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By Jeremy Schaap and Beein Gim
'E:60'

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Jeremy Schaap speaks with South African women soccer players who say they were beaten and raped because they are lesbians. Editor's note: This story and video contain mature subject matter

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E:60: Corrective Rape

Editor's note: This story and video contain mature subject matter. ESPN does not generally identify victims of sexual abuse. These women agreed to tell their stories.

 

 

KWA THEMA, South Africa -- In the small, neat home she shares with a husband she describes as a broken man, Mally Simelane talks about her daughter, Eudy, who two years ago was gang-raped and stabbed to death.

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60Eudy Simelane's mother, Mally, at her grave.

 

 

"These children are ours," she says, her hands folded across her kitchen table. "The gays and lesbians. I mean, we must accept our children. What they like, it's up to them. We are not God to stop them."

 

 

But there are those who are trying to stop them. And to punish them. To scare them. To change them. To "correct" them.

 

 

At the time of her murder, Eudy Simelane was almost a decade removed from her career on the South African women's national soccer team. But at 31, she had become a well-respected youth coach, a passionate ambassador for the game she loved. Everyone knew she was gay.

 

 

At Eudy's grave -- not far from the creek where her tormentors dumped her mutilated corpse -- Mally says, "I look at her picture. Then pray. Cry. Talk to her. Telling her, 'I miss you.'"

 

 

 

The rationale?

 

 

 

For an act of such violence and malice, it's called something so clinical: "corrective rape."

 

 

"The phenomenon of corrective rape is based on the mistaken belief that through the violent act of rape, you can alter someone's orientation, you can alter their identity," says Jody Kollapen, the former chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission, a governmental organization. "The rationale would be that a woman who chooses to be lesbian has surely not had a relationship with a man, and therefore, if she has a relationship with a man, even if it's a violent, forced one, that will surely convince her that the lifestyle she chose is inappropriate."

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60Eudy Simelane's grave in the township of Kwa Thema.

 

 

Sometimes, as in the case of Eudy Simelane, the perpetrators of corrective rape are interested less in changing their victims than in eradicating them and sending a message to other South African lesbians, who, recent studies show, live in a heightened state of fear -- with good reason.

 

 

In the country with the most reported rapes per capita in the world, where it is estimated that nearly half of all women will be raped, so-called corrective rape represents only a fraction of the sexual assaults committed. The exact numbers are impossible to determine -- in part because South Africa has no hate-crime laws that would require authorities to classify corrective rapes separately from other rapes -- but, according to the Human Rights Commission, it is a growing phenomenon. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming; for instance, the Triangle Project, a gay and lesbian advocacy organization, says it is dealing with 10 new cases of corrective rape every week in Cape Town alone.

 

 

A disproportionate number of female athletes have been victims, if only because more are openly gay as Simelane was. On paper, South Africa is among the world's most progressive countries; its constitution emphasizes the rights of the individual, and gay marriage is legal. But South Africa's constitutional aspirations run up hard against certain realities. Before his election, President Jacob Zuma was tried for raping (not corrective rape) an 18-year-old family acquaintance. He was acquitted, but his attitudes about gay marriage -- which he has condemned -- and gays and lesbians in general reflect the prejudices of many of his constituents.

 

 

"When I was growing up, [a homosexual] would not have stood in front of me," Zuma said. "I would knock him out."

 

 

The rape and murder of Simelane brought the issue of corrective rape to the nation's attention, however briefly, but the situation for lesbians has not improved. On the contrary, it seems to be deteriorating. Talk to men in the impoverished townships, and you see why. Homophobia is rampant. Violence against lesbians is encouraged. And victims say even the police treat them as nuisances and mock them.

 

 

Corrective rape is primarily an issue in South Africa's predominantly black townships. Although there are no statistics to show that the majority of victims are black lesbians, the Triangle Project says that 86 percent of black lesbians in the Western Cape live in fear of sexual assault, as opposed to 44 percent of white lesbians.

 

 

 

Mvuleni Fana

 

 

 

Eleven years ago, when she was 16, Mvuleni Fana was walking down a small side street in Daveyton, a township outside Johannesburg, a few hundred yards from the soccer stadium where she played for her local girls team.

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60Mvuleni Fana no longer plays soccer. She was raped in a stadium after soccer practice when she was 16.

 

 

Then, Fana remembers, four young men -- she knew them from the soccer fields -- attacked her, knocking her down, dragging her to the stadium.

 

 

"I remember some of the things," Fana says now. "I don't remember clearly, but I remember when they took my clothes off."

 

 

Fana was raped, beaten, and left battered and unconscious at the stadium. She woke up in a hospital. Her assailants, she says, had taunted her about her sexual orientation.

