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DEF SHAM
Russell
Simmons - New Black Leader?
By Amadi Ajamu
The emergence of Hip Hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons as
an establishment-endorsed political leader of the new
generation of Blacks gives me pause. Being a member
of this new generation, I think this should be put on the
table for discussion.
Why have mainstream media’s political pundits given
Russell Simmons an open mic? He’s a guest on
Charlie Rose; he’s become a constant feature in the
New York Times, Newsweek Magazine and many other
newspapers and magazine across the country. Hailed
as among the one hundred most influential African
Americans by Crain Magazine, can helicopter to Albany for
private meetings with New York Governor George Pataki on
the Rockefeller drug laws. He has organized
fundraisers for senators Hillary Clinton and Charles
Schumer, works closely with former HUD Secretary Andrew
Cuomo, teams up with democratic presidential candidate Al
Sharpton to register new voters, and dines with Shimon
Peres, Israel’s former Prime Minister discussing a
possible Middle East youth summit.
Either the king makers have peeped Simmons’ ability
to use his influence over urban youth as leverage in his
business and political ventures and they want to control
him, or the severity of the US economic recession deems
it time to send in the clowns.
Russell Simmons and his Hip Hop Summit Action Network
have orchestrated several very high profile, massive
political rallies in New York City, using his connections
in the entertainment industry to get mega-stars like P.
Diddy, Mariah Carey, 50 cent, LL Cool J, Jay Z and Alicia
Keys to attend and draw thousands of Black youth.
But it was painfully clear that the majority of youth in
attendance were more interested in getting a glimpse of
their favorite rap artist than in the city budget cuts in
education or draconian drug sentencing laws that send
many of our peers to prison for decades. Simmons
and his star-studded entourage put on a good show but
have yet to present a clear political program of action
and vision for Black people.
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Black youth
have a tremendous amount of unused political power.
Young people represent the most revolutionary force in
all movements for social justice around the world.
We have the energy and tenacity to fundamentally change
our conditions, and we have nothing to lose.
That’s why leadership is so important.
Black youth in the United States are under attack from
all quarters. Police brutality, failing
schools, mass unemployment, foster care, inadequate
health care, and the exploitation of a criminal justice
system by large scale corporations all simultaneously
attack us in order to break our natural spirits of
resistance. But the most pervasive and unrelenting
attack against us has been conducted by the multi-billion
dollar entertainment industry with its overt and covert
manipulation of Black Hip Hop culture.
Culture is a weapon. Like a double-edged
sword, culture can be wielded in the interest of
oppressed people to further our struggle for
self-determinations or in the interest of our oppressors
to keep us enslaved.
Originally, Hip Hop was a source of strength in our
community. Created by young grassroots people on
the streets, it defied the status quo. From
seemingly nothing, no money, no musical instruments, no
multi-national conglomerates or political connections, it
emerged as an international cultural force. Hip Hop
exemplified our peoples innate creativity, social
consciousness, and self-determination. It was our
voice of resistance.
Now that Hip Hop is totally controlled by giant
international corporations, “artists” promoted
by industry and media executives, including Russell
Simmons, reflect a superficial petty criminality and a
vulgar individualistic materialism that erodes our
collective struggle. The systematic degradation of
Hip Hop is an example of the use of our culture to
further the interests of our oppressors -- the wrong side
of the double-edged sword.
Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop cultural credentials are
key to his ability to influence this “new
generation” on political and economic issues.
The phenomenal rise of Def Jam Records in the 1980's with
groups like Public Enemy and RUN DMC made Simmons and his
partners Lyor Cohen (son of Israeli immigrants) and Rick
Ruben very wealthy. In 1999 they sold Def Jam to
Seagrams Universal Music Group for $130 million.
Universal was subsequently acquired by Vivendi to form
the international entertainment behemoth Vivendi
Universal. Lyor Cohen was named Chairman and CEO of
the Island Def Jam Music Group and Simmons named Chairman
of the Def Jam Records division. The brash B-boys
that burst on the music scene are now corporate
executives towing the company line.
In an effort to ignite young people to social action,
many Black grassroots community leaders have reached out
to Hip Hop artists and impresarios for
assistance. Sometimes these efforts are
fruitful and solid relationships are forged based on
mutual respect and in the interest of our collective
struggle. Hip Hop maverick Tupac Shakur had
intimate ties to respected political leaders like Dr.
