AMERIKKKA, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!” - The Trayvon Martin Case

Columnist: Alan Lechusza | American Corrispondent for Animikii News in California

The verdict passed by a six women jury (five Anglo and one Hispanic) on Sunday July 14, 2013 (some reports state Saturday, July, 13, 2013 late in the evening) finds itself in good company within the time-honored racist halls of the U.S. legal system.  The “not guilty” verdict, leading to the acquittal of George Zimmerman over the death of Trayvon Martin, captured the attention of a nation founded upon racism, classism, segregation, tyranny, and ecological globalized super-power-destruction.  The catalysts waved by this verdict launched youth and civil right respondents to trumpet, once again, the vacancy of the U.S. socio-political system as it pertains to those beyond the hegemony of the governing/ruling/dominant class.  The absence of justice articulated within this recent court case satisfied the GOP – one comment provided to the press by a GOP spokesman was simply, “Get over it!” - while steering those committed to equity and social justice into a power-play visible through the theatre of oppression, demonstrations and peaceful vigils across the U.S. 

The Martin/Zimmerman case was founded upon a presumed critical reading of the so-called “Stand Your Ground Law” as applied within the state of Florida.  Given a careful review – and perhaps a more critical read than most who may not take the time to review this not-so-lengthy document - the “Stand Your Ground” law (Florida Statute, 776.013, Title XLVI, Chapter 776) reads, in a similar fashion, to other established legal statutes and laws, current and historic, against Indigenous/Native Peoples in North America.   The fact that this law was exercised against a Black man (recall that Trayvon Martin was 17 years old on February 26, 2012, whereas George Zimmerman was 28 years old at the time of the incident) confirms the racist ideology sustained within the U.S. legal system. The acquittal defined racial profiling and stereotyping as techniques applicable to the mandates of the law within the state of Florida. Thus, establishing the precedent for other similar crimes against minorities (read: non-Anglo) to be legally vilified. 

The “Stand Your Ground Law” is a hologram of a legal apparatus; a ticking time bomb waiting to explode given the right circumstances.  On the evening of February 26, 2012, that bomb exploded vis-à-vis the presumption of a hoodie and a presumed call-for-justice captured on a 911 tape recording.   Allowing the legal outcome of the Martin/Zimmerman case to take precedence, alongside the more-than-questionable “Stand your Ground” law, to currently exist and be confirmed as a legal option, substantiates what others have noted as the “Shoot First, Explain Later” approach to law enforcement (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/stand-your-ground_n_3605495.html?utm_hp_ref=trayvon-martin).

Days after this monumental moment in contemporary U.S. history, a lingering question remains unanswered, “could justice have ever been passed for Trayvon Martin?”  Physical, silent, and digital demonstrations and vigils took place in different locations across the U.S. in order to draw attention to this ruling.  However, what concretely will come from these demonstrations and peaceful vigils? How will these responses be remembered within the context of this legal debate?  Will those demonstrations that provided moral controversy, unresest, property damage, and civil arrests out weigh those demonstrations and vigils that sought to educate and reverse the dynamics of racial politics and a corrupt judicial system?  Will it come to pass that the on-going physical representation of a hoodie is safe for the self-defined privileged (read: Anglo, white) dominant society and illegal for others, or, as some note, the marginalized minority/majority communities?   It is from this point that the proverbial words of KRS-One, Ice T, and Rage Against the Machine appear to echo, tirelessly, against-the-grain of the (lame-stream) media, “there could never really be justice on stolen land” (KRS-One, Sound of Da Police, 2011); “there is no justice on stolen land” (Ice T, 2012);  “Land of the free?  Whoever told you that was your enemy?” (Rage Against the Machine, 1992).

“Stand Your Ground,” the white supremist AmeriKKKan judicial system did just that in compliance with the good-‘ol-party (read: GOP) political doctrine; it firmly stood upon stolen ground and the agency of a vacuous law supported by a racialized politic and majority (uniformed) public opinion. 

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/14/justice/zimmerman-recap/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/14/politics/obama-zimmerman/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/16/politics/zimmerman-holder

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/trayvon-martin/

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/07/the-facts-in-the-george-zimmerman-trial.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/stand-your-ground_n_3605495.html?utm_hp_ref=trayvon-martin

http://rapgenius.com/Krs-one-sound-of-da-police-lyrics#note-370210

http://thevictoryreport.org/2013/01/03/ice-t-the-is-no-justice-on-stolen-land/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ZgkTHQBUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Ym5N948_U

http://racerelations.about.com/od/thelegalsystem/a/The-Real-George-Zimmerman.htm

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF TIINESHA BEGAYE - A Singer, a mother, a Classic

Columnist: Alan Lechusza | American Corrispondent for Animikii News in California

