Young black Americans — the “hip-hop generation” — need to turn their emotional rhetoric into political action, most importantly by voting on Election Day, a gathering of activists said Saturday.
The activists were among 3,000 people who met here for the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, which ended Saturday. Their mission: educate, motivate and unite young black Americans so they can elect more black politicians.
Bakari Kitwana, 37, author and co-founder of the convention, defined the “hip-hop generation” as blacks born between 1965 and 1984, but said it extends to anyone who listens to hip-hop music.
Through a series of workshops — including “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office,” “Why Vote: Voices on the Criminal Justice System,” and “Why We Don’t Have Any Money: Reparations, Gentrification and Your Bad-Ass Credit” — the grass-roots meeting also tried to develop a political agenda for the hip-hop generation and identify potential leaders.
Organizers did not officially endorse specific candidates.
“Eminem’s first album sold 1.7 million in the first week. ... We want to take those numbers and consumers and translate them into a concrete, identifiable voting block ... that cuts across race, class, age and sexual orientation,” Kitwana said.
Potential to ‘make or break’ election
Convention organizer Angela Woodson, 36, said she hoped the convention focused young people’s attention on the 2004 presidential election, but also on the future, when one day a bloc of younger black voters, “could make or break an election.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the voting rate for African Americans increased by 4 percentage points to 57 percent in the 2000 presidential election.
“Before we even look at the presidency, let’s look at the Senate,” Woodson said. “We have no African-Americans in the U.S. Senate, and that does not make sense to a lot of us in the hip-hop generation in this millennium. We are trying to fix this picture.”
Kitwana said effective political change would take four to six years and might require the formation of a coalition with the large number of white hip-hop fans.
“We are telling young people: ‘If George Bush still wins, that does not mean you should never vote again,”’ he said. “The 2004 Election Day is just one piece of the puzzle.”
Delegate Hashim Shomari said: “2004 is the calling, but 2008 will be better, and in between we will make an impact at the state and local levels. ... In the ’80s, the group Public Enemy would say, ’Fight the Power,’ but we now have to ’Be the Power’ to create a different set of circumstances.”