Mutulu Shakur and was a living example of a successful
cultural / political link. Tupac was the co-founder
of The Code Foundation, a youth organization involved in
the current struggles against racism, police brutality,
and drug abuse, human rights and reparations. His
untimely and unresolved murder is a reflection of the
work that needs to be done to make our generation aware
of our collective political power and the power of our
culture as a mechanism to spark the fire.
Individual artists with consciousness like Chuck D, Mos
Def, Common, Dead Prez, and others have also forged links
with grassroots leaders and committed their creative
skills to our collective struggle against oppression
.
But when grassroots political activists reach out to
Russell Simmons there is a recurring
disappointment. When organizers of the Millions for
Reparations Rally in Washington DC met with Simmons,
after going through an obstacle course of handlers,
Simmons said “Wait till next year, I’ll do it
and I even let you all speak.” Rally
organizers declined and decided to do it the hard way
– without the superstars, media access, and strings
attached.
Simmons also launched a special “reparations”
sneaker brand in his clothing line. Advertisements
for it have proclaimed that a percentage of the proceeds
from the sneakers would be donated to the reparations
efforts. When a youth organization working on
reparations issues contacted sales executives at Phat
Farm about donations, they were told that a larger
percentage of the proceeds were applied to advertising
the sneakers so that the idea of reparations is being
exposed. This maneuver is the extent of
company’s contribution to the struggle for slavery
reparations.
When Pepsi Cola dropped Ludracris, a black Def Jam
recording artist, from its television commercial because
of his profane and sexually explicit lyrics, Simmons
threatened to organize a boycott citing Pepsi’s use
of the equally vulgar, but white Ozzie Osbourne.
Imagine boycotters chanting “Equal opportunity
vulgarity!” Nevertheless, Pepsi, acutely aware
of the political and economic power of Black youth,
acquiesced and agreed to donate millions of dollars to
unspecified youth organizations.
Like Pepsi, Courvoisier Cognac is strengthening its ties
to the new generation of Blacks through Simmons, the Hip
Hop power broker. GlobalHue Advertising Agency
named Mr. Simmons its Vice Chairman and Senior Team
member of the Courvoisier Cognac Team, which pushes the
cognac for Allied Domecq Spirits of North America.
Simmons’s aggressive business style often rears its
head in his attempts at coalition grassroots political
campaigns. The hostile take-over of the “Drop
the Rock” (Rockefeller drug laws) coalition may be
the most telling. For the past 30 years, the
draconian mandatory sentencing guidelines incorporated
into the NY state drug laws by former Governor Nelson
Rockefeller, have sent hundreds of thousands Black and
Latino youth to prison for decades for minor drug
offenses. These laws have contributed significantly
to the rapid development of new state prisons and the
corporate exploitation of prison labor. A broad
coalition of families, lawyers, ex inmates, students,
churches, unions, civil right organizations, community
activists, clergy, elected officials, and others waged a
long and intense battle to repeal the laws. In
recent years, they had been gaining considerable ground
and the drug laws became a pivotal issue in the 2002
campaign for New York State Governor.
In an effort to galvanized Black and Latino youth,
coalition members requested the assistance of Russell
Simmons. Then Simmons, at the urging of his friend
and failed democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew
Cuomo, staged another star-studded massive rally at New
York’s City Hall drawing thousands. Cuomo was
the Master of Ceremonies.
Thereafter Simmons began meeting with the New York
Governor Pataki without informing or inviting veteran
grassroots coalition members to attend.
Negotiations between Simmons, Pataki, and two leading
members of the state legislature ensued. In the end
Russell Simmons, who had audaciously appointed himself
HNIC (head negro in charge) of the coalition, compromised
their mission.
Republican Governor George Pataki called a press
conference and stood side by side with Russell Simmons
and democratic presidential candidate, Al Sharpton.
Together they joyfully announced cosmetic changes to the
drug laws affecting a tiny percentage of its
victims. All of them praised Pataki’s proposed
changes, which left the mandatory sentencing guidelines
that lock up thousands of young Black and Latino men and
women every year, intact. Some people now call them
the “Simmons Drug Laws.”
According to a Newsweek report, when asked about the
ramifications of his actions, Simmons said.
“I’m not running for anything. I
don’t give a f—k. I did what I thought
was right.”
New Black leader?