 

 

"You could hear in their voices that I disgust them," she says. "They wanted to teach me a lesson. They wanted to show me who's the man. They wanted me to stop being a lesbian."

 

 

When Fana went with her aunt to the police to report the attack, she says she was again taunted: "They say, 'She deserve everything. How can she pretend to be a guy. Why, she's a girl. There's no such thing as gay. A woman is a woman, and a man is a man.'"

 

 

Fana says that after the attack, she could never bring herself to play soccer again.

 

 

 

Prejudice still exists

 

 

 

South Africa's mostly peaceful transition from minority white control to democracy in the early 1990s was a triumph of domestic diplomacy. Averting civil war was a modern miracle. But South Africa remains a dangerous place, and the legacy of apartheid is a legacy of violence. Corrective rape, which is primarily a black-on-black crime in South Africa, cannot be blamed entirely on apartheid; it is part of the equation, however.

 

 

More information

Among the other organizations involved in this issue: the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project; the Forum for the Empowerment of Women; People Opposing Women Abuse; the Triangle Project; the Commission for Gender Equality; Luleki Sizwe; and the South African Human Rights Commission.

 

 

"The two factors that contribute most substantially to this phenomenon is one, the issue of prejudice and the prejudice that comes from living in a society that is based on a system that puts human beings in separate categories," Kollapen says. "And I think a second factor is that we're a violent society. South Africans have always resorted to the use of violence to resolve their problems. So the combination of prejudice and a propensity toward violence then sees quite a disastrous outcome. And in the context of gays and lesbians, it's a serious problem."

 

 

The situation is made more problematic by the difficulty of prosecuting alleged rapists in South Africa. Rape often is difficult to prove, for a variety of reasons, but South Africa's laws, more than those of most nations, vigilantly protect the rights of the accused, which is unsurprising in a country in which most people were denied their rights for so long. This vigilance has resulted in extremely low conviction rates. It is estimated that between 4 and 11 percent of those tried for rape are convicted. When you consider that only a fraction of the rapes committed are reported and only some of those reported rapes result in arrests and only some of those who are arrested are tried, you can see that the odds favor the rapist and not the victim.

 

 

"We have a culture of letting a guilty man free rather than putting an innocent man in prison," says Col. Vishnu Naidoo, the chief spokesman for the South African Police Service. "And in order to put a guilty man in prison, the evidence has to be overwhelming."

 

 

Naidoo says there was "one incident [Simelane] that generated a lot of media interest where a lady was raped."

 

 

"She was raped because she basically exposed a personal status in terms of lesbianism," he said. "But I think this must not actually be perceived to be a problem that's out of control, that's a growing problem as such."

 

 

 

Tumi Mkhuma

 

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60Tumi Mkhuma, a corrective rape survivor from Katlehong, now plays for an all-lesbian soccer team.

 

 

Fifteen months ago, Tumi Mkhuma was out for the night with some friends in Katlehong, the sprawling, crime-ridden township where she lives. Openly gay, she played striker for a local women's soccer team.

 

 

With the music cranked up in the bar where she had been drinking, she says no one could hear her scream when a man grabbed her and dragged her to an adjacent alley.

 

 

"The guy was beating me with a crushed bottle," she says, "and then I couldn't fight by myself because he is stronger than me. He started to hit me seriously. He said to me that he will prove a point that I'm a woman. And woman cannot date another woman. I'm not a man. I'm a woman. He will show me that day that I'm a woman."

 

 

It wasn't until several weeks later, when she took a pregnancy test, that Mkhuma realized she had, in fact, been raped.

 

 

"He raped me when I was collapsed," she says. Mkhuma had an abortion.

 

 

"I was scared to go to the police station because I was scared to die," she says. "He told me that he was going to shoot me, hunt me, he knows where I stay."

 

 

Ultimately, Mkhuma did file a police report, but her alleged attacker remains at large, even though she says she has since seen him in her neighborhood.

 

 

 

A perceived threat

 

 

 

Homophobia, of course, exists everywhere. In South Africa, it might be called the prevailing attitude.

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60The pub in Katlehong where Mkhuma was attacked.

 

 

"People often use culture and argue that it's un-African to be gay and lesbian," Kollapen says, "that it militates against everything that's African. Therefore, gay and lesbian people are seen as a threat to the existence or the continuation of a particular culture."

 

 

As perceived threats, gays and lesbians are often dehumanized.

 

 

"If I walk with my partner, my girlfriend," Mkhuma says, "the very same people from where I stay, boys, they will say things, they will say, 'Please don't walk like a guy because the guy proved to you that you are a woman, you know.' They would laugh. They make that as a joke."

