Sound Session #576 (11/13/16)

Posted in Episodes, Politics, Sound Session on November 14th, 2016 by Hyphen

SNSS

Well, that escalated quickly.

A lot of eloquent words by folks more intelligent than I have been written this week, plus I’m burned out from the emotion of it all and traveling from Australia to New York (24 hours straight on the move is no joke), so I’ll keep it as brief as I can.  There are three points I want to stress to everyone:

  1. Almost 50% of the eligible voting population sat this one out.  Voter suppression occurred both via laws (reducing early voting windows, requiring additional identification, etc.) and by killing all enthusiasm for being a part of the process.  In such a close election (where the Electoral College has failed the will of the people for the second time in my life), every vote is crucial and we simply couldn’t afford so many people to stay at home.  Shameful, in my opinion, especially with local races and propositions on the ballot too.  It’s interesting watching this happen while I’ve been in Australia, where voting is required by law.  Sure, that gets abused too, but it definitely looks like a better system to me.  The Republicans have decided not to update their platform to move with the changing world, so they know their best chance to win is to have as few people vote as possible.  Credit to them, it worked this time around.  It’s on us to ensure more people, from all parties, get out to the 2018 midterms.
  2. Trump won just 25% of the vote.  I would hope that the hardcore racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia he based his campaign on is only embraced by a small percentage of that group, say up to 10%.  Perhaps we’ll never be able to reach those people.  Maybe they’re just stuck in their ways.  But the rest of his voters amazingly decided that all of this nonsense was NOT a deal-breaker, which, at best, tells all the targeted people, “I don’t hate you…but I don’t care about you.”  These are the people we need to have conversations with, to ensure they understand that they have just emboldened and validated this rhetoric by putting him in the White House.  Those values are NOT shared by the vast majority of America and we cannot let a small few hijack the narrative in attempts to normalize this.  Speak up and stay vocal, shouting this down at every turn.
  3. We gon’ be alright (c) Kendrick.  Sound Session has been here during the Bush years, the Obama years, and we’ll be here during the Trump years too.  So will you.  You are valued.  You matter.  You are loved.  Be the change you want to see at the local level and control what you can control.  Progress is not a straight line and we’re going to continue on our path to a more perfect union, one day at a time.

And now, some music for your soul:

Show #576 (11/13/16)

1. ASAP Mob ft. ASAP Nast & Onyx – “Nasty’s World”
2. Common ft. Bilal – “Home”
3. The Game – “Grew Up On Wu-Tang”
4. Like – “Diamond”
5. Mibbs ft. Blu – “Tell Me ‘Bout It”
6. Notorious B.I.G. ft. 112 – “Sky’s The Limit” (Throwback of the Week)
7. Meek Mill – “Blue Notes”
8. Khalid – “Hopeless”
9. Alicia Keys – “More Than We Know”
10. Mickey Factz & Nottz ft. Phonte – “Treat You Right”
11. Jay Prince – “Smile Good”
12. Dame D.O.L.L.A. ft. Lil Wayne – “Loyal To The Soil” (Local Music)
13. TYuS – “Shapes and Sizes” (Local Music)
14. Jalen Santoy – “Foreplay”
15. Big Sean – “No More Interviews”
16. Mayer Hawthorne – “A New Love”
17. JAHKOY – “Don’t Beg”
18. Solange ft. Sampha – “Don’t Touch My Hair”
19. Ray BLK – “5050”
20. All-Star Opera ft. Warm Gun – “Lifeline” (Local Music)
21. starRo ft. Masego – “Yams”
22. Childish Gambino – “Me and Your Mama”
23. Daniel Caesar ft. Kali Uchis – “Get You”
24. Nas – “I Can” (Throwback of the Week)
25. A Tribe Called Quest ft. Andre 3000 – “Kids”

Link to download – https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72U-rgJjvmWaFdjcjJNQTV3Q2M

If you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and stream/download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

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Complex documents some other anti-asian racism

Posted in News, Politics on August 14th, 2008 by Hyphen

Perhaps the blog is getting a little serious lately, but it’s important.  As I’ve watched the Olympics every night this past week, it’s been great to see athletes from all over the world come together and put our petty differences aside.  Unfortunately, these moments are really just brief respites from the daily onslaught of ignorance and animosity that normally pervades societies all over the globe.  Inspired by the controversy over the Spanish basketball teams, Complex Magazine (the fine folks who brought you the fine Cassie photoshoot) ranked a few other recent anti-asian examples.  Check ’em out right here.

In a related topic, I recently read a great piece by Matt Bai in the New York Times, where he asked if Obama represented “the end of Black Politics.”  Peep it here.

The uneducated will see Obama’s ascension to the highest rank in the United States as a sign that racism has disappeared in our country, but that’s obviously not the case.  Intelligent people will surely agree that it’s a step in the right direction, but I worry that our society, and especially our media, will focus solely on white/black interaction.  If we do that, we’ll continue to overlook the shockingly prevalent racism towards Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.-Americans that exists all around us.  If it’s not ok to use racist images and terminology attacking black people in our media, why do we let it pass when it’s aimed at other groups?  It’s unacceptable, and we all need to start calling attention to it when we see it.  If someone says something ignorant, call them on it.  If you see an offensive commercial, complain and spread the word.  We have the power and obligation to demand better from ourselves.

Shout to Yang Wei for killing it in the all around gymnastics competition last night, and shout to Info for the Complex post.

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Why is there so much racism/ignorance in Spain?

Posted in News, Sports on August 12th, 2008 by Hyphen

sigh

On Sunday, the Guardian reported on the image above, which features the Spanish men’s national basketball team in an advertisement for the Beijing Olympics.  The dragon in the center circle?  Clumsy, but admissable.  The fingers pulling back the skin around their eyes in an attempt to mimic asian features?  Yeaaaaaah, I’m going to go ahead and hit you with the:

that's racist

You’d think that the European country closest to Africa (separated by only 8 miles at the Strait of Gibraltar) might be the most racially tolerant member of the E.U., but unfortunately, you’d be dead wrong.  Spain has a long history of racism, and in recent years, it’s repeatedly reared its ugly head in their sporting events.  From the abuse Lewis Hamilton received earlier this year, to Luis Aragones’ moronic comments about Thierry Henry, it seems like a new incident pops up every few months.  We also can’t forget about when Samuel Eto’o almost left the pitch a few years back:

And now the Spanish basketball team, one of the best squads in the world, has again demonstrated the ignorance and racism that appears so prevalent in their culture.  It’s shocking enough that this actually made it’s way into an officially sanctioned advertisement (apparently involving the female team in the same pose on the opposite page), but how could players who’ve spent time here in the NBA agree to this?  You’re telling me Pau and Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jose Calderon, and Jorge Garbajosa didn’t know any better?  Wow.

I don’t want to sound too high and mighty, because we clearly have lots of race issues here (cough, cough, cough), but it’s time for Spain to get a grip on this.  If they’re going continue campaigning for Madrid to host the 2016 or 2020 Olympics, they have to get serious about this problem.

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