From Advance the Struggle, here comes an old video of Tupac from 1992 talking about the failures of the older generation of black activists and militants, and the new conditions under which black youth must struggle.
This is such a great video. Thanks for posting this, L.
I want to expound on two points.
Pac is doing two things when talking about his mother. He is saying that he, and young black men and women of his generation had to rely on women to pass on the politics, values, and organizing traditions of black power because the men were either dead or in jail. This is VERY important because it helps to partly explain the connection between the late 60s, early 70s generation and that of the late 80s and early 90s. While the latter movement didn't reach the heights of black power or civil rights in its breadth, political maturity, and organization, it still drew significantly from those traditions.
The second part of this same point is that he is validating and politicizing house and caring work even though what was "fashionable" was carrying a gun and being on the front lines of struggle with the State and the fascists. Rather than subordinating housework to this kind of political struggle, he is giving it EQUAL EMPHASIS. This confirms the stuff I and others have read in Selma James and Silvia Federici.
It also relates to your last post, LBoogie, on the film "Bastards of the Party" in terms of its weakness on the role of women in the period during black power and that following it.
The other thing I wanted to bring up was his legitimation of the pimp, hustler, drug dealer and other occupations of the lumpenproletariat. Whether or not folks want to admit it, their rise is due to the failures of black power to deal with the advance of neoliberalism and to appeal to a new generation of youth coming up in the 1970s. Because of that, the personalities immortalized in blaxploitation era films became emblematic of a new ethos that tried to overcome a new political reality. It wasn't apologetics, either. Tupac was one of the most unapologetic personalities of our generation. Rather, it was a critique of the black power generation itself.
Truly amazing find. Shout out to Advance the Struggle.
This is such a great video. Thanks for posting this, L.
ReplyDeleteI want to expound on two points.
Pac is doing two things when talking about his mother. He is saying that he, and young black men and women of his generation had to rely on women to pass on the politics, values, and organizing traditions of black power because the men were either dead or in jail. This is VERY important because it helps to partly explain the connection between the late 60s, early 70s generation and that of the late 80s and early 90s. While the latter movement didn't reach the heights of black power or civil rights in its breadth, political maturity, and organization, it still drew significantly from those traditions.
The second part of this same point is that he is validating and politicizing house and caring work even though what was "fashionable" was carrying a gun and being on the front lines of struggle with the State and the fascists. Rather than subordinating housework to this kind of political struggle, he is giving it EQUAL EMPHASIS. This confirms the stuff I and others have read in Selma James and Silvia Federici.
It also relates to your last post, LBoogie, on the film "Bastards of the Party" in terms of its weakness on the role of women in the period during black power and that following it.
The other thing I wanted to bring up was his legitimation of the pimp, hustler, drug dealer and other occupations of the lumpenproletariat. Whether or not folks want to admit it, their rise is due to the failures of black power to deal with the advance of neoliberalism and to appeal to a new generation of youth coming up in the 1970s. Because of that, the personalities immortalized in blaxploitation era films became emblematic of a new ethos that tried to overcome a new political reality. It wasn't apologetics, either. Tupac was one of the most unapologetic personalities of our generation. Rather, it was a critique of the black power generation itself.
Truly amazing find. Shout out to Advance the Struggle.