Russell Simmons, Inc. has reaped enormous profits from
the new generation of Blacks through his position and
salary as Chairman of Def Jam Records and Vice Chairman
of GlobalHue Advertising Agency, Rush Communications,
Phat Farm Fashions, Baby Phat, Rush Visa, Simmons-Latham
Media and other capitalist ventures. He has aligned
himself with the corporate class and works in their
political and economic interest. More often than
not, these interests are diametrically opposed to the
interests of the majority of Black people.
Simmons’s rebirth as a political activist is
entirely manufactured. Wrapped in stylish Hip Hop
packaging, displayed on top shelf media outlets, and
presented to the new generation of consumers as the new
and improved Black leader. He is a product of
corporate America, and we shouldn't buy it.
The corporate imposition of Simmons as a
“leader” is an affront to our people and should
be exposed at every turn. Leaders come from
the people and their skills are sharpened and honed
through struggle with the people. Our fight
for human rights and self-determination demands
principled leaders who are willing to sacrifice their own
self-interest for the genuine political and economic
development of us all.
Russell Simmons’ leadership can only be defined as
-- Def Sham.
Transition of
Legendary Black Arts Movement Actor: Carl Bossiere
by Marvin X
I received an email from poet Reginald Lockett asking if
I had heard the Oakland Tribune report that a man named
Carl Bossiere was killed by a truck in Albany, Ca.? I had
not heard or read the report but I did recall the last
time I saw Carl he told me he was living in Albany so I
had no doubt it was him.
Carl had been addicted to alcoholism for a long time. His
acting career ended many years ago after touring Woody
King's The Black Quartet, an evening of four short plays.
When Carl returned to the Bay after the national tour, he
wasn't right, there was something seriously wrong with
him mentally, as though he had taken something, went on a
bad trip and never came back down to earth. Some people
might say his feet were never planted on solid ground. Of
course this is not earth shaking news about actors.
Prior to the Woody King tour, Carl served as Amiri
Baraka's secretary and actor during the Spirit House days
in Newark, New Jersey, after Baraka returned home from
Harlem. He played Yacoub in Baraka's classic play "
A Black Mass" based on the Black Muslim myth of
Yacoub, the geneticist who created the white man by
separating the dominant and recessive genes and cloning a
new creature on the planet, a creature that is merely
"a cellulose pouch of disgusting habits," to
quote Baraka's play.
Along with playwright Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt (Hurriyah
Amanuel Asar), Duncan Barber, Hillary Broadus and myself,
Carl helped found Black Arts West Theatre on
Fillmore Street, San Francisco, 1966. He played opposite
Bobby Seale in my second play "Come Next
Summer." During poetry readings at Black Arts West,
Carl would transform into another being once he grabbed
the mike, similar to
some of the spoken word artists of today who should be
banned from the mike because they go crazy. I might be
one of them as well. But some of things Carl used to say
simply made no earthly sense. I guess the marijuana we
smoked from morning til night didn't help.
I'd discovered Carl at Delores (Ntizi) Cayou's
dance class at San Francisco State College. A white girl
wanted to dance to a poem of mine, so when I arrived,
Carl was there. I later discovered he was her boyfriend.
After recruiting him, I helped move him from the white
girl's house, a task I would also perform with Eldridge
Cleaver after he was released from Soledad and wanted to
establish The Black House, the cultural center we
organized after I fell out with Carl, Duncan and Hillary.
Ed Bullins, Ethna and I moved into the Black House: we
forced Eldridge to move there.
When I came to Baraka's Spirit House in 1968, Carl
immediately gave me a gift: a watch, and told me to use
it because being on time was important on the East coast
as opposed to the West coast where time is not so
precise. I found he was right. I never forgot his gift,
so the last time I saw him near Oakland's Lake Merritt,
he said he needed some shoes: I gave him the new sandals
off my feet, since I had another pair of shoes in the
trunk of my car. Indeed, the old tennis shoes he was
wearing needed to be disposed, to put it mildly. My
sandals were a perfect fit for him. He begged me for some
change and was off around the Lake heading somewhere God
only knew.
I recall another time I'd run into Carl at Lake Merritt.
It was during the search for Patty Hearst. I was writing
my MA thesis on the SLA based on first hand information,
so NBC news wanted to talk with me, but more importantly,
to my sources, so I ran a scam on them.
When I "accidentally" bumpted into Carl
by the Lake, I decided to claim him as one of my sources.
