Race and Justice: Writing II, Spring 2010

“Let’s get free, a hip hop theory of justice”, by Paul Butler is an article about how hip-hop has made such a big impact on all different aspects of culture since it has come out in the South Bronx, NY in the 1970’s.  Butler talks about all the different effects hip-hop has had on all different parts of society.  He talks about how it has effected everything from the community and the government and everything in between.  Butler believes, as he says, “hip-hop has the potential to transform justice in the United States.”  Considering Hip-Hop is a semi-recent type of music it offers a fresh approach to the media.  Butler believes hip-hop has transcended rap music and that it is the most diverse form of American pop culture.  Hip-hop is very controversial in the law because most hip-hop artists  take one of the two approaches to the music style.  The two types differed dramatically one addressed political issues when the other one was the complete opposite and was nick named “gangster rap.”  In the article he uses an example from washington post which I think sums up the two perfectly. He says,  “One is a “conscious” side where political, social and cultural issues are hashed out in verse.  The other side is the bling-bling, the music that embraces the glamourous life, the live- now-I-got-mine attitude found in countless hits and in flashy videos where hootchy mamas bounce their backsides and Busta Rhymes exhorts, ‘Pass the Courvoisier’.”  Both of these styles of hip-hop have caused much controversy over the years and I think thats what hes trying to say.  It made a great commercial success and influenced some of the most popular fashion types with its loose, baggy clothing.  Politically wise it make a huge impact on race because it was predominantly african american artists and market studies show that 70% of people who buy hip-hop are white.  Hip-hop artists have reached out to their communities and the government making a huge impact and connection with all different classes of society.  The unfortunate part of this is that most of the percentage of hip-hop listeners are not actively involved in their communities.  Butler goes on to talk about how Hip-Hop plays a role in the justice system and the media.  We now now this is a very popular music genre but most of these artists have faced struggles or are facing struggles that get made public.  He compares the statistics of hip-hop artists incarcerated to different races of men.  He compares the different races to incarceration statistics.  Butler says, ”  So when people say that hip-hop glorifies criminals, it is more accurate to think of it as respecting African American and Latino men.”  I think he trys to make this point because he is trying to say some people can relate to what these hip hop artists are talking about and everyone comes from different situations and goes through different things.  Everyone needs something to relate to and it is possible these artists are only speaking the truth.  And when artists shout out their inmate friends or family how are people not supposed to relate to this when so many are in the same situation. He makes points on how people of the hip hop community are targets for the police.  Butler wants people to understand that many African Americans can relate to this or any body who comes from a poverty ridden lifestyle, and that these are the struggles they face and people should be able to respect that.

His Thoreau’s essay he goes against talking about how the reformation within a government truly is not that effective. He presents his own knowledge in a first point of view  about the his own experience during the time he was jail for refusing to pay his taxes. Thoreau mentions that if a government is not just and has unjust policies, then the people have the right to not obey the policies. If then the government is going against such actions and are sending the citizens to jails. The people should accept that judgement and acknowledge to not go against such unjust government laws and regulations.

Civil Disobedience also is preffered to Thoreau as a way to go agaist slavery being abolished. He states a great example of such issue by talking about the Mexican War which thought to be something unjust, the war took place  mainly to establish a new ground for slavery.

Thoreau had influenced many people all over the world,including Mohandas K. Gandhi which was one of the great leaders for India. Gandhi used Thoreau’s ideas of unjust government laws to establish civil rights for immigrants that migrated from India to South Africa. His use of the idea,and the ideas from Thoearu connects him to Martin Luther King Jr an American civil rights activist who anted to establish civil rights for African Americans during the early 1960s. These examples of  great leaders show how Thoreau had a great impact with his ideas of Civil Disobedience and had a great impact on achieving civil rights for immigrants and slavery.

By Sandra Levkovich

What this article is about is how hip-hop has a significant social impact. Hip-hop is an industry that include television, movies, fashion, theater, dance and visual art. Hip-hop is a business that contributes to our U.S economy. Today, Hip-hop has turned into a political movement as well.

“Culture shapes the law, and law is a product of culture.” As Paul Butler says in Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice. With hip-hop, Butler describes is a “product of youth culture, and perhaps because it seems to celebrate outlaw conduct. I hope to demonstrate that the culture, while rebellious, can be used to inform a principled theory of criminal justice.” (page  126) He points out that hip-hop artistes are mirrored to the statistics about African American and Latino men. For example an African American man born in 1991 has 29 percent chance of being incarcerated then to a white man born in 1991 that has a 4 percent chance. He basically says that rap artist can be locked up because of their race.