Dine-Cree born Tiinesha Begaye brings a fresh and exhilerating to traditional and contemporary and native Music. Begaye has performed in the past with her father, Jay Begaye, in a musical context that has inspired her current musical course. A first sample of Begaye's work yields a comfort that extends through Indian Country via round dance songs. This comfort is further teased by her lush and velvety voice. Begaye provides an audio intoxication that satisfies childhood dreams and weary pow wow days reminding one of the joys that come from being a Native person and the importance of sharing our cultures. Taking one step further in a positive cultural direction, Begaye collaborates with other non-native artists to challenge musical issues of racism and cultural insensitivity "Color Blind". Begaye samples from a ripe musical harvest offering the listener an opportunity to venture into her world clothed with family images, musical influences and cultural strength. Keeping close to an autobiographical form, Begaye does not coward away from accappella versions of her songs, either complete or work-in-progress. This modus operandi is a welcomed relief demonstrating personal and artistic security. As a creative artist, Begaye has recognized the importance of social media. She welcomes fans warmly through her YouTube postings "Mother's Comfort" as well as through Facebook. It is this level and personal and humble attention that further sets apart Tiinesha Begaye from other musicians today. A comforting voice, a humours narrative, and a woman's charm all wrapped in the beauty of native song, Tiinesha Begaye has a gift from the Creator from which we all benefit and never tire experiencing.

“HOW WILD IS YOUR STYLE?” – Toward the foundation of critical categories in Hip Hop Culture

Columnist: Alan Lechusza | American Corrispondent for Animikii News in California

Listening at the margins of Hip Hop is critically important for anyone seeking to understand the culture. The term “culture” is aptly and directly applied to Hip Hop following the critical analyses provided by the legendary Cree Hip Hop scholar Ernie Paniccioli (http://amerinda.org/naar/paniccioli/photographer/photographer.htm). Taking this approach negates the tendency to place one of the foundational Six Elements of Hip Hop (rap, DJ, graffiti, breakdancing, writing/journalism and clothing/aesthetics) above another thereby risking the creation of a socio-political hegemony.

Like any culture, Hip Hop is highly complex rhizome founded upon an abundance of networks that intersect at the micro level in order to generate a global marco visibility. Through the history of Hip Hop variations on this artistic theme have surfaced. The fluid progression from Gangster Rap, c. 1980s, toward the Pop Rap of today, c. 2000s, exemplifies the scope of these variations while satisfying the intricate complexities necessary for any expressive agent. Yet, within this trajectory, Hip Hop artists have taken it upon themselves, knowing and unknowingly, to establish arenas of discourse and exchange for their particular variation.

In order to deconstruct the importance of Hip Hop culture one must look not only at the scaffolding surrounding the structure, but also the individuals who utilize these ladders in order to ascertain global-local socio-political awareness, community activism or, the all too often misappropriated, cultural currency which is recognized as pop cultural fame. Questions begin to formulate regarding these avenues of critique. Why do some Hip Hop artists restrict their works to particular areas (location and/or style)? How does pop global-local culture talk-back to Hip Hop culture? Where are the voices of the oppressed in Hip Hop? Has Hip Hop finally become a reductive art form and the champion of the “lame stream” media? Though it is beyond the scope of this article to address each of these points, a review of the arenas, or rather, categories articulated within Hip Hop is necessary in order to propel the conversation onward and forward.
The Four Categories of Hip Hop:

1. Conscious Hip Hop - Hip Hop originating vis-a-vis the ideology of the 5%-ers. This maintains an active awareness of the socio-political contexts of global-local (glocal) [Alim, H. Samy, Ibrahim, Awad and Pennycook, Alastair, ed. Global Lingusitic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language, New York/London: Routledge, 2009.] culture and community while working in a positive manner to elevate those who hear “the message.” Hip Hop at this level is attributed to activist and socio-political aware artists/groups of the mid 1980s such as Public Enemy, Dead Prez and The Coup.

2. Unconscious Hip Hop - Post-structualist consider the concept, “unconscious” as, “the domain of desires, tensions, energy and repressions that is not present in the conscious (Macafee).” Hip Hop in this category incorporates one or more of the following: marginalization, stereotypes and derogatory terminology toward self and others, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, racist ideology, hyper-masculinity founded upon uninformed vernacular and rhetoric. This form of Hip Hop produces a commodification of glocal society, limited by these terminal viewpoints, that magnifies an underlining segregationist attitude prevalent and often desired within the global pop music communities. Examples of Hip Hop artists/groups who engage this modality of Hip Hop would be 50cent, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs and Baha Men.

3. Self-conscious Hip Hop – Hip Hop in this category establishes a location of “self” in a post-modern, deconlonized glocal society. Identity, steaming from a fluid continuum of multifaceted and engaged articulators, is then represented as “self.” The foundational parameters of Hip Hop culture (cut/mix, rupture/flow, layer and sermonize) are dialogically activated and signify the constant de-/re-construction of identity for the artist through the vehicle of Hip Hop. Hip Hop artist/groups who exemplify this sense of self-consciousness within their works are De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian and Poor Righteous Teachers.

