Simon Roger Baxter-Cummings's Blog

Hip Hop’s political education

‘’The drama of the world shouldn’t keep us so frustrated

I look, but it doesn’t coincide with my books

Social studies will not speak upon political crooks’’

 KRS -One ,  ‘Stop the violence’

 

Hip Hop is now a popular art form. Derivative of the spoken word tradition it has its own sound, culture and even language. Sammy Alim talks about a Hip Hop Nation Language that has no borders.

 

A more musical form of spoken word poetry, it is different in flow.  It can be used to tell stories, explore the lives of Others and help form identities and as such there is a need for greater recognition of hip hop as a legitimate means of political discourse. For too long young people have been denied their authentic voice and a hip hop curriculum needs to find its way into mainstream teaching.

As a form of music today it is a multi-billion pound industry. However, rap music’s history shows it coming from the ghetto. It is by nature an underground form of communication that has become mainstream.

For me though its main role is an alternative form of education. a quote from political activist and rapper KRS 1

’’ it is an attitude and awareness away to view the world’’

 My interest in the way hip hop changes individuals comes first-hand. Many rappers offer sociological explanations of things school couldn’t teach me. Coming from a broken home with a mother with severe mental health problems after post-traumatic stress I saw first-hand the results of poor socialisation, mental health issues and drug abuse. There were books in my house but nobody read them. By 12 I was smoking weed and by 13 I was a drug dealer and dropped out of school and started experimenting with heavy drugs. All of the above can be explained sociologically and psychologically but for me at the time with no books or formal education to help me make sense of my situation and the situation of those around me, music became a voice of guidance which offered wisdom, emotional intelligence and insights into various valuable life scenarios.

 

Class identities of early hip hop artists have been clear since the start of the game. Artists came from inner-city communities representing a class of youth facing economic deprivation along with social and political marginalisation. Now hip-hop has expanded beyond its original call to include youth of all classes, races and culture – they are the hip hop nation.  Many hip-hop artists however strain to remain true to their position as the representatives of Black marginalised people – in other words staying true to the game. This involves rapping about real life scenarios of crime, domestic violence, poor education, housing, relationships with the police and government which remain to this day problematic

 

Political rappers can give plausible solutions about how to overcome social problems. Battling MCs on the microphone is always a better option than battling people on the streets. This brings to mind the KRS-One’s track Stop the Violence – a reaction to the commercialisation of hip hop and the gang related battles.

And if you want to go to the tip top

Stop the violence in Hip Hop, Y-O

From progressive political agendas we can teach morality and positive life scenarios. And there is academic support for these arguments.

Marc Lamont Hill has written a book called Beats Rhymes and Classroom life: hip hop pedagogy and the politics of identity. In his book he explains how originally when hip-hop was studied by scholars it was in response to the social moral panic around the negative effects of hip hop on children.

In his words

‘’much of the early scholarship on hip-hop emerged in response to the alleged links between rap music and social pathology’’.

He goes on to explain that as a result we learnt very ’ little about the motivations, processes and consequences’’ of  hip-hop. Marc Lamont Hill has created what he calls Hip Hop Based Education HHBE and conducted a study in American schools over 18 months to see the effects, which he describes as providing more ‘favourable learning environments’ for English language students. So it can de done.

 

 

To take us forward , as KRS-One would say,

Street language, our verbal communication

Our codes throughout the nation

 

Who’s a responsible citizen anyway? Does your race matter?

 

Being a citizen means we are bestowed with rights and privileges but this comes with obligations and duties for individuals. This is often spoken about in terms of civil rights, justice, freedom and protction by and from the law; political rights such as voting and standing for public office and social rights such as access to healthcare and education.

We can see then while technically some people are considered citizens in practice many people fall outside of this definition.

One way citizenship is denied is through racism which is a system of oppression rooted in history, politics, economics and culture. This can be expressed as the collective failure to provide appropriate access to services and legal rights for people based on there colour, culture or ethnic origin and can be detected in processes attitudes and behaviours which amount to discrimination through either witting or unwitting prejudice, ignorance and stereotyping which disadvantage a minority group.

Since the Macpherson report the way in which white dominated organisations create practices and cultures which tend to exclude or disadvantage white people have been put under scrutiny. However institutional racism is not confined to the police and the criminal justice system but can be found across society in general. Educational institutions are not exempt from the effects of racism. Educational systems have laws, customs and practices which reflects and reproduce racial inequalities. The system can be said to be racist whether or not the individuals such as teachers, inspectors, officers, civil servants and elected politicians who creates the education system have racist intentions at all

It is important to recognise how expectations and generalizations contribute to different outcomes for different groups. Black pupils are more likely than white pupils to be seen as troublemakers and therefore to be criticised and controlled – leading to a higher chance of exclusion and ending up at pupil referral units with the psychological and social stigma that comes with this. It can be questioned how committed the British government is in ensuring that education is a means to providing meaningful citizenship. This is because civic virtues require a commitment to justice and solidarity in resolving disagreements. It requires a sense of shared goals and common inclinations and attitudes. Vitally children need the opportunity to learn about the political community in which they live, its history and why discrimination has occurred. Without the background knowledge to make sense of one’s own experiences and position in society we cannot truly call someone a citizen. To reflect on experiences and knowledge gives us the opportunity to analyse and make decisions which creates motivation to act and react in a way that gives an individual autonomy power and the means to communicate this

An interesting example of an expression of Citizenship has come recently in the world of football during England’s recent match vs Montenegro. The shameful racist abuse of Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson Odoi has triggered a reaction in British football.  We have seen the return of racist abuse within British football stadiums something which had all but disappeared in the past. It would have been common to hear monkey noises and see banana throwing back in British football in the 1970s and 80s and that is being witnessed again in the UK and across Europe along with other forms of discrimination at games including homophobia, anti-semitism and anti- romani sentiments.

