The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.39           November 4, 1996 
 
 
Letters  
Is rap revolutionary?
I have been a reader of The Militant for fifteen years and believe that your excellent paper has only one important flaw - its analysis (or lack of it) on ideological questions in regard to cultural production and transmission. There is a tendency to oversimplify the complexities of criticism to the point of economic determinism.

The most recent example of this oversimplification turned up in Brian Taylor's article on Tupac Shakur. He explains well enough the ridiculousness of both the right-wing and bourgeois views on Shakur's lyrics, but then Taylor completely dismisses the importance of rap music in the last two paragraphs.

It is true that Tupac didn't come as far in his political evolution as Malcolm did, but that has everything to do with something Taylor never mentions, however - capitalism always and necessarily appropriates forms of subversive cultural expression to increase its profits. On the ideological plane, the capitalists get a fringe benefit - the buying out of potentially revolutionary young fighters before they make the quantum political leap that Malcolm, for example, made.

I am an English teacher at a high school with a student body primarily comprised of Mexican-American, African-American, Haitian, and working-class white students in a migrant community. The students listen to Tupac's music and know that he shared their experience on the street and in the institutions of U.S. society. While I myself do not think that rappers like Shakur have a message which will do much to train and inspire potential revolutionaries among their listeners, that means little to the youth who listen to them. We study the speeches of Malcolm X in my classroom, not the lyrics of Tupac Shakur, but that doesn't mean I have the luxurious arrogance to dismiss what I perceive as an obstacle to my students' adoption of revolutionary ideas like Malcolm's - that is, the lumpen proletarian desperation and lack of class consciousness in most rap lyrics. Dismissing rappers like Tupac does nothing to explain to youth why his politics were malformed.

The best examples, I think, of how rap lyrics can be read are in regard to the debate within the hip-hop world on issues from purposeful misspelling to women's rights, gay rights, violent crime of rapper "thugs" against other oppressed nationalities, the futility of killing every cop in East LA. ("Fuck the Police" - NWA), and calling oneself a "nigga."

Taylor ignores the fissures in bourgeois culture when he implies that music can only be a tool of expression that reflects bourgeois culture today. I suppose Taylor would write the same thing about all rock-and-roll, all punk music of the '70's, perhaps Woody Guthrie songs, and even strike songs and other forms of working-class music. We must engage and analyze the art produced in bourgeois society, not conveniently ignore it, assuming it is some passive captive of a monolithic bourgeois culture. I have wanted to live in a socialist world since high school myself, but that day will not be tomorrow.

Musicians today often attempt to address the concerns of disenfranchised youth, flawed as those attempts seem to Marxist- Leninists like ourselves. I believe, however, that the subversiveness of rock-and-roll and rap can serve sometimes as an impetus to revolutionary politics in youth - I graduated from Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" to The Communist Manifesto!

Ian Harvey

Naples, Florida Fight police frame-ups
On Friday the 11th of October Rolando Cruz, who was released from prison while on death row about one year ago, spoke at a press conference here to give his support to another current framed-up fighter on death row, Aaron Patterson. Rolando Cruz was framed up on charges that he raped and murdered a ten-year- old girl in 1983. Despite the likely killer's confession and no evidence, physically or otherwise, Cruz spent close to 12 years on death row. At the press conference while speaking on Patterson's case, Cruz maintained "I've studied his transcripts, I believe 100 percent that he's innocent."

Aaron Patterson was sentenced to death in 1986 for the supposed killing of a couple during a home invasion and burglary. After being beaten by the police during an interrogation that lasted 25 hours, the police presented Patterson with a confession that he did not sign. This was the evidence presented to convict him. He has been on death row for about ten years currently and has the Aaron Patterson Defense Committee fighting for a new trial and to raise consciousness about police brutality, among other demands. A member of the committee and Aaron's mother, JoAnn Patterson, was a strong supporter of Mark Curtis's fight for freedom. She also attended the press conference with Rolando Cruz. For more information on the Aaron Patterson Defense Committee call: (312) 663-5392.

Tami Peterson

Chicago, Illinois Addicted to the truth
Please, please! continue my subscription to the Militant. If I had more, I swear I'd send it! Do not throw me to the CNN's, CBS's, NBC's of this world. I'm addicted to the truth that I have discovered in your paper. A revolutionary without the proper political training is as deadly as a stray bullet.

A prisoner

Graterford, Pennsylvania

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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