 

 

 

Eudy Simelane

 

 

 

Of the four men who were tried on charges of raping and murdering Eudy Simelane, one was sentenced to life in prison, another received a 32-year sentence and the other two were acquitted.

 

 

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Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60A memorial to Eudy Simelane where her mutilated corpse was found dumped in a creek.

 

 

Mally Simelane says that in the two years since her daughter's death, two other lesbians in her neighborhood have been murdered.

 

 

Of the four men Fana says attacked her, two were tried and convicted and are serving 27-year sentences. The other two have not been arrested.

 

 

She says that even now, 11 years later, she is not the person she was before she was raped.

 

 

"It changed me from a jolly person," she says. "It made me an animal to myself. I used to think I was dirty and everything. I didn't deserve to be alive. I used to blame myself."

 

 

But Fana doesn't blame herself anymore. She sometimes wears a blue shirt that, on its back, reads, "I'm Lesbian and Proud."

 

 

"It's sending a message," she says, "that's saying no matter how much pain you put me through, no matter how much things you can do to me, you'll never change my sexuality."

 

 

Unlike Fana, Mkhuma still plays soccer -- on an all-lesbian team that hopes to play at the Gay Games this year in Cologne, Germany. She is hopeful about her future.

 

 

"I'm a survivor at the end of the day," Mkhuma says. "Other lesbians have been killed. Raped and been killed. They never get a chance to be alive again."

 

 

She is hopeful, too, that, in some way, the man who raped her will be punished. "He will get what he deserves," she says. "Not from me, not from anyone, maybe from God or whoever. But not from me."

 

Jeremy Schaap is a reporter for "E:60." Beein Gim is a producer for "E:60."

 

Joel and Jesse Edwards for E:60Members of a soccer team for Luleki Sizwe, a project in Nyanga that supports lesbians.

Otis Redding

Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story | PBS

GREAT PERFORMANCES' Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story details the story behind the legendary label that launched soul music greats -- from Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes to The Staple Singers and Booker T. & the MGs -- on Wednesday, August 1 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). For more information visit www.pbs.org/gperf

Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the PBS broadcast coincides with the 50th anniversary of Stax and the relaunch of the label by Concord Music Group.

One of the longest-running performing arts anthologies on television, the award-winning GREAT PERFORMANCES series presents the best in music, dance and theater. The series is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, public television viewers, and PBS. Major corporate funding is provided by UBS.

Perugia Press Prize
for a First or Second Book by a Woman

Prize: $1000 and publication

Guidelines

(click here for printable version)

Manuscript Requirements

• Send between 48 and 72 pages, on white, 8.5 x 11-inch paper, with legible typeface, pagination, and fastened with a removable clip. No more than one poem per page.
• Include two cover pages: one with title of manuscript, name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, and one with just title of manuscript. Cover letter and bio not required.
• Include contents and publications acknowledgments pages.

Eligibility

• Poet must be a living US resident.
• Poet must have no more than one previously published book of poems. Chapbooks and books in other genres do not count. If the submission is for a second book, please indicate on acknowledgments page the title of your first book.
• Translations and previously self-published books are not eligible, nor are revisions; the winning manuscript may undergo revisions before publication.
• Poets who have had manuscripts reviewed by Perugia Press Editor Susan Kan are not eligible to enter.

Terms

• An entry fee of $25 must accompany each submission, made payable to Perugia Press. You may submit more than one manuscript; each is considered a separate submission and must include a separate entry fee.
• Individual poems may have been published previously in magazines, journals, chapbooks of fewer than 48 pages, or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.
• Simultaneous submissions permitted. Notify Perugia Press if accepted elsewhere.

Judging Process

• To be certain that manuscripts receive the fairest consideration, all manuscripts are submitted to the judging panel anonymously.
• Identifying material, acknowledgment pages, and bios are removed and filed for reference at the conclusion of the competition.
• All readers are trusted and respected by Perugia Press.

Notification

• Winner is announced via e-mail or enclose SASE. Notification will be by April 1.
• Do not enclose SASE for return of manuscript; all manuscripts will be recycled at the conclusion of the competition. Please do not send your only copy.

Deadline

• Entry must be postmarked between August 1 and November 15.
• Early submissions strongly encouraged.

Mail Manuscript and Entry Fee to: (No FedEx or UPS)

Perugia Press Prize, P.O. Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062

Ethics Statement

We endorse and agree to comply with the following statement released by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses:

CLMP's community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to:

1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors;

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This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Juniper Prize for Fiction Guidelines

Below, please find a complete list of the Juniper Prize for Fiction guidelines. If you have questions about the competition, please contact the competition coordinator, Carla Potts, via email at potts@umpress.umass.edu.