What is interesting from a citizenship perspective is the reaction of UEFA the governing body of European football and of Raheem Sterling. Uefa’s disciplinary committee is expected to fine the Montenegro Football Association and enforce a partial stadium closure but the effectiveness of these mechanisms as a deterrent for racist behaviour can be questioned. Many are calling for tougher penalties such as expulsion from next year’s European championships something that would actually hurt the countries and make them rethink their approaches to discrimination

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/26/raheem-sterling-accidental-leader-football-fight-racism-england-montenegro

Raheem Sterling has been vocal in his response to the situation. He has condemned the action of some fans, but his choice of language, calling those responsible for the abuse ‘idiots’ and ‘silly’ and calling for ‘collective punishment’ lacks a theoretical perspective.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47703776

Another interesting perspective on citizenship and race comes from the recent case of Shamima Begum who married a Dutch convert and joined Islamic State  at 15 years old (IS) but now with the defeat of IS she wants to come back to Britain. Her status as a British citizen is being denied however – she is a non-citizen.

It is interesting to speculate on her level of knowledge and how she was radicalised. As we know,  the vast majority of Muslims are not radical. Shamima Begum actions go against accepted definitions of Citizenship and the question is should she lose her citizenship rights in Britain because she joined a militant extremist group? It seems this will go to the courts

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47934721

The point is, Shamima and Raheem are both products of the British state and education system so where does the responsibility lie for their behaviour and the behaviour of others?

Money Talks

Economic Inequality in the UK is on an upward trend.

https://www.ft.com/content/fc4a3980-e86f-11e6-967b-c88452263daf

 

For citizenship this is important.

As reported by the Equality Trust,

‘’Income inequality changes the way people interact with other members of their society and engage in society itself’’. Findings include:

• Unequal societies have lower rates of both social and civic participation
• Higher rates of income inequality are linked to lower levels of voter turnout.
• Inequality is linked to lower levels of cultural activity.

Trust, Participation, Attitudes and Happiness

 

A Marxist critique

Karl Marx, one of the most prominent forefathers when discussing class inequality, believed as many do that capitalism is an unfair system to base society on, only benefiting, in his terms, the bourgeoisie. In our current society poverty is a social norm brought about by unequal access to social and economic capital and distribution of wealth where people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds routinely live outside of mainstream society. One of the most important contributing factors to this inequality is education.

Educational Capital

The role of education in determining life chances has been written about extensively. I recognise from my own life how education has shaped my relationship with issues of citizenship. Coming from a poor working class background, I was taught in the early years of secondary school that black people were slaves and only served a purpose of filling a dominated inferior role to amuse white slave masters. The slaves were beaten  and black women were raped regularly. However, a few years ago I was having a haircut and to my surprise on the wall were 100 photos of historical black inventors responsible for many great feats: something I did not learn about in school. Now as a student myself I recognise the issue of a white middle-class curriculum designed to keep others subordinated. It reads like a conspiracy, but the most notable of authors have written about the subject.

 

The outcomes of the Hidden Curriculum in education are predominantly worse for poorer children and people of colour, transmitting the values of the dominant class so that the structure of society is learnt through understanding the hierarchy of power – the school system itself replicates wider society where the hierarchy of occupations and classes is mirrored by the hierarchy of grade levels and achievement. Schools  instead of preparing students or pupils to enter society with skills that will allow them to reflect critically upon and intervene in the world in order to change it,  actually act as conservative forces to predominantly socialise students to conform to the Status Quo and moreover rewards those already with an advantage. The classroom is in effect a factory for producing subordinates

Why this matters

Schools do not demonstrate a true commitment to producing knowledge for civic engagement. Schools are supposed to offer equal opportunities and foster social mobility especially for poor and minority youth but there is little evidence this occurs. Marginalisation from the decision making processes in school mirrors life itself and forms the inequalities which I and many others have lived out.

It is interesting to consider this within the context of the outcomes for children’s mental health issues which are increasing year upon year. There is the risk that such disabilities will marginalize people further from civic life and while race itself is not an inequality, racism can cause inequality and black people have worse mental health outcomes than other groups. Inequality thus limits educational access denying the citizens’ ability to critically analyse their own circumstances. Poor people are oppressed and controlled by the very means that is supposed to free them (Freire)

Divide and Rule

Fanon talks about how race is a historically constructed phenomenon – not only must a black man be black, but he must be black in relation to the white man’s social superiority. Inferiority can only exist once people have been separated by their colour;  these elements of inequality impact on a person’s place within society and can manifest themselves in various aspects of social exclusion as we have seen through poverty, racism, poor housing, and a sense of fatality. Negative portrayals of poor people can become the stereotype and powerful media exploit this. The scaremongers within the white middle class reinforce the negative self-perception and a failure to achieve intellectually becomes a form of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ultimately the citizenship that the unequal should strive for lies in the power to change your life and that of others. Citizenship can only be found in conditions of equality – liberal notions of citizenship do not address the fundamental differences power creates. In fact they create divisions. The solution to inequality lies in the Communitarian model which offers common goals and shared values and a true sense of morality.

 

 

 

 

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