the street side of the equation is similar. White people created the ghetto. The powers that be attempt to fool us and claim we need to be more afraid of Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, ISIS, The IRA, Chinese, Vietnamese, North Koreans, Russians, Taliban, or anybody else. None of those people or groups have done anything to destroy black folks. On the contrary, the black community has constantly been attacked by white America, and the policies of the white establishment. They are the ones solely responsible for engineering the weapons of slavery, Jim Crow, poverty, mass incarceration, and drugs, which have destroyed the black community. The artists who glorify the pain, trauma, suffering, and ignorance found in places in some of our communities are glorifying the white man's vision for us. The key word is glorify. It is one thing to make commentary on how we live, but it's an ent
irely different thing to take the pain and suffering and make it the ideal for black existence.
The guns and drugs all came into our communities with government complicity. These things are plagues in our communities, and we've had to find ways to adapt and survive. We tell stories of the world in which we live. Many of us come from places that are not fit for humans to live in. That's very real, and music is an outlet for us to discuss the problems of our existence. This is where some folks in my community will disagree, and that's fine with me, but at no time is the gangster persona, which survives as being a predatory force in the black community, to be celebrated or condoned. There is no excuse for glorifying poor black people killing other poor black people, or selling dope to other poor black people, or pimping black bodies, especially women and children. That is glorifying the work of those who have been responsible for our oppression since 1619. We have to realize that and take back what power we have if we wish to win against this social order that loves to see us either dead or in chains.
Let me also be clear that hip-hop is not the source of the problems in the black community. Some might try to make that philosophical jump with those last statements. The problems blacks face are due to the institutional racist practices America has enacted over the past 400 years. With or without hip-hop, we would still have state-created ghettos and disproportionate representation in jails and prisons. Jim Crow and 'separate but equal' were all created in America prior to hip-hop. The problems that blacks faced in the South or in major urban centers were alive and well without any help from hip-hop. In fact, way before hip-hop, the so-called "deviant" behavior in the black community was blamed on other forms of black cultural expression. Hip-hop is not the problem, but hip-hop can become part of a new way of thinking for black people in America, which can lead to a new way of being.
I'm an educator with a few degrees and a master’s in education, but the cultural capital I have as an educator is very limited. I am not bragging about my academic pedigree; I don't really care much about the paperwork attached to my name. I'm not a fool though; I know I can get in some doors, which is extremely valuable, but other doors remain shut in white and black America due to my "education" and being an educator. I'm an emcee, and it is that fact that affords me the ability to walk into almost any urban setting, and because I can spit bars I can have an audience with youth all over. I try to practice humility with my ability, but my skill set is at a level where I can actually spit that hot fire or like we say out here in the bay, your boy be gas’n. That's important because this is the language of the people, and when the people began to hear more than just the clever wordplay they become intrigued and inspired by the message. That is power because hip-hop is consumed in a way where it becomes part of you.
One of my spiritual teachers Zaid Shakir once said, "The fastest way to affect the hearts of the people is through what they hear because the ear has a direct channel to the heart." Hip-hop is the equivalent of sending a message to the heart at light speed. I cannot walk up and drop a book in front of these kids and elicit the same response as I can with hip-hop. I cannot bring in an eloquent speaker who can break down the pathologies of America and solutions to problems in the black community and elicit that same response as I could with it being presented in rap form. This power is found only through hip-hop. That power belongs to hip-hop, and the power is actualized at its highest level by those who command the vernacular of it. We have that power, and it's imperative that we use it to build up our communities and support our youth.
It is imperative for practitioners to develop high quality content and share that with their audience. Again, I'm not advocating censorship. I love to have fun and listen to music that puts me in different moods. Music that reflects love, intimacy, partying, anger, relaxation, and anything else an artist wants to express. I don’t believe in censorship, but I am a fan of recognizing the power of your craft and upholding a level of responsibility with what you create. This work here is an attempt at raising the bar with hip-hop, creating a literature that speaks deeper to our time, place, and experience, and providing a reminder and education.
Clarity came to me one day, and I was convinced this had to happen. I was compelled to take my hip hop (the language of the people) and pair it with historical and contemporary political/social/academic analysis to form a unique revolutionary statement. The challenge would be figuring out how to best frame the scope of the conversation. I began to search my catalogue of writings and music and pull out pieces that I felt represented crucial aspects of the black experience. This was the conception point of Black Boy Poems.
