Hip Hop and the Civil Rights Movement Essay - 2356 Words

The Hip Hop movement was born while the Civil Rights movement was aging. The Civil Rights movement, at its height addressed social inequalities however, in its old age it began to demand economic equality – enter Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. Although Black Americans were allowed to eat next to White Americans in restaurants, and were allowed to sit next to White Americans on buses and enjoy equality in terms of access, white supremacy went underground and manifested as red-lining, unequal protection under the law, and a greater disparity between once racially segregated schools that are now economically segregated. The Civil Rights Movement and the Hip Hop movement are similar, but yet are different. If†¦show more content†¦However 50 years later with Hip Hop being the nucleus of 3 pop culture, we see the remaining attempts at avoiding integration, equal protection of the law and the hip hop generation remains silent. Due to â€Å"white flight†, the majority of white Americans moved to the suburbs, while people of color resided and continued to reside in cities. During the early 80’s as a response to Brown v. Board of Education, magnet schools were created to lure white America back into the inner city. Culture critic bell hooks says, â€Å"a shift in class values occurs in black life when integration comes and with it the idea that money is the primary marker of individual success, not how one acquires money† (18). Today, magnet schools require admissions exams, and are highly selective. These schools receive the majority of funding and produce the highest standardized test scores, graduation rates and college admitted students. Moreover, during the Civil Rights movement individuals of a different class resided within the same neighborhood and this created a mixture of classes providing a wealth of resources. However, unlike the civil rights movement, the youth that consume the music, fashion and ideology of hip-hop remain silent on key issues profoundly affecting their daily lives. This is due, partly in fact to the negation of formal education by hip hop music. In 2004, 50 years post Brown, we have Chicago’s own popular producer andShow MoreRelatedA Response to â€Å"Hip Hop: a Roadblock or Pathway to Black Empowerment†1110 Words   |  5 PagesLancaster ENGL- 1301 18 September, 2012 A Response to â€Å"Hip Hop: A Roadblock or pathway to Black Empowerment† Geoffrey Bennett’s article Hip Hop: A Roadblock or Pathway to Black Empowerment illustrates the influence hip hop and rap music has had on not only the music industry but mainstream culture, African Americans to be specific. Geoffrey Bennett, a senior English Major from Voorhees, New Jersey goes over many aspects of how hip hop came to be â€Å"the forefront of American attention.† He startsRead MoreHip-hop was a cultural movement. 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