Eligibility

1. The competition is open to all writers in English, whether or not they are U.S. citizens. Employees and students of the University of Massachusetts are not eligible for the award.

2. Novels, novellas, and collections of stories are all eligible. Work that has previously appeared in magazines, in whole or in part, may be included, but should be so identified on the cover sheet.

3. Manuscripts must be at least 150 pages and no longer than 350 pages.

Format for submissions

1. Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced in 12-point type (preferably Times New Roman), with pages numbered consecutively and the book’s title reproduced at the top of each page. Clean, legible photocopies are acceptable. Do not send the manuscript in a binder—instead, use two rubber bands and mail it in a padded envelope.

2. Each submission should have two cover pages—one listing the title of the manuscript and the author's name, address, phone number, and email address; and a second page listing only the title. The author's name should not appear after the first cover page.

3. Please include a page with information about any previously published books: title, page count, publisher, and year of publication.

4. All manuscripts must be accompanied by a $25 submission fee. Please make checks payable to the University of Massachusetts Press. They must be drawn on a U.S. bank. Please indicate "FICTION / your manuscript title" in the memo field on the check.

5. Be sure to retain one copy of the manuscript for your files. Manuscripts submitted for the Juniper Prize will not be returned.

Multiple submissions

1. You may submit your manuscript to other publishers while it is being considered for this competition, but if it is accepted for publication elsewhere, please notify us immediately.

2. You may submit more than one manuscript to the competition as long as each submission is accompanied by a $25 check, meets the eligibility requirements, and does not include material submitted to us in another manuscript.

Dates for submission

1. All manuscripts must be submitted between August 1 and September 30 (with a postmark no later than September 30).

2. Send submissions to:

Juniper Prize for Fiction
University of Massachusetts Press
East Experiment Station, 671 N. Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003

3. The Press assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged manuscripts, and we suggest that you retain a copy for your protection.

4. The winner will be notified in April 2011. No information about the winner will be released before the April announcement, and the Press will not be able to provide feedback on manuscripts submitted for the competition.

The Iowa Short Fiction Award

Eligibility

Any writer who has not previously published a volume of prose fiction is eligible to enter the competition. Previously entered manuscripts that have been revised may be resubmitted. Writers are still eligible if they have published a volume of poetry or any work in a language other than English or if they have self-published a work in a small print run. Writers are still eligible if they are living abroad or are non-US citizens writing in English. Current University of Iowa students are not eligible.

Manuscript

The manuscript must be a collection of short stories in English of at least 150 word-processed, double-spaced pages. We do not accept e-mail submissions. The manuscript may include a cover page, contents page, etc., but these are not required. The author's name can be on every page but this is not required. Stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion. There is no reading fee; please do not send cash, checks, or money orders. Reasonable care is taken, but we are not responsible for manuscripts lost in the mail or for the return of those not accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. We assume the author retains a copy of the manuscript.

Publication

Award-winning manuscripts will be published by the University of Iowa Press under the Press's standard contract.

Submission

Manuscripts should be mailed to:

Iowa Short Fiction Award
Iowa Writers' Workshop
507 North Clinton Street
102 Dey House
Iowa City IA 52242-1000

No application forms are necessary. Entries for the competition should be postmarked between August 1 and September 30; packages must be postmarked by September 30. Announcement of the winners will be made early in the following year.

Africa: New Film Texts

Appears Malian scholar and NYU professor Manthia Diawara 1992 definitive book on African cinema now has a sequel. African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics picks up the story from the 90's to today, focusing on "new trends, new cinematic languages and modes of production," and even more important, "on the departure from nationalism and social realism," and the emergence of the Nollywood film industry, a phenomenon better understood, argues Indian University professor Akin Adesokan, through the lens of 80s IMF Structural Adjustment Programs that crippled the Nigerian welfare state and left Nigerians to their own devices.

Coming out later in the year is Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution, consisting of essays edited by Mahir Saul and Ralph A. Austen, comparing the Francophone art house films of 70s and 80s to today's rough and tumble Nollywood mode of production.

Culture & Society

Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper

 It's more important to adopt the look of rebellion without the accompanying mentality

By: Mychal Smith | TheLoop21 (Add to your loop)
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 00:00

Is the conscious rapper dead and gone?

READ Talib Kweli's response to this article

No artist wants to be boxed in. They don’t want to feel the pressure from their fans to constantly produce the same type of material. They desire the freedom to experiment, step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves and their audience to look at the art and themselves differently. I respect this outlook. I do.

But then Talib Kweli does a song with Gucci Mane and I’m forced to reevaluate everything I believe.

