Black Youths Beat Hispanic Man shouting "This is for Trayvon"

Headline: Witness claims youths yelled 'this is for Trayvon' in beating

Police still investigating claim in beating of Hispanic man

Source: Baltimore Sun - July 15, 2013

There's a lot of negative fallout from the Zimmerman verdict.
Trayvoning is one such example.

But this Baltimore story is another terrible example... This is real bad news after the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman verdict.

WHY?

Because now colored people are angry at other colored people! They're tearing us apart! To quote George Costanza: "A house divided cannot stand!"


We got the Divided States of America here...

Simply, if people are mad about a court case, they should not continue the violence.

Stop the Violence! See: Davey D

See also: The Stop the Violence Movement (lyrics)

SOMEBODY KNOWS that the best way to PREVENT PEOPLE FROM RISING UP against a broken system is to keep them divided against each other. The sensationalization of the Zimmerman case is divisive in multiple ways, I will enumerate just a few:

1. Friends against Friends - Disagreement on the Verdict - Everyone's gonna have a different opinion on whether the verdict was right or wrong. This has caused more than a few arguments on social media networks. This "touchy topic" has even turned some friends against each other. No. Bad. Stop it.

2. Color against a Different Color - As evidenced in Baltimore, the Zimmerman verdict has turned minority groups against each other. Black vs. Brown, White vs. Black, Color vs Non-color... ain't no good. Can't we just get along and dance?

3. Community against itself - What does it mean to be colored and stigmatized in America? What does that do to one's self-worth? We got people criticizing their own people and reinforcing their own negative stereotypes.

For people who want justice and real change, we have to UNIFY against a common enemy, which is a broken system with corrupted parts—corrupted cops, along with incompetent political and business leaders. Instead of thinking in terms of "I" or "you," think in terms of "we" and "us."

Not all of them are corrupted, in fact, probably just a minority are. That's why it's no time for generalization, it's time for specificity.

Together we rise.
Divided we'll die.


Let's end the racism and start the embrace-ism. Let's give free hugs, literally or figuratively, and embrace our true relationship to each other, as Earth Citizens, of the Human Family, on Planet Rock aka Earth!

Rock, rock... Planet Rock.

A lot of us have experienced racism. It's real as shit.
Middle school, high school, even now it still exists.

This court case, and the subsequent fallout over its verdict, makes me question the justice system, the education system, the media/news media landscape, AND democracy as a whole.... more on that in a later post...

or maybe I'll make a song about it on my mixtape.

There Were Always Renegades...

...People willing to do something different,

Moving against the dominant culture.

"Since the Prehistoric Ages.

And the days of Ancient Greece.

Right down through the Middle Ages.

Planet Earth kept going through changes.

Then the Renaissance came.

And times continued to change.

Nothing stayed the same,

But there were always Renegades.

Like Chief Sitting Bull.

Tom Paine,

Dr. Martin Luther King,

Malcolm X,

They were Renegades

Of this Time and Age.

The Mighty Renegades."

A lot of people don't realize that this song was written by Afrika Bambaataa,

The Godfather of Hip Hop, 

Former Black Spades gang member, 

and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation.

It was made popular more recently by Rage Against the Machine.

Of course, bboys usually dance to the RATM version.

but WHO ARE the Renegades?

"Renegades are the people.

With their own philosophy.

They change the course of history.

Everyday people like you and me."

And the Renegades of FUNK? Who are they?

Of course, the generation born out of Funk,

Which is the HIP HOP Generation.

HIP HOP HEADS.

The Renegades of TODAY's Time and Age.

Half of yall don't realize your own significance.

Hip Hoppers are the Renegades of Funk.

They changed the course of history.

It would be incorrect to discuss the Origins of Hip Hop without mentioning Funk.

And it would be incomplete to talk about the origins of Funk without mention of the Civil Rights movement, and Blues music before that. It's all part of a larger struggle.

Are you taking part in changing the world for the better?

If you love Hip Hop culture, then you very well may be!

You heard it here: Hip Hop is a sustainable culture for the future.

The culture is tied to Knowledge, which invariably ties it to Education.

Ever heard the phrase "Each one, Teach one"?

If you have a light, you can light 1000 candles.

Know what I mean?

Because of that, Hip Hop is here to stay.

Still only 40 years young.

Still going strong.

What lays ahead?

Consider the famous first words of the song...

"No matter how hard you try, you can't stop us now."