Paul Butler describes that prison denounces the government. He points out that when “a large percentage of the people you know, respect and love get locked up, then being locked up seems to say more about the state than about the inmate.” (page 131) That being said, we are supposed to be disgusted with people who are criminals? Then that means we are disgusted in one in three black men which the hip-hop community consists of mostly these men. The fans of hip-hop learn to love them, example the rapper T.I. or Lil’ Wayne. Those who are fans are not disgusted by these incarcerated artists.

Even with the hip-hop industry being constantly suspicious of the artists for crimes because of what they rap about or about statistics, other rappers such as Jay-Z salute them in song lyrics as said on page 132 of Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice. Another example is a group run my Russel Simmons called the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, HSAN, serve to advocate for education and other societal concerns. Even our President Barack Obama is a fan of this genre of music. He even met with leading artists Jay-Z, Kanye West and many more. Even though some people scrutinize hip-hop music, the President said “of course his administration would explore how hip-hop could be used to address issues like incarceration…describe hip hop as “smart” and insightful” that rappers had the potential to “deliver a message of extraordinary power.”(page 129) Therefore, despite any racial judgments or statistics, the hip-hop industry actually does good to our society.

HSAN

Leo Nin

Henry David Thoreau is possibly one of the most intelligent men to put his throughts and ideas on paper.  He could most certainly be considered a polymath, which is a person with superior intelligence who excels in a number of different areas.  Thoreau was an author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and transcendentalist.

Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” is one of his most famous work which was inspired by his disgust with and hatred for slavery.  One of Theoreau’s main points in his essay states that a government that can avoid interfering with everyday life as much as possible is an effective government.  Although I agree with Thoreau on this point, it seems a bit unrealistic.  As much as we may want the government to interfere as little as possible, we must understand that the law is there primarily to protect those who need protection.  Thoreau indicates that this should be the purpose of the law when he says, “But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.”  This means that a government in which the majority rule will never be fair or just.  This is primarily because the minority is not adequately represented.  No matter how small the minority is, it deserves representation so the minority cannot take advantage of it.

Even though Thoreau lived during the mid 1800s, many of his ideas can still be applied today.  Although slavery was abolished a long time ago, in part due to the influence of Thoreau, the minority is still often not represented fairly.  The first group of people I think of are Native Americans.  Native Americans are the smallest minority in the United States, and are often not treated fairly because they have little representation in the government.  It seems as though today’s leaders could learn a few things from Thoreau’s ideas.

Tamding Sherpa

Crazy sociopaths of different color and race have attacked America, in the past. American citizens sharing the same religion or color as the attackers did not have anything to worry about. Of course, just because the attacker is a Christian or an American African does not mean that all other Christians and American Africans are victims, as well. However, that changed after the September 11 attack. Muslims Americans have been tortured mentally and physically after the 9/11 attack, just because they shared the same religion as the attackers did.
I recently read an article in the New York Times, ‘Explaining 9/11 to a Muslim Child’ by Monia Noor, where she, a mother, dreads having to explain her son ‘the slaughter of innocent people in the name of a religion that she is trying to pass on to him’ (pg 5). And that too in an environment, where Muslim kids were being taunted, and names such as ‘terrorists’ were pointed towards them. It is not difficult to predict that a kid, who has to go through such racist torments at a young age will only grow up to be an angry Muslim seeking revenge. I also watched a movie based on the 9/11 attacks, where a Muslim woman wearing a Hijab, the material that covered her head, is assaulted and pushed violently by an American, causing her to not wear it anymore. Such assaults are not only degrading, but illegal as well, as it violates a person’s right to religion.
It is disturbing, how a nation, which was found merely on the belief that everyone should be treated equally, is practicing the complete opposite. Especially in the US, where diversity is celebrated, people discriminate and point fingers at each other for being different, instead of understanding, like Noor says, that ‘good and bad exists in all groups’.

Today on the train, my friends and I were going back home. We had a conversation about a certain Youtube video and how it was kind of racist and biased to see a older white man and a younger black man. The white man was telling the younger black man to spit-shine his shoes. You hear their argument and get only a piece of what they are really talking about. The two are aggravating one another and then they use profanity to tell each other off. The older white man moves from his seat and sits in the front of the bus that they are on. A young female friend of the black man is video-taping this entire thing and you hear her talk back to the white man behind his back. The younger black man continues to talk about the whtie man saying he can “knock his a** out” and the white man responds, “I could slap the s*** outta you.” This promotes the young black man to walk back and he hits the white man. Then the following action is the white man punches the black man in the face a few times and the white man is told to get off the bus. The black man is bleeding from his face and the video is pretty much over. I think the black man deserved to get his face hit because of the fact that he didn’t want to leave the man alone. However, the white man is 67 years old and shouldn’t have bothered the younger man considering the older man is more mature. Both of the people in question were definitely out of line but the problem could have easily been settle if they kept their mouths shut. If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.