Granted, I should’ve seen this coming. After Kweli essentially co-signed Slim Thug’s idiotic comments regarding black women and his assertion that people don’t like Drake simply because he’s successful, there seems to be no one in hip-hop that Kweli won’t defend/make excuses for. When he hops on a remix to Rick Ross’ B.M.F. and proudly shouts the name of Larry Hoover, don’t act surprised.

And he has every right to do so. The issue, as I see it, is that he is trying to do everything he can distant himself from the base that built him. Everyone’s favorite conscious rapper doesn’t want to be conscious anymore.

To be “conscious” in hip-hop hasn’t meant a lot in a while, basically serving as a catch-all for artists who fell outside of the mainstream/gangsta/money-cash-hoes mentality that rappers constantly catch flack for. When the North Carolina-based group Little Brother first appeared, they were tagged with the conscious label, though their music hardly embodied that aesthetic. But the late '90s and early '00s did see a rise in popularity of rappers with socially responsible/conscious lyrics, such as Mos Def, dead prez, Common, and of course, Kweli. After the massive success that was Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, record companies and fans alike were tuning in to listen to more than just the Jay-Zs and DMXs of the time. It was as close to balanced state of hip-hop as had been seen since the late 80s/early 90s.

---

READ MORE:

• What makes the celebrity wife so interesting?
• The Black community is in the midst of a mental health crisis
• Pickin’ cotton: Why Black artists still ain't free
• Home awaits Lauryn Hill

---

Anytime you label an artist as socially conscious, you limit the audience they reach. The preconceived notion being that all they want to talk about is how messed up the world is to make you feel bad about having a good time. They're Debbie-downers of the worse kind, so why would you want to spend your money on that? In response, the artists who get tagged, if they wish to reach new audiences (and new money) have to go out of their way to show just how unconscious/ignorant/balanced/human or whatever other term they can think of so as not to alienate anyone. The more they reach out, the more unrecognizable they become to their old fans, until...

“...even the conscious rap is gone too. The stuff Common Sense and Talib Kweli and Mos Def were rhyming about. What was socially conscious and responsible about the music has been replaced by hipster kids in skinny jeans and mohawks.”

50 Cent had to point it out. He’s right. Conscious rap is disappearing and its place is the emo rap of Drake and Kid Cudi. The closest thing to a politically aware/socially conscious emcee in the mainstream is Lupe Fiasco, and even he would rather be seen as more eclectic than conscious. Like afros in the '70s, it has become more important to adopt the look of rebellion without appropriating the accompanying mentality. Common put the nail in the coffin last year when he rapped on the remix of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face : “They say you be on the conscious tip/get your head right and get up on this conscious dick.”

Now Kweli is throwing dirt on top of the grave. He wants to serve everyone, it seems, releasing songs to dispute the Arizona immigration law along with the aforementioned Gucci Mane collaboration. I understand not wanting to be singularly defined, but when you try to be everything to everyone you end up being nothing to no one.

Mychal Denzel Smith is a writer currently based in Virginia Beach, VA. He blogs for Thisweekinblackness.com. Follow him on Twitter (@mychalsmith) or email him at mychal@theloop21.com.

Talib Kweli says he's not 'The Demise of the Conscious Rapper'

 The rapper responds to TheLoop21 contributor Mychal Smith

By: Talib Kweli | Yearoftheblacksmith.com (Add to your loop)  
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 10:24

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*Editor's Note: On July 15, TheLoop21.com contributor Mychal Smith wrote 'Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper.' Mr. Kweli read the piece and contacted us via twitter asking us to post his response. Here' s what he had to say:

I have been working on my new album, Prisoner Of Conscious since the summer began. It is a title I have had floating in my head for quite some time, but it is even more relevant right now. Hip Hop is like bipartisan politics these days. Everyone chooses sides and argues for the sake of the argument, not to actually achieve any clarity.

I am a man and an artist of the people. When I say that, I do not just mean people I agree with, people who understand me or people I can relate to. I mean the people in the truest sense of the term. This philosophy, although professed by many intellectuals, is lost on them. They would rather judge the masses as a foolish body, greatly in need of their intellectual musings. Any public figure who attracts a crowd of people should be examined, and if they are smart about their business they are to be respected. Respect transcends personal taste, you can and often should respect your enemy.

Now I don't know Mychal Smith, but what I do know is he is a blogger that follows me on Twitter, and I guess my decision to record with Gucci Mane bothered him enough to blog about it, declaring my move a part of the demise of the conscious rapper.

