Black Nationalism Ideology - Essay Example

New School Introduction Black Nationalism is an ideological movement that aimed at uniting and enhancing self-determination amongAfrican-Americans in a sole purpose of escaping oppression. Black Nationalism ideologies are aimed at separating the African communities living in Europe of any European cultural influence. The movement redefines social and racial identity in an effort to urge the African-Americans in Europe to live free of European life. Rap music is a form of hip-hop that emerged in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, from the back streets of American cities, where black youths lived in abject poverty and appalling social conditions. Rap music is an expression of desires, hopes and concerns of the urban black youth. Rap music is seen as a tool of expressing and spreading Black Nationalism. Politics, Black Nationalism, Rap Music and hip-hop culture Black Nationalism is a separatist ideological framework coined by leading Africa American revolutionaries with the aim of influencing the place race, culture and black people occupy in the mainstream European community. One of the major factors that spurred the uprising of the blacks to reject the hegemonies view of European culture and the consequent racist underlying the issue was the place African Americans occupied in the European society (Digital history, 2012). African Americans were segregated, unrepresented in political settings, were socially poor and of all were not respected for who they were. Further, the inherent racial violence that existed then was a recipe for the movement. Thus, African Americans wanted an organization that could bring them together and free them from the European domination (Henderson, 1996). Black Nationalism used various tools to spread their messages, the key being the writings and oratories that leaders like Malcolm X gave. In many instances, the power that Black Nationalism was channeling to the African Americans was so advanced that the only way to keep it out was by assassinating the key figures (Malcolm, 2014). However, in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries, another media, so strong had emerged; the rap music as a form of hip-hop (Collins, 2006). Emerging from the inner cities where black youth lived in problems often neglected by the governments, rap music grew to become one of the most famous and popular vehicles which African Americans use to express a lot about their identity, life and hopes in life. Although many white critics forecasted a quick death, while others say it has no place in our society, rap music is one of the strongest mediums of expressing black people’s problems in a white dominated society (Kubrin, 2005). The blend of educative and entertaining messages that rap music portrays is the chief driving factor, which has seen it prosper amidst a lot of criticism from whites. Rap music is viewed as a medium of telling the story of African Americans culture in relation to their marginalization, disempowerment, joblessness and poverty as major characteristics that define African Americans life in European society. Perhaps, Black Nationalism and rap music converge at one point to give more meaning to African Americans life in European countries (Keyes, 2004). Rap music is seen as a “consciousness-raising, politically progressive, liberating popular culture music”, which expresses the plight of blacks in Europe. Therefore, rap music expresses messages that relate to race, politics, class and place of the African Americans in the mainstream European world. However, the rate of transformation, rap music has traversed borders to become a medium of communicating the life of African Americans from back streets neighborhoods, which is characterized by violence, identity, and cultural issues. The lifestyle advocated for in the rap music brings about a state of political negligence that has given rise to a type of street life, which encourages violence and gangster type of life as a way of survival. In every way possible, rap music has retained its black nationalism through the messages and portrayal of culture of African Americans (Kubrin, 2005). In one way or the other, current gangsta rap music is a clear indication of the struggles to liberate African Americans from political bondage, a theme expressed through the portrayal of African Americans as victims of political oppression and imprisonment (Keyes, 2004). In addition to the likening of African Americans as political prisoners, gangsta rap of the twenty first century has created a “ghettoized” theme that shows the plight of blacks in the poverty ridden back street towns. Kubrin (2005) argues that the ghetto-centric identity conjures an image that likens gangsta rap to a medium of bringing together ghetto people in one community called the Nigga, which means black. The identity created by the ghetto-centric theme specifies the class, race, political suffrage and gendered experiences of African Americans living in the ghetto (Kubrin, 2005). It is important to note that gangsta rap as a revolutionary form of rap music and which expresses deep sentimental feelings about ghetto life is a precedent of the political and economic changes in the Reagan-Bush era. The change of economy to service-oriented, which needed more education displaced and left black uneducated youths jobless. Further political decisions like increasing penalties on certain crimes and the racist and “systematic oppression of minority groups like the African Americans, which was legitimized and institutionalized in the criminal justice system” created the gangsta rap (Kubrin, 2005). Rap music as a