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"George Jackson's Revolutionary's Perspective and the Hip-Hop Culture"
By Mark Bowen
On the May 2004 Freemix, the Funkinest mentioned how ja-rule co opted the name and front cover of George Jackson's book he wrote in prison "Blood In My Eye" into his latest album. In brief, Funkinest illustrated to us why this co optation by ja-rule is a smack in the face to George Jackson and the revolution, highlighting how ja-rule's album contains none of the revolutionary perspective that the original "Blood In My Eye" is all about.
The Funkinest blessed me with this book (Blood In My Eye) and as I started to read the first part of this handbook that depicts how to strategically implement revolution within this country, specifically within urban settings, I started to see some irony between ja-rule and George Jackson. George Jackson describes in his book what he calls "the basis of our only hope [towards revolution]." These basis are: an underground mass media, an "ultra-aggressive" political party which is also the forefront of these three entities, and then the elevation and popularization of a revolutionary culture, and it is within this last "basis" that I find the irony.
Hip-Hop as we all know is the most influential culture in the world today amongst generations X and Y for the past 4 decades. As far as I can see, it is projects and organizations like voxunion.com, 2nd Childhood Productions, Organized COUP, and several other independent media outlets, are implementing the media perspective George mentions. We (the liberators) as of yet, since the 70's, have a strong political base to forefront these "basis". But we do have a popular revolutionary culture, Hip-Hop. KRS-ONE went before United Nations Press Secretary to "officiate" Hip-Hop as a globally recognized culture, and the United Nations officially declared Hip-Hop a culture in 2001. Though we really don't need the approval of the U.N. to authenticate our culture and its genuinity, the fact that the U.N. recognize Hip-Hop as a culture asserts half of what George Jackson said what needed to be done in order to shake up the enemy, and that is for them to recognize the existence of this culture. The other half that is missing is the potential "threat" of his envisioned revolutionary popular culture, and this is the irony I saw in ja-rule using "Blood In My Eye."
Since this revolutionary culture that George pointed out does exist, it's ironic, and dismaying, how ja-rule, a false representative of Hip-Hop and the true lives of Black people, is a well known active participant within George's theoretical revolutionary culture. I wonder if ja-rule understands that George's friends in the Black Liberation Army would've ran up in the club that he raps about, stuck him up with guns, which he raps about, and robbed him for his jewelry and money that he raps about, and gave it all to the poor or used towards the revolution. Ja-rule is not the only one to blame for this atrocity, there are many other corporate flunkys that poison the culture (is it necessary to point out the obvious ones). But as we all know, the ultimate snake of course is the corporate sector that stole Hip-Hop to capitalize off of it and to corrupt what could be an imminent threat to national security. When Hip-Hop was stolen by the corporate sector, they rearranged its original image, an image that once fit in swell with George's vision, and with the help of some black opportunists, Hip-Hop began to reflect the greedy, immoral, false imaged, capitalist nature of this country, and perpetuated and preyed off of the negativity and false consciousness that plagues our communities. In my eyes, this was done purposefully as one tactic out of many to blindfold the once most imminent internal threat to U.S. security, the Black community.
The Black and poor community still is a threat to the country and always will be for as long as it is exists as a culture outside the mainstream of the US. If the community weren't still a threat, there wouldn't be such a delegation on part of the government to send a vicious campaign against us through the justice system, a terrorist police state, inferior schools, under paying jobs, lack of jobs, and a heap of other institutional repressive tactics to oppress and stagnate a people. Believe it or not, most of the people in our communities that are viewed as hopeless, like thugs, drug dealers, unruly children, drug addicts, etc., are on our side. I know this through copwatching experience, were the shit to hit the fan, they would be the strength of our army, and I'm sure George would've thought the same way too: "To postpone our liberation with the excuse that the 'people aren't ready' is to underestimate them;... " - George Jackson. The reason why "the hopeless" are the way they are is a dynamically complex situation, but explainable, as we all should understand.
But just to piggyback and highlight an overarching point that George made, we, as the community, do not provide anything for them that they can seek sanctuary in. We have all the words of direction, but no organization and institutions that they can call their own and have pride in, like what the Black Panthers had with the breakfast program or the sickle cell clinic. When we can create such systems and institutions that show and prove, because this is what it is really about to them, this "show me the money" mentality, they will gradually become more conscious and active towards their oppression. For as many Blacks have left the community and got jobs within mainstream US, this should have already been done. We can look back to the civil rights era as one time period that confirms this social phenomena. We have to go to the community and organize ourselves around their issues, and this is what George stressed. And this is partially the reason why rappers today will ask "how high" when the corporations tell them to jump because the corporate sector can show and prove to them. What generation X and Y oriented institutions, that we have control over, dwell in the poor communities and show and prove? Also considering when those who "make it" leave the community and "mainstreamify" themselves most of the time. There are several organizations out there in the DC area that do this type of organizing, and Organized COUP is one of those organizations that need support and are open to ideas. At least go and volunteer sometime with some youth. If every activist did this in concentration, more youth would be reached because the image is real, just as real as the rappers on TV.
I know I am not saying anything new here, actually these types of ideas have probably been embedded well into our consciousness and we have heard it a million times from a million people. I just wanted to reinforce not giving up on what seems lost to us, because I hear a lot of pessimism from so-called civilized Blacks and progressives. If these are the people we are trying to liberate, bridges must exist.