I offer a different take. I say people like Mychal Smith are every bit as caught up in the flashing lights as the "ignorant" masses they like to judge. Instead of celebrating it, they get joy from speaking against it. They truly believe not liking Gucci Mane makes them intellectually superior to say, some chic down south. They pay so much attention to what they perceive to be negative, based on a limited world view, that they miss the positive, even when it's right in their face.

---

READ MORE:

• Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper
• Pickin’ cotton: Why Black artists still ain't free
• An open letter to Slim Thug
• I hate Drake. There, I said it.

---

The week the Gucci/Kweli record leaked, I performed at the Lupus fundraiser for the J Dilla Foundation, and also recorded a PSA about SB 1070. I performed with the Roots, Blitz the Ambassador, Bajah and the Dry Eye Crew at Prospect Park for Okay Africa. My kids were with me. I also performed at the Duck Down 15th anniversary party, and I recorded a song about the Age of Enlightenment to help NYC high school kids pass the regents for Fresh Prep. These are not high paying gigs, this is for the love. And this is one week of work.

I haven't even counted the fact that my release with Hi Tek, Revolutions Per Minute a month ago as well as Eardrum and Liberation, my last two, were packed with "conscious" hip hop. Even outside of my music, my life is that of a conscious community driven man. Somehow, doing a song with Gucci Mane erases all of this in some people's minds. Who are they to judge me? What do they do in their lives that is conscious? If you ain't doing more than me; you just blogging, fall back.

I'd be willing to bet Mychal Smith did not purchase my latest album. I know for sure he did not take into account my musical output or who I am as a person when he wrote his blog. To people like him, I am simply a character, a one dimensional celebrity, who is supposed to conform to his idea of what good art is, not my own.

Now to break down the pseudo intellectualism on display"

"Then Talib Kweli does a song with Gucci Mane and I'm forced to reevaluate everything I believe."- MS

Mr. Smith, my choice to do a song with Gucci is my choice. It doesn't force you to reevaluate anything. If it does, you should re-examine what your beliefs are based on.

"After Kweli co-signed Slim Thug's idiotic comments...and his assertion that people don't like Drake simply because he's successful..."-MS

Mr. Smith, go back and read my feed. Stating my opinion is not co-signing anything. When Slim Thug said dudes will make it rain before they pay a mortgage, that was a valid point. My point was that his valid points were overlooked because of the generalizations. As far as Drake, I know a dope MC when I hear one. Whether it pertains to you or not, there are certainly people who hate him because he is forced down their throats on radio, who would have loved him had they discovered his mixtapes years ago, as I did. When he shouts out Slum Village and Little Brother in songs and raps honestly about the pitfalls of stardom, I look at that as a victory for conscious music, not a problem.

Also, the BMF song is banging, by the way.

Mr. Smith is correct when he talks about the pitfalls of labeling yourself the conscious artist. If you listen to my records, I tried to distance myself from that label very early in my career. I would often go on about the positive influence artists like Jay-Z and Diddy had on me when underground journalists would try to get me to co-sign their personal hate. He is also correct when he says no artist wants to be in a box. But his understanding stops there because his is the perspective of an outsider. It is much more complicated when you are in this business actually doing it for a living. Just because I don't like labels doesn't make my music or my output any less responsible, and neither does a song with Gucci Mane. My track record speaks for itself. My last video wasBallad Of The Black Gold...

Common is from the south side of Chicago, like Lupe. Common been pimpin in his rhymes since his first album. Lupe was a thug rapper before the Lupe we know today. I'm from Brooklyn, NY. My music reflects it all, Brownsville and Park Slope. In Mychal Smith's view, the fact that I recorded Papers Please for Arizona and did a song with Gucci means I'm trying to be everything to everyone. No fam, I'm just being me. I'm sorry it makes your head explode that I actually might enjoy Gucci's music, but I do. I didn't do it for money, I did it because I wanted to. He is a dynamic artist that is serving his fan base well. I love music enough to be curious as to what our collaboration would sound like, and he did too. I didn't compromise my style or views on the song, and as a musician, it was fun (remember that, fun?).

Gucci Mane's fans need to hear my music for sure, and some of my fans could use a little Gucci in their lives. I am down for all my people, even the Gucci fans. Deal with it. As far as those who say, "well, he raps about drugs," if you take Tylenol or drink, then stop judging. For those who say I shouldn't do a song with him because he hit a woman on You Tube, well, I know conscious rappers that have hit women. They just aint on You Tube with it. People make mistakes, that's his karma to deal with. I wouldn't want someone to not record with me based on some of the f---ed up things I've done in life.

Mychal Smith seems to love hip hop, and love our people. But sometimes we, as a people, can be so blinded by what we perceive to be negative, that we forget to support the positive. If you are dismayed by the state of music, spend more time supporting the artists who actually try to change it instead tearing them down. The music will change, and as you get older, mainstream music will make less sense to you. Take the audience an artist is speaking to into account before you judge them. You may not be in their audience. One love.

