Uptown Notes

So for the past few years I’ve been jousting with my family and loved ones around the issue of same [...]

Hip-Hop has been political, you just haven’t been paying it attention. My reflection on the Black August Hip-Hop Project.

Why I didn’t jump up and talk about swimming pools or Skip Gates … and maybe why you may not as well.

This post will not be a lofty tribute to Brother Malcolm, if you would like to see one like that, check it out here. This will be a call to action, because that is one of the things El Hajj Malik El Shabazz was about. Today is a National Day of Action to Stop the Execution of Troy Davis and today I saw a heinous video of a young teenager brutalized by the Police of Toledo. I do not doubt that Malcolm would have been disturbed to action by both. Let’s honor him by doing the work!

I was so moved by the trailer to Social Contracts by Laura Rahman that I had to post it and write a post. An insightful clip of documentary dealing with issues of sexual violence in the Black community.

Protest actions: Today a rally against the NY Post for their incendiary “political” cartoon. Student take back NYU and stream occupation live.

So in bizarro world news yesterday, my phone and twitter started blowing up about the commuting of sentence that John [...]

People were shocked by the passage of Prop 8 and the votes of African-Americans… should we be? “In many ways, folks have been shocked that voting for Left or progressive politics doesn’t necessarily mean that you support social justice or equality for all. I can’t help but think that we have assumed for far too long that coming from a certain background, speaking a certain tongue, wearing certain buttons inherently connects our struggles for justice. In reality, a social justice orientation is taught one, a lived one, a challenging one. If we are not forever questioning our oppressions and our own privileges I’ve come to believe we are playing party or ideological politics, not engaging in politics of change and justice. Our inability to see our connectedness and divergences in our struggles have ended up making justice for “just us.”

This weekend, October 17th-19th City College hosts the first CUNY Social Forum. Come out and have your voice heard and develop plans to make CUNY the university system that it was meant to be.

Political cartoon courtesy of http://www.mikhaela.net/ This Wednesday May 7th at 3pm around the city of New York, Al Sharpton is [...]