Today is February 4th and we don't want people to forget about the
tragic shooting of an unarmed man named Amadou Diallo that took place
on Wheeler Avenue in the Bronx back in 1999. He was shoot at 41 times
and hit by 19 bullets by New York's infamous Street Crimes unit. The
police who were accussed of shooting him were acquitted when they went
to trial. The jury believed them when they said that they mistook
Diallo's wallet to be a weapon...
In July of that year Reverend Al Sharpton gave a blistering speech to
the Hip Hop audience at an NAACP convention in NY regarding the
shooting.. I thought I'd share it as food for thought, primarily
because since that shooting, the NYPD has assembled a Hip Hop Task
Force that monitors the activities and Hip Hop oriented events that
take place in NYC. When I attended a few clubs the other week, they
were out in force enduring the freezing snow, filming folks as they
went in and came out of the clubs. They were perched on the roof tops
of Jam Master Jay's funeral doing surveillance. [We still have no
arrests]. They're everywhere..and while Hip Hop activism is
burgeoning we still have alarge portion of the rap community that is
more interested in meaningless battles then the current police seige
we are under...
Here's an excerpt from Sharpton's speech:
"..What I'm saying is that the great danger is we have replaced style
for substance. We look Blacker.. We talk Blacker. Our rhetoric is
Blacker. But our actions are worse then they have ever been this
century. 30 years ago the leading Black entertainers in America were
at the NAACP convention. 30 years ago the leading Black artists were
connected to the movement. The debate was not whether or not you were
going to get involved but instead it was who are you involved with?
So either you were with the Panthers, The NAACP, Bread Basket, or the
Urban League. Everybody was with something. Today the leading
artists in Black America have nothing to do with the freedom struggle.
The evidence is we talk meaner and more nastier in our raps but the
fact is most of our raps just make money for white record corporations
that have nothing to do with the Black community. They are nothing
but rapping, pants down, hats backward Uncle Toms, that are marketing
Black rage for white business interests. Don't tell me how angry you
are if you're not connected to a movement to correct what you're angry
about.
February of this year a young man not much older then yourself named
Amadou Diallo went home at 1'oclock in the morning. He was shot at 41
times on his stoop. He was killed with 19 bullets. The community
rose up and more then 1200 people went to jail. But not one Hip Hop
artist. . Not one, 'I'm 'too angry to talk'. Not one who would be
quick to call an elder an Uncle Tom went downtown to stand up for
Amadou. They were too busy in the studio working for Clive Davis. We
are skilled in looking angry and acting angry but not organizing
around the anger to free the land and take the cities in which we
live..."
Al Sharpton
NAACP Convention July 1999
New York City
tragic shooting of an unarmed man named Amadou Diallo that took place
on Wheeler Avenue in the Bronx back in 1999. He was shoot at 41 times
and hit by 19 bullets by New York's infamous Street Crimes unit. The
police who were accussed of shooting him were acquitted when they went
to trial. The jury believed them when they said that they mistook
Diallo's wallet to be a weapon...
In July of that year Reverend Al Sharpton gave a blistering speech to
the Hip Hop audience at an NAACP convention in NY regarding the
shooting.. I thought I'd share it as food for thought, primarily
because since that shooting, the NYPD has assembled a Hip Hop Task
Force that monitors the activities and Hip Hop oriented events that
take place in NYC. When I attended a few clubs the other week, they
were out in force enduring the freezing snow, filming folks as they
went in and came out of the clubs. They were perched on the roof tops
of Jam Master Jay's funeral doing surveillance. [We still have no
arrests]. They're everywhere..and while Hip Hop activism is
burgeoning we still have alarge portion of the rap community that is
more interested in meaningless battles then the current police seige
we are under...
Here's an excerpt from Sharpton's speech:
"..What I'm saying is that the great danger is we have replaced style
for substance. We look Blacker.. We talk Blacker. Our rhetoric is
Blacker. But our actions are worse then they have ever been this
century. 30 years ago the leading Black entertainers in America were
at the NAACP convention. 30 years ago the leading Black artists were
connected to the movement. The debate was not whether or not you were
going to get involved but instead it was who are you involved with?
So either you were with the Panthers, The NAACP, Bread Basket, or the
Urban League. Everybody was with something. Today the leading
artists in Black America have nothing to do with the freedom struggle.
The evidence is we talk meaner and more nastier in our raps but the
fact is most of our raps just make money for white record corporations
that have nothing to do with the Black community. They are nothing
but rapping, pants down, hats backward Uncle Toms, that are marketing
Black rage for white business interests. Don't tell me how angry you
are if you're not connected to a movement to correct what you're angry
about.
February of this year a young man not much older then yourself named
Amadou Diallo went home at 1'oclock in the morning. He was shot at 41
times on his stoop. He was killed with 19 bullets. The community
rose up and more then 1200 people went to jail. But not one Hip Hop
artist. . Not one, 'I'm 'too angry to talk'. Not one who would be
quick to call an elder an Uncle Tom went downtown to stand up for
Amadou. They were too busy in the studio working for Clive Davis. We
are skilled in looking angry and acting angry but not organizing
around the anger to free the land and take the cities in which we
live..."
Al Sharpton
NAACP Convention July 1999
New York City