Cynthia McKinney on the oil volcano, Big Oil and Bike4Peace

July 18, 2010

[Translate]

Join Cynthia McKinney to kick off of her cross country Bike4Peace tour:

• Thursday, July 22, 7:30 p.m., at Twinspace, 2111 Mission St., San Francisco: Community discussion with former presidential candidate and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, moderated by POCC Minister of Information JR of Block Report Radio and Hard Knock Radio’s Davey D – sponsored by Block Report Radio and Hard Knock Radio. Wheelchair accessible. Donations welcome.

• Friday, July 23, 6 p.m., at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland: Potluck dinner with Cynthia McKinney, with jazz musicians MB Hanif and the Soul Voyagers. Bring food to share if you have it; just come eat if you don’t. Donations welcome.

• Saturday, July 24, 7 a.m., at the House of Common Sense, 1193 Pine St., West Oakland: A day-long mass bicycle ride to the state capitol in Sacramento, the first leg of the cross country Bike4Peace tour. Grab your bike and join them in Oakland or along the way to Sacramento – say, in Rodeo, Fairfield or Davis – or ride all the way to Washington, D.C.

by Minister of Information JR

Cynthia McKinney, her son Coy McKinney (left) and friends Wekesa and Afiya Madzimoyo biking Stone Mountain as Cynthia trains for the Bike 4 Peace cross country tour. – Photo: David Hunter

Oil has been spewing out of a crater in the Gulf of Mexico for over two months, after a blowout caused by the deep-sea drilling practices of BP Oil. To date, U.S. President Obama’s administration has not halted deep sea oil drilling even in the midst of one of the biggest mega-disasters this country has ever seen since its inception. The erupting oil volcano, caused by human beings, has killed off a good part of all of life in the Gulf of Mexico region and the oil is spreading by at least hundreds of thousands of gallons daily to surrounding areas.

Former presidential candidate and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney did this timely interview with me, weighing in on this catastrophic situation, Obama’s response or lack thereof, and her Bike4Peace campaign. Check out what our courageous sista has to say about these events of the day …

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us about your Bike4Peace campaign? What is it? And how did it start?

Cynthia McKinney: Bike4Peace is not a new idea or a new endeavor. Bicyclers have biked for peace across the country for as long as our country has been bombing other countries to protect “the American way of life” after the declaration of the Global War on Terror.

I became involved with the Bike4Peace organizers after the homicide of my aunt and I wanted – needed – a way to escape the treachery of that moment and ponder matters of life and death. The suggestion to participate came as a result of a sympathetic note sent to my by chat message by a Bike4Peace supporter whom I’ve never met. I hope she will have similar empathy for me when I can’t pull those hills with the rest of the riders!

A Gulf sea otter coated in oil seems to be screaming in agony and rage.

We will have numerous stops along the way and we’ll be able to share our vision of a better U.S. policy that promotes peace. I hope this ride will allow me to meet new people and hear from them. To know even more fully than I already do that the vast majority of people in this country want only to live in security and for their children to have opportunity.

I know deep in my soul that the average, ordinary resident of this country is not in favor of killing other people, stealing their resources and supporting rogue regimes around the world. Something has gone terribly wrong. And I will know more fully after this ride that our elected representatives and the media complex that supports them have totally failed to advocate for us and represent our values. Clearly, in such a situation, a complete overhaul of our body politic would be called for.

M.O.I. JR: Where will you be biking?

Cynthia: On July 24 at 7:00 a.m. we will depart the House of Common Sense in Oakland. We will go through Davis and Sacramento, from California to Nevada, then to Utah, Colorado and Kansas. I imagine that we’ll see the most beautiful sights there are to see of this country, and we’ll see them up close. Then, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. After Kentucky, it’s smooth sailing through Virginia and then to D.C., meeting all of the convergence riders at the White House!

To see the route, click here.

M.O.I. JR: What do you think about the oil volcano erupting for two months? What do you think about BP’s response?

Cynthia: I’m more shocked at the people’s response – or lack of one. I’m outraged that this could have happened and has happened. I recommend that the readers make a list of everyone who says continue to drill. Those are the people who don’t represent the interests of this country or our planet.

Environmentalists, who were right all along, preached energy alternatives to a deaf audience. The Democratic Party is as addicted to oil industry money as is the Republican Party and it is that addiction – and subversion of our political common sense – that results in tragedies like this. The slick oil industry ads about going green were meaningless; the voters need to vote Green. Then we’d get better policy. I am in pain just knowing that Mother Earth is bleeding because of us.

