Four minority activists gave students a new approach to reform, urging them Friday to fight racial stereotypes through hip-hop music and a knowledge of international human-rights violations.
Radio-journalist Rosa Clemente, award-winning poet Khalil Almustafa, educator Marinieves Alba and author Jeremy Glick invited about 85 students in Ryan Family Auditorium to join the hip-hop movement to resist “white imperialism.”
“Like blues, jazz and soul,” Clemente said, “from Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On?’ to James Brown’s ‘Say It Loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud’ to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ and now to DMX’s ‘They Don’t Know Who We Be,’ hip-hop is a culture of resistance.”
The four New York-based speakers visited NU as part of the “Hip Hop — Speak Truth to Power” college tour, designed to encourage students to overcome the disadvantages of minorities through hip-hop music. The three-hour event was sponsored by Peace Project, For Members Only, Alianza, Multicultural Center Advisory Board, Women’s Center, the African-American studies department, political science department, gender studies department, the Student Activities Finance Board and Northwestern Opposing War and Racism.
Clemente advocated the importance of unity between cultural groups and called for blacks and Latinos to understand the similarities between their past and current social conditions. She also stressed the need for Latinos to realize their African roots, abandoning the “colonial idea” that dismisses their African heritage as evil.
Blacks and Latinos need to come together to form coalitions against problems within their communities, Clemente said. Although she said she supported protests against international issues such as conflicts in Iraq, Clemente highlighted the importance of the lack of education funding, poverty and resisting police brutality in the United States.
“We’re living in a time when people are the most oppressed,” said Clemente, donning a “Fuck the Police” T-shirt. “Not only is there a war in Iraq, there is a war in South Side Chicago. If you’re not organizing against the war from the Chicago Police and the NYPD, you’re not fighting.”
Glick, who wrote the book “Another World is Possible,” said caucasian domination has grown since Sept. 11, 2001. The author, whose father was killed in the World Trade Center attack, garnered national attention after signing a petition equating the acts of the U.S. government in Iraq with terrorism.
But Glick said he believed his father’s death did not justify military action in Afghanistan or Iraq.
“If you want to feel bad for my father,” Glick said, “also feel bad about people who are run down by the U.S. government.”
Students said they enjoyed the speakers’ radical approach to dealing with race issues.
“Lots of progressive groups bring white male liberals,” said Desiree Evans, a Medill senior who helped organize the event. “But it’s important to use younger culture, hip hop and music as an organizing tool.”
Education senior Blaine Bookey said she appreciated being able to hear about the activists’ views, and said that NU should often take a more radical approach to its lectures. She also saw the value of making her own contribution without becoming a full-time activist.
“The right to find and pick your role in the struggle spoke to me,” Bookey said.
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theresa kwok/the daily northwestern
Medill senior Desiree Evans, who helped organize “Hip Hop — Speak Truth to Power,” recites a poem she wrote to a crowd of 85 people at the Friday event in Ryan Family Auditorium.