Beginnings are important, but as a freedom fighter I remain focused on the ultimate objective which is freedom and liberation. Every revolutionary act has to be a step towards obtaining that revolutionary goal. My goal in this work is to spark the fire of revolutionary struggle in the hearts and minds of my people here in America. This is the goal because we are now almost one-fifth of the way through the 21st century, and it is clear to see that we are not free. No one in black skin is free from state sponsored terror, violence, incarceration and the "traditional" obstacles that plague black life.
What does one do? There are myriad ways to attempt to reconcile that oppressive reality. Some push for assimilation and integration, independence, armed rebellion, mass exodus/expatriation and others a mixture of all those ideas. We've seen numerous examples of each idea put into practice. One that speaks to the acuteness of the problem of being black in America is exodus/expatriation. What has to happen in order to make one leave their home? In response to this question we've witnessed a number of our celebrities and leaders expatriating from the United States. Some by force and others by choice. A portion of the title of this text is an homage to one of my greatest literary influences, Richard Wright, who made a decision to leave the United States in the late 1950s.
In an essay he penned on the subject entitled “I Choose Exile,” he spoke candidly about that very decision. For Wright it all came down to one thing, freedom. He honestly believed he could not find freedom as a black man anywhere in the jurisdiction of the United States of America. Wright was very staunch in his understanding that the American system is not made for black people. It was also his understanding that the American system will not allow a way to eventually incorporate black people. He was of the opinion that the system did not have a mechanism in place to reform itself for the sake of guaranteeing justice and equality to blacks. Therefore, his only alternative was to seek freedom for himself and family outside the lands of the United States.
Although that was his opinion and personal decision he did not want his statement to be taken as a call for mass exodus from the continental borders of the United States. I agree with this as well. I have experienced much better treatment as a black man in multiple parts of the world than compared to my homeland. However, I do not think a mass exodus is a practical solution. There will always be black people in America, and they will face the problems that confront black people on a daily basis. The work of liberating blacks in America will always be necessary as long as this American system is in place. So practical steps have to be taken domestically to achieve this goal.
Wright dedicated his entire life to fighting for the liberation of black people. His frustration and disenchantment with America was a byproduct of knowing that fighting for the rights of his people was morally and ethically right. Yet, he, his family, and people were destined to live in a society that chose the wrongs of racism and institutional hatred over liberty and equality.
“I Choose Exile” was written during the 1950s, which coincides with the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Wright wouldn't have been against the organizing efforts of blacks in America, but he would have questioned their goal of integration and seeking answers from within the system. I say this because he didn't live to see many of the "accomplishments" of the Civil Rights Movement. He died in 1960 at the age of fifty-two, as he suffered from complications from dysenter
y the last three years of his life. Some believe he was poisoned because of the power and eloquence of his pen. Since he didn't get to see the full flower of many of the changes fought for via the Civil Rights Movement, we have to assume what his feeling would have been.
Although he expatriated, he wasn't a separatist by any stretch of the imagination. He spoke in Black Boy about his experience with the Garveyites, the men and women who were the followers of The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The founder and leader of one of the most influential Black Liberation groups in American history, the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA ), Garvey preached of “One God, One Aim, One Destiny” and also separation through the Back to Africa movement as well as Item 38 in the UNIA Declaration of Rights of The Negro Peoples of This World.
"We demand complete control of our social institutions without interference by any alien race or races."
The Garveyites were no stranger to demanding complete independence domestically and abroad. They were never able to accomplish this, but Wright saw their zeal for fighting for a new destiny for black people. This desire is what made Wright truly respect them for working towards what they believed in. Although he didn't agree with the aims and goals of the Garveyites, he still respected their mission and did not stand in the way of their attempting to accomplish that mission. This is why I feel Wright wouldn't have objected to the civil rights movement and other aspects of movements that developed in the ‘50s and ’60s. The Nation of Islam, SNCC, SCLC, The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and other such organizations that took a stand for blacks in America. He would've questioned them all on their true aim, and his questions would've been appropriate. Anyone who is participating in the struggle for freedom and liberation in America has to contend with questions about what they are fighting for, how do they plan on achieving that goal, and if it’s even possible to accomplish that goal here. I am of the opinion of Wright that there is no solution for us to be found within the American institution. Our freedom and liberation will only be accomplished by completely overthrowing the system or creating an independent space for black survival outside of the system. I know these represent minority opinions. Some might even claim them defeatist opinions. I don't share that sentiment, but what I truly stand firmly behind is the fact that the American institution is not willing to amend its ways to accommodate black equality.