YOUTH MASSACRES MUST END – HIP HOP REV. YEARWOOD

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Talks Police Brutality and Israael in Gaza with Bill Fletcher, Jr., of “The Global African” on THE REAL NEWS – AUGUST 16, 2014.

Click to see Interview on The Real News

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., minister, community activist, and President of the Hip Hop Caucus, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers young people to participate in elections. Served in US Air Force as an Officer.

BILL FLETCHER, HOST, THE GLOBAL AFRICAN: The list of African-American lives senselessly taken because of excessive police force = Prominent in black communities. Hopes of a near future where the lives of young black men would be valued and lessons would be learned by all…were dashed this past weekend in a place called Ferguson, Missouri. — Another life was snuffed out — 18-year-old Michael Brown.

“We are better than this. Justice is not swift. Revenge is. We are focused on trust, truth, and justice.” — Charlie Dooley, ST. Louis County Executive

FLETCHER: While Palestinians continue to fight for their right to live and thrive, African Americans in the USA are engaged in their own battle, the battle for the life of young black men and women. We’ll discuss the role of police in the African-American community with Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

FLETCHER: Gaza. You watched the pictures. How does it make you feel?

YEARWOOD: It’s troubling for a number of reasons: The human toll of innocents + It seems like the public is impotent to speak out against it without being charged anti-Israel + It’s hard for many African-Americans, to not see the president speak out a lot more forcefully against human toll and to continue to sell weapons to Israel.

YEARWOOD: It’s a tough particularly since President Obama has been in office, I think people were hoping for a much more peaceful society, and they’re seeing the opposite. The Arab Spring is now leading into what’s going on in Gaza, people just seem to be tired or not have the ability to speak out. And that’s troubling.

YEARWOOD: Also the media is not showing there are people around the globe who are speaking up. There were thousands who marched in Chicago + Thousands in London + A March in Israel (Israel tried to stop) + Thousands in many cities Christian, Muslim, Jewish who say what’s going on (in Palestine) –I think you’re seeing many people coming together who are speaking out.

YEARWOOD: Media and Progressives have been somewhat muted – NOT enough–I’m shocked, actually, at this just the silence of the progressive community on this issue. I work with a lot of artists, and I saw a couple of artists who Tweeted out. Rihanna Tweeted out “#FreePalestine” and got such a push back that she had to remove the Tweet. There were thousands of re-Tweets, but she has since deleted it from her account. It was amazing that artists find it very hard to get political — she got a lot of pushback. Everyone goes, how could she do that? It is important for people to live together in peace. But it’s also important to state the whole facts and the whole situation so people know what’s going, in some cases, the largest open-air prison in the world.

YEARWOOD: I think that our job is to make this country to be the best country that it can be. I loved my country. I am an American. I’m also a person who came here whose parents came here as an immigrant. My parents were both from Trinidad. I was the first person in my family to be born in this country. So that has a whole part of the process as well.

YEARWOOD: As an Air Force officer, I understand the importance of defense, but I also understood the importance of the power this country has. And if used wrongly, it could have devastating impacts. And so, as an officer I began to speak out against the war in Iraq. This was in 2002. But I learned you don’t speak out against the war while you’re in the Air Force. Bush and others decided to make an example, and began to prosecute me and have me imprisoned. During the time I was waiting for that process to take place, I didn’t stop speaking out. I said, well, I’m going to speak out now. But there were some other amazing brothers and sisters who were also at the time–Damu Smith, who I was around, and others who were, like, just good brothers and sisters who can give counsel and just say, hey, you know, if you’re doing the right thing, keep speaking out for justice. And so I did.
I mean, long story short, I mean, it was very difficult. I was it was hard. I was arrested protesting against the war. And was beaten. As a matter of fact, I was on Capitol Hill and was beaten, in Capitol Hill, in which my leg was broken, because officers came to Capitol Hill to speak out against the war, and I was the only African-American, and so I guess I was easy to kind of point out in the crowd. And so that’s what took place.

FLETCHER: Tell us about Eric Garner.

YEARWOOD: Eric Garner now is dead, and he was murdered. He was a father, I believe, of six children in New York City. And Eric Garner had just got finished breaking up a fight. And then the police officers came, and in the process began to antagonize him. And they put on an illegal chokehold and literally choked him to death. We are dealing with being paralyzed by fear because of police brutality, and possibility of a public execution or assault, because some officers become, in essence, thugs with badges.

FLETCHER: There’s crime in our communities — some by African Americans that hold people up at gunpoint. So why should I care if a cop puts a bullet in that guy’s head? Frequently many progressives refuse to talk about crime, but do talk about police brutality. Doesn’t that lose us credibility?

