The strength of youth and our generation to make a change if we see a problem is constantly being highlighted, and past historical moments and eras show just how strong we can be if motivated properly. The Civil Rights movement was a time when blacks (young blacks specifically) decided to band together for a positive cause. in the Civil Rights, young children-young adults withstood the violence against them during the movement as they stood for change and did no give up regardless of the various threats that were thrown their way or the violence that was implemented on them. Professor Pollard also shared his definition of freedom as the community responsibility not only individual rights. The Civil Rights Movement was also not marked by groups like The Black Panther Party but also by groups of people under Motown Recording Company who was the house of people like The Temptations, Sam Cooke, Diana Ross and James Brown amongst many others who created music about black struggle, pain and empowerment.
And to continue and relate his lecture with Hip Hop and hope Pollard stated that "the movement that was civil rights has moved to the movement of hip hop." Presently there is a lot of debate that hip hop is dead with the lack of social awareness messages in our songs and an uprise of disrespect to our women and children being portrayed instead, but I do not believe it is dead - more like taking a nap and avoiding its responsibilities. Hip Hop and media reaches our children faster now than ever before and depending on the messages being portrayed it can be very detrimental so we as a community need to do better on making sure that we are putting out positive messages to empower one another as opposed to killing one another. We have contemporarily gotten too attached to the money and fame that comes with selling false, detrimental images to our people and are not caring about the affect that it is having on current and future generations. However, something has to be done, and soon before not only our ears are bleeding from the poison we sell one another to listen to but also the holes formed by bullets in our body allow blood to pour out like niles to detrimental endings.
Daisa Gainey
Sociology '14
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