Hip Hop Activism Buds Beautifully

Harry Belafonte stated to me in an interview that entertainers have the responsibility to speak out on issues concerning the community. He also said that entertainers are so often used to take people's minds off real issues and that entertainers who do not act are part of the problem. In a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, "Mean Street Theater," written by John McWhorter, he called social and political contributions to the community made by rapper's "sideline donations." About the recently slain rap artist Camoflauge, McWhorter writes, "Despite his searingly profane, violent lyrics, [he] was regularly invited to speak at Savannah high schools." This article could have been more appropriately titled, "Mean Muggin' Hip Hop."

There's more. The article went on to run off other artists, i.e. Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay as products of the genre. Never mind the failings of law enforcement who have yet to find the killers of any of these men. But, they could find any small-time hustlers in the hood and lock them up for years and years for a nonviolent offense, i.e. drug possession.

This brings me to the most appealing part of the piece. While the author gave credit to Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Action Network for setting a goal to register millions of hip hop voters for the 2004 elections, he asked a poignant question. "What does the organization want the hip-hop generation to vote for?" If for nothing else, his article should have been printed for this query.

It is true that Hip Hop has to have a political issue or issues to mobilize around. And we got issues; no doubt about that. Well, Russell Simmons, P Diddy, Jay Z and many other hip hoppers are right on point in their effort to address what should be the number one issue to focus hip hop activism -- fighting against the failed war on drugs. These celebrities are doing exactly what Mr. Belafonte says is expected of them.

This is a perfect issue for hip hop activism because the lives affected the greatest are in the same communities that Hip Hop most represents. In addition, the unchecked drug war is now devastating lives in white communities as well. But what makes this an even greater issue for the hip hop generation is the fact that it is The Issue of our time.

No other cause has as many moving parts as the issues associated with the failed drug war. First, the war on drugs has created a prison population that should be an embarrassment to any rational person. I do not know any African-American that does not have a personal connection to someone in jail for a drug crime. Most of the over two million people in jail are non-violent, low-level drug offenders who would be better in treatment, therapy, job training and/or on a job than in jail. But instead, the war on drugs has delivered young bodies to jails that are used to support the heartbreaking reality of the prison industrial complex.

Second, our babies are in foster care in high numbers because their parents have been given long sentences, usually for minor use or possession charges. In Washington, DC, an estimated 70% of the children who are in foster care are there directly or indirectly due to drug addiction. There are no studies that show prison as being better than treatment for a parent.

Finally, aside from the other civil and human rights problems related to the war on drugs, i.e. a person losing the right to vote or a person being denied financial aid for college, there is the matter of racism. The fallout from the drug war has been more devastating than the KKK lynchings of the 1920s. Young people are racially targeted, set up, captured, convicted, sentenced and jailed at a staggering rate.

A 2000 Human Rights Watch report confirms that in Wisconsin a black man is 53 times more likely to go to prison on a drug charge than a white man. This rate is reported to be the second highest in the country and more than 4 times the national average. Only Illinois ranked higher - there, a black man is 57 times more likely to go to prison on a drug charge.

In New York, 94% of the people sentenced under the Rockefeller drug laws are from Black and Latino communities. That's right, 94 percent. Debra Small, who works for Drug Policy Alliance, says that the Rockefeller drug laws are the granddaddy of the federal mandatory sentencing laws. A low-level drug offender can be sentenced to 15 years to life if convicted.

I recently met a victim of the Rockefeller drug laws named Anthony Papa who is the painter of "15 Years to Life: Self Portrait". Anthony, spent twelve years in a maximum-security prison for passing an envelope containing 4 ounces of cocaine. When asked about this law, he says, "The millions of dollars being spent to house non-violent persons can be used to feed the hungry, put shoes on children's feet and spent on education."

Russell Simmons' Hip Hop Action Network has decided to work with Mothers of the New York Disappeared and other activists, celebrities and organizations to change these laws. A victory in New York could have a domino affect among other states that have adopted similar drug policies. Further, this may be the catalyst to make drug policy reform front and center in the 2004 elections.

Hip Hop is coming into political maturity and can work to change some of the realities that are reported so vividly in rap lyrics. It is so fascinating how music has always been a part of social action in the black community. During slavery, coded songs were used to take persons to freedom. In the civil rights movement, marchers sang songs like, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round." Now, there is an entire genre that is budding into full political awareness. How beautiful. And, it does not look like a mere "sideline donation" to me.