M.O.I. JR: What do you think about Obama’s speech and the hearings on Capitol Hill dealing with this mega disaster?

Cynthia: I don’t appreciate political theater. The only thing that matters is policy.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.

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Back to Port au Prince

July 18, 2010

[Traduction]

by Chris Zamani, M.D.

A family poses after receiving medical care at the mobile clinic at SOPUDEP primary school. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

I sit in an air conditioned airport lounge patiently awaiting the departure time for my flight back to the United States. Around me, other passengers and a dozen airport employees sit on bar stools and at bistro tables sipping tea, enjoying a cocktail or a cold beer and watching the World Cup on TV while awaiting their boarding calls.

By such descriptions one may assume that I am in Capetown or Amsterdam, perhaps Hong Kong or Rio de Janeiro. In fact I am in Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport in Port au Prince, Haiti. I remember four months ago when I came to Haiti for the first time, then only one month after the devastation of the earthquake, and my departure experience was very different from today. Then I spent the entire day sitting on a curb outside of the airport waiting for the uncertain possibility of boarding a U.S. military evacuation plane that would take me back to Miami.

People wait patiently to be seen at the mobile clinic hosted by Femmes en Action pour le Development. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

The facade of normalcy that now surrounds me lies in stark contrast to the continuing reality on the ground just outside of the airport in the neighborhoods of Port au Prince. Outside of this lounge – where passengers bound for America can enjoy an early re-introduction to the comforts that accompany life in the center of the U.S. empire – the reality remains that the vast majority of Haitians still exist in a state of endemic poverty, insecurity and exploitation.

Naseema McElroy, a registered nurse, and I have spent the last week providing medical care to about 230 people at five different mobile clinic sites around the city, including a primary school, a tent city, in the hills around Port au Prince, at a women’s development organization and in Cite Soleil.

A woman has her blood pressure checked=

From a medical perspective, the only remnants of the earthquake that we saw were problems with anxiety, insomnia and depression, the lingering emotional scars that always take so much longer to heal than the physical injuries and wound infections that we treated four months ago.

Now, it was back to business as usual: diarrhea, anemia, genital infections, skin infections and complications from chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure. We were well equipped to deal with the short-term issues like anemia and infectious problems, as we had brought antibiotics, anti-fungals, steroid skin creams, vitamins and iron pills. Conversely, we were ill equipped to help people with chronic problems that would require regular doctor visits: hypertension, diabetes, chronic pain from long days of manual labor, asthma and deteriorating eyesight amongst our older patients. The chronic medical problems that we encountered are symptoms of a larger problem, which brings me back to poverty, insecurity and exploitation.

At the mobile clinic site in Cite Soleil and at all our locations, patient privacy was an issue. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

Much of the chronic medical problems that we saw can only be addressed by providing people with access to regular medical care, a problem that exists in many nations, including the United States, where money and resources are not used for the benefit of providing basic security for the majority but rather are used by an affluent minority in the service of increasing their private wealth. In this way the United States is not so different from Haiti.

Aba Preval (Down with Preval): This grassroots advertisement reflects the growing discontent with the political leadership. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

There is a growing discontent amongst the people in Haiti with the political establishment under the direction of President Rene Preval. Many people believe that Preval has mortgaged the nation to powerful multinational corporate interests and subjected the people to military occupation by the U.S. and the U.N. under the guise of providing “security.”

Sampson (far left) and Rea Dol (far right) are hard at work translating for the medical team at the mobile clinic in Cite Soleil. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

But in a situation where a 70-year-old man has no means to obtain his blood pressure medicine, a 25-year-old pregnant woman has no access to pre-natal vitamins and a 3-year-old child with diarrhea runs a high risk of dying from dehydration, many have begun to ask whose security is being provided for and at whose expense.

Again one may find that the priorities of the Haitian political establishment are not so different from those of the U.S. political establishment under the direction of President Barack Obama. As a doctor in a county public hospital, I can tell you that the problem of the 70-year-old man with no access to medicine for blood pressure is a story that I encounter often.

A young girl poses after being seen at the clinic at SOPUDEP School. – Photo: Dr. Chris Zamani

And while recent disasters in the United States such as the economic crisis and the Gulf oil spill may not have caused as much immediate death and destruction as the Haitian earthquake, the response of the Obama administration to hand over hundreds of billions of public funds to private corporate banks and his unwillingness to hold BP accountable for the oil spill demonstrates that when it comes to protecting the interests of the most vulnerable members of society, Rene Preval and Barack Obama are following the same blueprint.

Dr. Chris Zamani, a practicing physician, can be reached at czamani@hotmail.com.

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