We live in cynical times. Many black people have realized the best way to get publicity it to say something negative about President Barack Obama. FOX News loves this stuff and this has been proven accurate by the recent news that conscious rapper Lupe Fiasco has recently been invited to debate Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor."
Now you would wonder why O'Reilly, a noted hip hop hater, would have a mildly famous rapper on his show. FOX tends to view any rapper (and black person) as a thug, as seen in it recent trashing of Common, a rapper famous for writing love songs and being a vegetarian. However Lupe Fiasco recently called Obama a terrorist, for his support of the American war machine and in particular his support of Israel.
Lupe Fiasco is considered to be one of the more deeper thinkers in the rap community -- but even that isn't saying much. Hip hop's golden era of Public Enemy is long gone. Most of today's hip hop is knee-deep in materialism, violence and sex -- all messages approved by Corporate America.
I tend to think that entertainers should stick to entertaining and people shouldn't turn to them for political guidance. Political comic Bill Maher said he deliberately changed the format of his show "Real Time," to limit the celebrity segment, because so many of the entertainers could not string together an intelligent sentence.
Fiasco has written some intelligent songs criticizing conflict diamonds and has supported worldwide clean water iniatives, but you wonder how deep his knowledge is? Some of his comments on Global Grind, show he is all over the place. He said "admires some of the things that Glenn Beck does," and questions why Obama is raising funds for his campaign, but doesn't give "$100 million to the people of Detroit." Even more damning in his initial interview, where he called Obama a terrorist, was his admission that he doesn't vote.
Lupe Fiasco simply does not understand how the political system works. I remember reading an Vibe magazine interview with Jessie Jackson about 10 years ago. Jackson said he once encountered an young man who was angry at the economic situation. After listening to the man rant for several minutes, Jackson asked him if he voted, the young man said no. Jackson then said that he was outside the political system, and the only way to effect change is from inside the system.
The political system runs on money, and in this society money equals power. Lupe Fiasco is a man of means, I bet he could raise $1M. He could use that to create a Political Action Committee (PAC), called say LupePAC, and donate $1M. That PAC could hire a dozen lobbyists who could badger politicians until they affect the political change that Lupe Fiasco wants. A PAC could also hire a PR company to make sure the airwaves are flooded with issues that LupePAC supports. They could also make sure armies of volunteers are kept informed with e-mails and phone calls urging them to contact their elected representatives. That is how you get things done, son.
And this has actually happened. Hip hop veteran Russell Simmons has created political action groups to lobby politicians to reduce mandatory drug sentencing laws, which have been responsible for sending many black and Latino men away for long sentences.
Maybe Lupe Fiasco, like a lot of people on the far left, simply do not have a realistic understanding of the political system. The system is horribly tarnished by money, and it moves at snail's pace. More pointedly, the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling allows unlimited amounts of money to be dumped into the political process. If liberals want real change, they need to reelect Obama so he can appoint more progressive voices to the Supreme Court. They also need to elect more progressive representatives and senators, and make sure they stick to their campaign promises. But this is like the chicken and the egg problem, in a political system ruled by money, progressive voices have a hard time getting elected because they get outspent in the fundraising arms race.
As Jesse Jackson said, if you want to effect change you have to work within the system. Choosing not to vote is like opting out of the system. And those who choose to opt out of the system have no room to complain when things get worse. Just look at what Republican governors like Rick Scott and Scott Walker have done in their short terms. This is what happens when people on the left stay home.
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