4. Non-conscious Hip Hop – Hip Hop that situates itself politically along a bi-lateral cultural polemic. This confirms an active border establishing an insider-outsider identity. These liminal boundaries reference and are gauged as well as guarded by historical/contemporary stereotypes producing gross cultural generalizations. Hip Hop artist/groups in this category do not question the socio-political “party-lines” of identity. Rather, they embrace the generalities of mass-market consumption that define the status quo, aka, the “lame-stream.” Some examples of artist/groups who are involved ithin this category would be Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Kanye West and Usher.

BLOW THAT SH*#% AWAY!" - A Critique of the EP "Blowed" by Josh "Chief" Hill (feat. Snoop Dogg)

Columnist: Alan Lechusza | American Corrispondent for Animikii News in California

On March 24th, 2013, a video from the Six Nations rapper ''Josh Hill'' aka "Chief" catches global attention via the internet. Hill, up to this point in his career, appears to have been working incognito. He was awared "Best Rap or Hip-Hop Video" at the 10th Annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Award show in Toronto, Canada (November 11, 2008). Following that period, Hill's work disappears from the indigenous/native hip-hop radar. With the release of "Smoke Signals" (March 2013), Hill joins forces with long time hip-hop star "Snoop Dogg" and is advanced into the global pop arena. However, this collaboration presents itself presents itself short on substance and high on abuse.

The video portrays an arsenal of stereotypical representations of native/indigenous culture. Non-native women are hypersexualized in scanty clad in "Indian dress". The intensity of verbal, physical and spiritual representation toward native women articulated within the video is a textbook of Misogyny. The incorporation of the Cannunpa, the sacred pipe, which is, according to the video, packed with illegal substance rings beyond the limits of culturally insensitivity. To include such a sacred and protected cultural item illistrates the poor choice and levels of disrespect maintained within this work. The disgraceful mention of native hair, the distortion of the native shield/mandala and the stereotypical native tattoo further add insult to injury.

The video casts a dishonorable gaze back upon recent pop culture displays of native/indigenous cultures. Jamaroqui, Victoria Secret, Paul Frank and The Gap are only a select few that have in the past few years continued to put native/indigenous cultures on display for public consumption. The mode of operation, however, stems from the Wild West shows of the late 19th century. Native/indigenous peoples from across the Wester hemisphere during this period were incarcerated and toured to be gawked and mocked at by non-native audiences for the economic profit of a growing EuroAmerican market. The idea of "playing indian" was to become a venture capitalist campaign that remains to be profitable.

It is Implausible that any native man, in the late 20th/21st century, would have the audacity to showcase such an impure representations of native/indigenous cultures. To do so openly and with a sense of "cultural pride" is further unfathomable. It does go without saying however, that these collected images are put on display for non-native digestion through the impure lens of a man who calls himself "Chief". Given that these racist stereotypes would come from a man who is, in fact, still playing indian.

WHAT THE HARPER ARE YOU DOING? - A brief Critique of the Harper Administration

Columnist: Alan Lechusza | American Corrispondent for Animikii News in California

Plain and simple, Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to yield a racist campaign against the Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations Peoples of Canada. Taking action through corrupt educational practices, poor health conditions, lack of welfare and equal rights for the Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations people, Harper systematically utilizes his current administration's labyrinth of word-play as a means to diminish traditional voices seeking to eventually eradicate the "indian problem" altogether.

Given that on March 15th, 2013, the Aboriginal affairs and Northern Development, Canada website stated "The Harper Government remains focused on four priorities, as outlined by the Prime Minister, that Canadians care most about their families, the safety of our streets and communities, their pride in being a citizen of this country, and their personal financial security" clearly defines that Harper is focused not on Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations Peoples. Rather, Harper is focused upon the stragetic political termination of these traditional Native communities.

These actions were predated in a publication from the First Nations Stragetic Policy Counsel's (FNPC) statement published in October 2012:

"On September 4th, 2012, the (Canadian Prime Minister) Harper government signaled its intent to:
"1) Focus all its efforts to Assimilate First Nations into existing federal and provincial orders of the government of Canada; "2) Terminate the constitutionally protected and internationally recognized inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights of First Nations. "Termination in this context means the ending of First Nations Pre-existing sovereign status through federal coercion of First Nations into Land Claims and Self-Government Final Agreements that convert First Nations into municipalities, their reserves into fee simple lands and extinguishment of their Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights."

Termination at the cost of the lives and cultures of traditional Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations People is the sole focus of the Harper Administration. The Writing is on the wall, in the legal documents and throughout the Internet. Let not these racist ideals outweigh the importance of Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations strength, unity and power. Instead, the socio-political voice should demand to be heard. Reach out to other brother/sister Native communities and echo this voice for political support.

As history has shown, political tactics similar to these have been waged against the Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nations Peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere. Are we going to be a unified community destined to repeat the catastrophes of the past or flex our traditionally contemporary community strength?