You don't see much coming out of this?

It's going to be a shit storm of a pr disaster and it will feed the current attacks on hip hop in unexpected ways.

Did you mean something good coming out of this?

That would be a more reasonable concern.

Hey, how bout some love for the Jena 6?

http://www.freethejena6.org/

I'm also wondering what the outcome of this will be. Regardless, the discussions that take place in the hearing and then outside of it in the media, on the net, the hip hop community and from various scholars, critics etc. will hopefully add more nuance to the public conversations.

Coming from a music ed. perspective the issues are really complex and difficult for a lot of music teachers to negotiate when deciding what should or should not be played, discussed, worked on in the classroom. Hopefully this more public debate will provide some openings for additional conversations in the ed. world. My worry is that many of the nuances will be left out of what gets media play.

I'll be interested to hear the perspectives of you and others regarding the congressional hearing and resulting discussions once it gets started.

Are we serious? How's about Congress hold a Serious hearing on the variety of issues that have been thrusted upon the HIp-Hop communities since the 70's? How's about Congress hold a Serious hearing about the effects of reaganomics on black communities? Can we at least have Congress hold a Serious hearing on it's allowing of the Contras to fund murder in foreign countries? I wonder how the sons and daughters of political prisoners or dead freedom fighters My biggest frustration with this conversation is the lack of context, real experts with genuine analysis and/or even an inkling of true effort to really explore what Hip-Hop should and shouldn't be held accountable for. Are we serious? How long has the hearing on restorative justice rights been on the table floor, waiting for a hearing date? Another thing, there are countless amounts of hearings that are extremely important to the community. Why is this one the most talked about? Is it because Hip-Hop is at stake? Hip-Hop isn't at stake! Those hearings were had years ago, when many of use lolly gagged with the opportunity to really reinvest in our communities. Those hearings are had every day on the street when an aspiring artists is faced with the conversation of Kanye vs. 50 Cent. Are we seriously still having this conversation? Who will represent the voice of the the "degraded black woman" during the hearings? Will it be Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte, Martha Diaz, Sophia Quintero, who? Will it be a white man from Omaha, Nebraska or better, a black Man from Washington D.C? I am working towards the day when we can afford to send our own voices to these hearings, or at least influence who represents the community voice. Are we seriously still having this conversation?