YEARWOOD: Many White Progressives are silence do become silent on the issues of police brutality. Race is the tripwire for the progressive movement. And so many times when we hit that tripwire, we fall over. By silent, I mean that they don’t use all their energies and the movement becomes siloed (narrowed) = NOY as blended and diverse as it should be.

YEARWOOD: Black progressives, or, blacks rights organizations or civil rights organizations have moved from a spirit of solidarity to charity, where they begin to see their brothers and sisters as a case and a cause, and not as their brother or their sister. = They sometimes pull back, simply saying it was wrong when you see what happened to Eric Garner, it was wrong what happened to Trayvon Martin, it was wrong, Oscar Grant and Sean Bell. Something is missing with the civil rights movement that does not quietly align with the community as it should = Disenfranchised and Oppression and Pushed Down and feeling even their own brothers and sisters turn their back on them unless like Eric Garner’s death, who was choked to death on YouTube.

YEARWOOD: Th injustice is across the board! But progressives seeing the injustice around the community and just drive past and keep moving or leave the community completely to defend for themselves. I think that’s where the problem comes in at, and I think that’s where we have to fix that.

YEARWOOD: It’s important and incumbent upon us to recognize that we cannot give up on our people, no matter what the situation may be. We must always recognize that policies have been put in place to take away our jobs, our opportunity, and our education = Now led to what you see today = Symptoms of the Cancerous Politics of poverty and injustice in our communities.

FLETCHER: The issues of police brutality have been raised many times but the movement or effort could not be sustained. People get angry and in some cases suggest legislation, and it was almost like watching a balloon deflate. The energy just seems to leave us. And then that’s it until the next brother or sister gets killed. What do you think is at the root of this sort of deflation? What can we do differently?

YEARWOOD: It’s hard to see so many mothers and fathers who you are sometimes victimized twice losing their child. And organizations come in, put them up, stand next to them. And then, as soon as the camera leaves, they leave as well. Labor, civil rights, and progressive have NO long-term STRATEGY. That needs to be put in place.

FLETCHER: Are there any parallels with the anti-lynching campaigns of the 20th century, the whole idea of passing federal legislation to address lynching? I mean, is that sort of along the lines of what you’re describing?

YEARWOOD: Most definitely. We have to empower our Congressional Black Caucus and our progressive caucus members and President Obama. We must make them do pass laws. We’ve seen that from “my brother’s keeper” and other elements, I think, that have come out, that he (they) can be made to do things once the political pressure is put upon. We should look at the local levels, our black mayors and governors and local and state officials to be part of aSTRATEGIC solution.

YEARWOOD: We have much more expertise and should empower our think tanks, our academies, our institutions, our HBCUs.

FLETCHER: When black political leadership that should know better but also live with fear of money pressures — Why are they NOT as responsive as they should be?

YEARWOOD: Courage. Courage. They are in fear of being called radical or losing funding. But from what I have seen, even on the federal level and on a local level, where it should be a no-brainer and everything is in place to act. And I think that they lack the courage to buck the “System.”

YEARWOOD: On the other hand, we are not holding them accountable to us. We Elect based upon skin color, those who do not have the true interests of the people. They talk and look the part, but clearly kown how to play two sides of the coin. And so when they go out to a certain community, they talk and rap like they are from the streets. But once they get to the suites, there’s a different dialog in that aspect. I am hopeful that my generation is much more in tune to putting in new leadership in that aspect that can deal with those who really have their political interests in hand.

YEARWOOD: There needs to be political education like the Hip Hop Caucus can do. We have to look beyond the traditional political parties — it has to be about humanity and about fighting for our communities. We need to hold those accountable who get into office and get rid of them if they fail us repeatedly (YES Jay NIXON). We cannot elect them because they come to some nice church or mosque or somebody’s community day event and just dance around.

YEARWOOD: Institutions have to do a better job. Too many leaders are kind of in cahoots together — they come together and all network in their own little world supporting one another to the end while ignoring the community and people who elected them = Going against the interests of the people in their community.

FLETCHER: Let’s go full circle — What about the violence within the African-American community, within the Latino communities? People often don’t seem as outraged.

YEARWOOD: It grieves me how quick we don’t hurt and cry anymore for those of us who are laying in their blood in the streets….young children…similar to what’s going on in Gaza or at our border + Those who are MURDERED daily in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, LA, DC, and medium and small towns like Ferguson. Something is wrong when certain communities and people are being relegated to second-class citizenship. We as a individuals and as people need to step up and say, NO! NO! NO!