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COMMENTARY: Do Rappers Know What Is Best For Us?

Kanye West is trying to do what a gang of white supremacists and anti-critical race theorists have wanted to do for years: cancel Black History Month. West’s mother was part of Jesse Jackson’s Operation P.U.S.H. and his father was a member of the Black Panther Party. West says his daughter would not have known that she is Black had it not been for a class that taught her about Martin Luther King Jr.

Published

2 years ago

March 1, 2022

Oakland Post

From left: J. Alfred Smith Sr., Kanye West, T-Pain and Dr. Cornell West Ph.D

By J. Alfred Smith, Sr.

Many more young people listen to rappers than preachers!

Rapper T-Pain says white people should stop celebrating Black History Month.

“You are separating us again,” he says or words to that effect. “We want to be part of history, not just one month.”

West has a rap lyric called “I Am Not Black, I’m Kanye.”

Dr. Cornell West, Ph.D, a Union Theological Seminary professor with strong ties to the Shiloh Baptist Church in Sacramento and who has a large inter-generational, multiracial and multicultural following, gave a truthful and loving response to Kanye.

Approaching Rapper Kanye West on what they shared in common, Brother Cornel gave him highest praise for the powerful lyrics on Jesus Walks:

“Order, huh.
Yo, we at war.
We at war with terrorism, racism.
But most of all, we at war with ourselves.
God show me the way because the devil tryna break me down.
Jesus walks with me, with me, with me”

Brother Cornel then defined the three-dimensional nature of history as past, present and future and suggested that instead of eliminating Black History Month we should rename February as Black Future Month.

Cornel West is challenging us to take the rich legacy bequeathed to us by our predecessors into the right now with a vision for a future for generations following!

Let us listen to each other and ask each other what needs to be done now to have an abundant future for today’s children, their children and grandchildren.

Could we minimize our differences and build operational unity with our diversity starting now?

Can rappers, preachers, parents, and politicians and each reader and all others who differ agree that yesterday is a cancelled check? Tomorrow is a promissory note?

That today is all the cash we have?

Brother Cornel West had built a relationship with Brother Kanye West before advising him to get rid of his ‘symbolic’crack pipe.

When we build relationships with people, we can speak the naked truth to each other in love which is better than backbiting and criticizing others behind their backs.

Maulana Karenga, chair of Africana Studies at California State University at Long Beach, says Malcolm X understood history as a necessary corrective for the diminished and distorted concept of our identity cultivated by the oppressor through the creation of an artificial entity called “Negro, a non-historical being who has no history and having no history has no culture” and thus separated from their roots understand themselves as a derivative and dependent part of their oppressor.

I ask the reader to ponder each perspective of Maulana Karenga as was given to the ethical and moral reflections of Cornel West.

This will require rereading and meditation in your quest for corrective action of personal character and collective social justice action to free the masses from oppression so they may live lives of dignity and decency in the eyes of God.

Last, but by no means least, we must challenge people to honor mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters, little girls and women in general by addressing derogatory word use and general disrespect of women.

Violent and misogynist lyrics are unacceptable.

J. Alfred Smith, Sr. is pastor emeritus of Oakland’s Allen Temple Baptist Church.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

1 week ago

April 19, 2024

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Oakland Schools Honor Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice. His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.

Published

1 week ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Fred Korematsu. Courtesy of OUSD.

By Post Staff

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice.

His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
One OUSD school is named in his honor: Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy (KDA) elementary in East Oakland.

Several years ago, founding KDA Principal Charles Wilson, in a video interview with anti-hate organization “Not In Our Town,” said, “We chose the name Fred Korematsu because we really felt like the attributes that he showed in his work are things that the children need to learn … that common people can stand up and make differences in a large number of people’s lives.”

Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland on Jan. 30, 1919. His parents ran a floral nursery business, and his upbringing in Oakland shaped his worldview. His belief in the importance of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, regardless of race or background, was the foundation for his activism against racial prejudice and for the rights of Japanese Americans during World War II.

At the start of the war, Korematsu was turned away from enlisting in the National Guard and the Coast Guard because of his race. He trained as a welder, working at the docks in Oakland, but was fired after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fear and prejudice led to federal Executive Order 9066, which forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and neighborhoods and into remote internment camps.

The 23-year-old Korematsu resisted the order. He underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed a false identity, choosing freedom over unjust imprisonment. His later arrest and conviction sparked a legal battle that would challenge the foundation of civil liberties in America.

Korematsu’s fight culminated in the Supreme Court’s initial ruling against him in 1944. He spent years in a Utah internment camp with his family, followed by time living in Salt Lake City where he was dogged by racism.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford overturned Executive Order 9066. Seven years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction. He said in court, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.”

Korematsu’s dedication and determination established him as a national icon of civil rights and social justice. He advocated for justice with Rosa Parks. In 1998, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls … To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against hatred and discrimination, saying what happened to Japanese Americans should not happen to people of Middle Eastern descent.
Korematsu’s roots in Oakland and his education in OUSD are a source of great pride for the city, according to the school district. His most famous quote, which is on the Korematsu elementary school mural, is as relevant now as ever, “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”