After agreeing to this little acting role, I briefed Carl
on some of the facts he would need for the interview. The
NBC news crew agreed to meet me at a motel near the lake.
I made Carl put a pillowcase over his head, after cutting
out the eyes and mouth. I gave him my gloves. NBC started
the interview with test questions that Carl failed. They
knew it was a scam but proceeded with the interview and
paid us, although they were very upset with me. I didn't
give a damn because I knew the news ain't news. And I
definitely wasn't going to reveal my sources since the
police were still searching for Patty Hearst and her
"kidnappers," who were being assisted by some
of my friends.
I was happy Carl had performed as well as he did, but I
knew he was a great actor. A few weeks later I was at my
mother's house in Fresno when the nightly news came on.
Mom called me into the room to see a story on Patty
Hearst and the SLA: it was Carl with the pillowcase over
his head and my gloves on. I told my mother the story was
fake, showed her my gloves and told her to never again
believe anything she sees on the white man's television.
Mom gave me one of those looks that said, "Boy, I
don't know what to say about you!"
That NBC interview was probably Carl's last performance.
I would see him on the street from time to time, usually
in a very bad state due to alcohol. We would always
recall the Black Arts days with fond memories, but Carl
never returned to the stage. He did introduce theatre to
his cousins:Ted Lange, who went on to Love Boat fame, and
Michael Lange who is acting and directing as I write.
Well, Carl, we are from Allah and to Him we return.
As-Salaam-Alaikum.
..TOM FEELINGS,
ARTIST
Dear Friends of Tom Feelings
As some of you may know, Tom has been waging a personal
battle against cancer. Despite surgery, the cancer
has returned, this time attacking his liver. Tom is
doing all that he can to aggressively fight the ravages
of this disease, and will shortly be admitted to the St.
George Clinic in Bad Aible, Germany--a special hospital
that employs alternative therapies to treat cancer
patients.
Tom has touched all of our lives, through his art and
through his willingness to aid and encourage other
artists. He would never ask for help so we are asking on
his behalf. The cost of the treatment, travel and
an extended stay at the hospital, is estimated to exceed
$40,000.00. Dealing with a life threatening illness
can be devastating. Easing some of the stress of this
sudden financial burden is one way that we all might help
him through this difficult period.
Your cards and your prayers would surely be appreciated.
Donations of any amount should be made payable
directly to Tom and sent to him at the address below:
Tom Feelings
180 Wateree Ave.
Columbia, S.C. 29205
Please forward this letter to anyone who might want to
help.
Information on the St. George Clinic: www.st-george-hospital.com
Letter from one of his
friends:
Tom Feelings : We would celebrated
Kwanzaa in time and I tucked the book under my arm, got
in my  car and drove 50
miles, there I presented to the elder woman in the family
a copy of The Middle Passage, by Tom Feelings. I
presented it to The Queen Mother with instructions that
if any of the many children and grand children and great
grand children wanted to see and understand they must go
to visit the Great Grand Mother Charlotte.
Tom Feelings is a Black Pilgrim as he speaks in the BLACK
PILGRIMAGE published by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co./New
York. You might also search for some of the Black
historical comic strips, "Tommy Traveler in the
World of Negro History", first published in
"The New York Age" in the 1960's. Tom
Feelings sketches children in the African villages, in
the Brooklyn streets with a connectedness that will show
you where you been, where you come from. Tom, he
say, "my heart is with the Black people of America
but my soul is in African", then he pictured The
Middle Passage.
Living and working in Ghana, in Guyana, in Bedford
Stuyvesant, in Harlem give Tom feelings that can be  seen and felt in all his
work. Always working at his craft, doing his job to
educate a lost people, taking them through The Middle
Passage. His comic book on Cripus Attucks was a new
look at comic strips, his association with "African
Jazz Art Society of Harlem" looked at the natural
look when it was not so natural to do so, not so
fashionable to be Black, even up in Harlem.
Tom say, "I chose children as subjects because they
had had less time to be exposed to the pain of being
Black in a white country, and because they reflect the
best in us before it is changed or corrupted."
Tom, he say with feelings,"I wanted a large number
of my people to see my work, because the things I do are
for and about them....." Then, he say,
"Black artists must rethink the whole idea of
'Art'. Their work must be given back the people it
came from. The visual arts must be fused with the
rest of our art forms - poetry, drama, dance, and music -
in order to give direction and life-giving force to Black
people."
