DJ Mugen – Infinitely Danceable

In college, I had some very negative associations with the music of NWA, as I was being schooled about sexism and homophobia by people who helped me grow up. I had some antagonists down the hall in my dorm who blasted NWA and Eazy-E, and musical tastes set people apart a bit more then than now. I remember clearly freaking out about the first Gulf War, which shifted from Desert Shield to Desert Storm just a day or two after my second semester of college started in January 1991. I have vague recollections of the Rodney King tape on the news in the lounge down the hall – March 3, 1991.

It’s 25 years, 5 months, and 9 days since Rodney King was beaten by police. It took watching Straight Outta Compton tonight for me to really understand the gravity of those numbers.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.

And still, we need ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ . Still, we have reports weekly of police overreach and worse. Still, people can’t, won’t, or don’t admit that these problems exist. And now, we see those who want power fanning these flames because a race war is a known factor, but a class war would upend their system. Is it 2016 or 1956 or 1864?

“Son, do you know what I’m stopping you for?”
“‘Cause I’m young, and I’m black, and my hat’s real low?”
—JayZ

So I want to know – you guys from Darrow Hall who blasted NWA – are you still down with Ice Cube and E? And from the late 1990s – all you guys who blasted Rage Against the Machine – still got a bullet in your head? How is it people can hear the passion in those lyrics every day for years and yet still we’re here, now, 25 years later?

“Fuck Tha Police”

“Some of those that run Forces are the same that burn crosses.
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”

These aren’t idle threats or glorifications of violence – they’re calls to action. They’re depictions – though abstractions – of perceptions of reality that I can’t really get my head around because they will never. happen. to. me. They’re Picasso’s Guernica. They’re To Kill a Mockingbird. They’re The Bluest Eye. They’re “The Star Spangled Banner.” Don’t Tread on Me, indeed. Anybody seen Abraham, Martin, or John? How about Freddie, Jamar, and Sandra?

How can we backslide this far? Sadly, I’m actually more afraid that it’s not a backslide – we just never made the progress I thought we made.