venstresida.net

Well, if I'm supposed to comment these articles I have to say both are interesting. The first one by Bynoe is of course the most analytical one, but to me that is very much focused in on a US-american reality. I do not feel that hip hop culture has the impact on most kids lives around here the way she portrails it. On the other hand some of the things she writes about may apply on a more general basis as well. But when she writes f.ex. "initially young people are concerned about their immediate neighborhoods" that is the exact opposite of what I have experienced here. My experience is that young people on an average are much more internationally oriented and idealistically enclined than older people.

Older people who have a job and perhaps a family tend to be much more focused on their everyday struggles at work and at home, and much less so on solidarity with the palestinian people, struggle against imperialist agression etc. When it comes to reaching out to and recruiting these people, I find it much more fruitful to do so by engaging in local union work f.ex. and then try to build something from there - to put that local struggle in a wider context.

When it comes to kids, however it is much easier to start talking about international politics right away - and I find you can basically be much more radical in your rethoric. But one thing you can not be is stiff and sour - you have got to have humor - and that is something I can't see Bynoe writing much about. Perhaps it's not so in a US-context? - What do I know.

About the palestinian refugees rapping in the second article - I can recognize that. For a lot of refugees in Europe also, hip hop has become a way to create an identity - and there I believe many of the same challenges arise that you see in the US - how to avoid the politically blind sex-money-and-drugs hip hop, and try to channel those young people in a constructive direction. There I believe hip hop can play a role, but for most kids just that - a role - not be the entire solution.