GIVE GENEROUSLY TO ASSIST TOM FEELINGS IN HIS TIME OF
NEED.
Thank you
Joseph Nyerere
The Artist: Tom Feelings
Tom Feelings, well known artist and
illustrator of children's books, is a native of Brooklyn,
New York. Feelings attended the school of Visual Arts for
two years and then joined the Air Force in 1953, working
in London as a staff artist for the Graphics Division of
the Third Air Force. From 1959 until 1964 he worked as a
freelance artist, his primary subjects drawn from the
Black people of his community. In 1961, he went south to
draw the people of Black rural communities: some of these
drawings were published in Look magazine as part of a
feature entitled "The Negro in the U.S."
In 1964, Feelings traveled to Ghana,
where he spent two years working for the Ghana
government's magazine, The African Review, teaching
illustration, and serving as an art consultant for the
government publishing house. In 1966, he returned to the
United States to concentrate on illustrating books with
African and African-American themes. To Be a Slave,
written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Feelings, was
chosen as the 1969 Newberry Honor Book, and was the first
book of its kind to receive such an award. From 1971 -
1974. Feelings lived in Guyana, South America, working as
a teacher and consultant for the Ministry of Education,
and training young artists in textbook illustration.
Feelings has received numerous awards
for his illustrations. "Moja Means One," a
Swahili counting book, and "Jambo Means Hello,"
a Swahili alphabet book, both written by Muriel Feelings,
were chosen as Caldecott Honor Books in 1972 and 1974 and
earned Brooklyn Arts Awards for Children citations from
the Brooklyn Museum. "Jambo Means Hello" also
won a Biennial of Illustrations award in Bratislava,
Yugoslavia, The Horn Book Award from the Boston Globe in
1974, and a nomination for the American Book Award in
1982. "Something on My Mind" won the Coretta
Scott King Award in 1978. The School of Visual Arts
recognized him with its Outstanding Achievement Award in
1974. He has received eight Certificates of Merit from
The Society of Illustrators, along with a National
Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grant in
1982. Feelings has been featured on numerous television
programs.
In 1974, Feelings returned to New York,
spending his time lecturing, attending exhibits
throughout the country, and working on a book
entitled "The Middle Passage," which depicts
the journeys of slaves from Africa to America. He
currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina, and
teaches art at the University of South Carolina.
Feelings's 1995 masterpiece, The Middle
Passage, is not a children's book to be enjoyed by
adults; it is an adult picture book that children can
enjoy. Illustrated in his trademark style of understated
color tones ranging from cream to storm-cloud charcoal to
black, the book depicts the journey on slave ships from
Africa through the middle passage to the Caribbean and
North America. With realistic details and no text to
explicate his drawings, Feelings shows the terror and
horror of slavery. The slaves were shackled together
between decks, many were killed by sharks while trying to
escape, and torture and starvation were used to force
submission to the ships' overseers. The Middle Passage is
Feelings's way of telling the whole truth about slavery
that adults do not want exposed.
Though the Guyanese Ministry of Education
was emphatic about the need for children to know the
truth in their history books, Feelings found it
impossible to work on The Middle Passage while he worked
for them. His return to the United States allowed him to
fathom the reason. "I had to be in a place that
constantly reminded me of what I was working on and why I
was working on it," he wrote in the introduction to
The Middle Passage. "For me that was New York City.
That's where the pain was."
Despite the grim visions of inhumanity
that are illuminated in The Middle Passage, in the book's
introduction, Feelings encourages African Americans not
to feel depressed by them. "They should be uplifted
and say to themselves: `You mean we survived this? We
made it through all this and we are still here
today?'" Recently retired from the University of
South Carolina, where he taught book illustration,
Feelings still cautions black children never to waste
their own potential.
In His Own Words
"When I am asked what kind of work
I do, my answer is that I am a storyteller, in picture
form, who tries to reflect and interpret the lives and
experiences of the people that gave me life. When
I am asked who I am, I say, I am an African who was born
in America. Both answers connect me specifically with my
past and present ... therefore I bring to my art a
quality which is rooted in the culture of Africa ... and
expanded by the experience of being in America. I use the
vehicle of 'fine art' and 'illustration' as a
viable expression of form, yet striving always to
do this from an African perspective, an African world
view, and above all to tell the African story ... this is
my content. The struggle to create artwork as well as to
live creatively under any conditions and survive (like my
ancestors), embodies my particular heritage in
America."
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