Beyond Jena: An Open Letter to the Hip Hop Community, The Black Community and Connected Parties
Letter by Shamako Noble // Video by Alex Gutierrez

First I would like to commend and congratulate all who have participated in the motion to support the Jena 6. Indeed such a display does reflect that a STRONG need for sweeping change and the willingness to push it forward exists. Most notable are the roles played by such great folks as Mos Def, Davey D and Troy Nkruma and the entire NHHPC. Your energy and efforts continue to resonate throughout the country and the world and represent the growing hope for a more just collective future.

With that said, I just wanted to throw out a couple of thoughts. The mass movement around the Jena 6 is powerful reflection of the need for change in our society; it is also a potential pitfall for broader movement work that does not benefit from the divisions that such passion can create.

Most recently, Davey D commented on Mos Def as the Paul Robeson of our time. This is a most apt description, as Paul Robeson fought for the rights of Black Americans, but also of coal miners, farmers, and factory workers both here and abroad. In fact, a great deal of what got Paul Robeson labeled a communist sympathizer was his support for a wide spectrum of economic and social justice work. He was extremely skilled at recognizing and articulating the specific plight of the Black American; connecting that struggle, and his clout as a world renowned performer and intellectual, to various struggles throughout the United States and the globe.

50,000 people descended on Jena. Many claim that this is "the beginning." While that may be true, it is equally true that the immigration movement, which initially brought out millions faded away quietly, bringing out only a fraction of what it produced last year. What caused the diminished activity and how it could have been avoided are still in question. However, millions became hundred of thousands virtually overnight; that energy-while still present-is deeply quieted.

Many have argued that self-preservation is the strongest motivating force for such an action; a larger more sustainable self-preservation is possible by recognizing and cultivating the reality that all of our communities are suffering from the same problems; many of those same communities have developed great solutions. It is important-even critical-for Black America to take responsibility for its problems. We must also recognize that long lasting change in this country cannot come through the advocacy of the Black communities agenda alone. We can also recognize that all of the Black Community agenda, is not yet one agenda and so those communities with the most urgency, suffering from rampant poverty and unemployment, police accountability issues, poor education, lack of health care, and violence could seek alliances with those communities that share the same need for change.

The divisions around this issue which have made this a very distinct black and white line obscure that the black agenda, and even more specifically the poor black agenda, is both advanced by and shared with the poor Latino, White and Asian agenda of America and beyond America.

Racism in America is distinct, and is even more distinct in certain places. The core of the social and economic problems that we truly face as American people are global, and are shared by the African Diaspora, the global indigenous, and the general poor and working class of the world. This was also something that Paul Robeson understood, and modeled as an artist of his era. Robeson, as a member of an oppressed group in America worked for African freedom, and related to everyday life of, "British dockworkers and Welsh miners, and the many Africans whom he met."

Battling racism is important and racism, in any form, should not be tolerated. However, what we are really fighting is a system of institutional racism and economic oppression. Thus, if we all live in Jena, then fight has been happening and continues to happen each day. This was beautifully illustrated by Bomani Armah, who recently pinned a song that is available on notarapper.com and myspace.com/knotarapper , commented on the fact that "The hard work still remains to be done, in Jena, and throughout America, and I'm taking a stand, as an artist, father, husband, son, and brother."

These are serious times. The Hip Hop community-bonded by the culture that generates common experience-has taken a firm stance on Jena. Let us continue to take such a stance in cities all across the USA, advocating for the use of chess strategy like Adisa Banjoko; continue to press for International and National education reform like Martha Diaz; continue to work diligently to seek justice for Katrina victims like Supervisor James White, or Rosa Clamente, and continue daily to support the efforts of under recognized community organizers, youth workers, parents, teachers, artists, poets, etc. Every day another Jena 6 is born, and the systems that create them continue to thrive.

Si Se Puede

Shamako Noble is an emcee, The CEO of Rondavoux Records, and the Second President of Hip Hop Congress. He is currently working on his second album "Personal Issues" and has blog's at Soundslam (www.soundslam.com) and Art of Rhyme (artofrhyme.com) while also being a writer and community organizer for De-Bug Magazine. He also has a radio show on KSCU 103.3 (B.U. Radio) on Saturday nights from 11pm-2am (www.kscu.org)