medium of political advocacy stems from the efforts of resistance of suppression and slavery. The origin of rap music lies in African traditional music, much like the Jamaican reggae music. Rap music has been very much commoditized of late and has been used as the scapegoat for violent crimes in America. However, despite this commoditization, rap music remains a medium that expresses African Americans plight in the face of racism, class and political suppression. Rap has been blamed for its violent manifestations of ghetto life. However, the fight against political, social and economic depression by the blacks is the main reason why rap is seen as violent (Keyes, 2004). Much of the political depression and racial hatred that African Americans have faced in Europe give rap music its nihilistic approach to violence. Many of the songs by rappers center on issues of violence and the transformation that has negatively affected the lives of ghetto niggas. For example, Ice Cube initial rap music had political content that was aimed at attacking white racism. Other like Public Enemy encouraged their listeners to “fight against the power.” The political agenda has been there in many rap music. Many artists view rap music as a form of expressing their daily struggles (Blanchard, 1999). Gangsta rap has taken a new dimension that expresses the suffering of African Americans and gives hope to the hopeless living in the ghettos. The gangsta life advocated fro in the music is the only way of escaping the economic and political oppression of the blacks. In firing the blame back to critics, rappers argue that the extension of American hypocritical view of violence to African Americans is only a fraction of the violence that America subjects its victims to. Ice Cube suggested that American political policies agitate for mass murders, which is an extension albeit on a large scale of the violence expressed in rap music. The class and race issue is a theme in current rap music. The violent nature of rap music is an expression of hopelessness and discontent with the working class, which typifies the life of African Americans in Europe. While many politicians have suggested censorship, this is seen as an attempt to do what they have been doing best; politically oppress the blacks and try to erase their misconducts that have shaped the origin of hip-hop. As opposed to earlier direct attacks that rap music had on political suppression, gangsta rap has emerged with another indirect from (Keyes, 2004). The shift created by economic restructuring and political policies that suppress black minorities has become the items of attack. Notorious B.I.G., in his 1994 song; “Things Done Changed”, narrates the changes and the consequence of the changes as taking black youth to crime and drugs. In the 1995 song; “Thangs Changed”, B.I.G., narrates of the government segregation of the blacks and the violent nature of life where guns rule the streets. 2Pac’s song; “Heavy in the Game”, gives a vivid picture of the struggles in the streets and the problems that he likens to a curse of being a black. Most of the songs also explain the pain of losing a friend probably due to street violence or police shooting. For example, Notorious B.I.G., “Miss You”, and Master P’s, “I Really Miss My Homies” (Kubrin, 2005). Rap music remains politically relevant as a medium of expressing the sufferings of blacks in Black Nationalism. Conclusion Black Nationalism, Hip-Hop and rap music are intertwined in one aspect; it is a fate of a people engrossed in the never ending battles against economic, social, and racial oppression largely by the inventions and support of political policies by the whites. Rap music originated from the desire to express through creative messages the plight of African Americans living in appalling conditions of back streets, which were characterized by violence, poverty and crimes. The conditions were and continue to be a result of political policies that neglect the blacks as a minority community. Rap music has been a medium of expressing struggles against political oppression, class and racial creations that continue to rock America today. Whereas, rap music has undergone transformation and commoditization, gangsta rap still presents and carries with it the political-induced suffering of the blacks as expressed in the violent nature as the only means to survive. Rap music continues to be a medium African Americans to express their disillusionment with their state and use of violence as a means of survival in the ghetto. References Blanchard, B. (1999). The social significance of Rap and Hip-Hop culture. Poverty and prejudice: Media and race. Ethics of Development In A Global Environment. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm Collins, P. H. (2006). From Black Power to Hip-Hop: racism, nationalism and feminism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Digital History (2012). America in ferment: The tumultuous 1960s. Black Nationalism and Black Power. Digital History. Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook_print.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3331 Henderson, E. (1996). Black Nationalism and Rap Music. Journal of Black Studies. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from, http://whgbetc.com/ifbm/black-nationalism-and-rap-music.html Keyes, C. (2004). Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Kubrin, C. (2005). “I see death around the corner”: Nihilism in Rap Music. Sociological Perspectives, 48(4): 433-459. Malcolm X: My Philosophy is Black Nationalism. Online You Tube Video. You Tube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix2-m1gDX8s. Read More