scholarly journals Breaking the Chain of Silence: Political Activism and Social Justice in Omar Offendum’s Syrian-American Hip-Hop

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Olafsen ◽  
Mohammed Ali ◽  
Mikayla McCord ◽  
Roxana Cazan
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Consciousness ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Black Panthers ◽  
Keywords Hip ◽  
The Impact

Dissatisfied with the decisions of the Western political class to remain uninvolved in helping settle the conflict in Syria, many hip-hop, rap, and pop artists from Syria and the surrounding region have been creating and performing politically charged music that promotes liberty, and justice in the Middle East. One artist in particular, Omar Offendum (in the United States), writes and brings to the stage his hip-hop music in a way that continues and enhances this political-artistic movement across the Atlantic. Employing rhymes and rhythms that foster commotion and make noise, Offendum breaks the global indifference accumulated around the topics of the Syrian war and the unsolvable debates about allowing a certain number of Syrian asylum seekers to apply for refugee status in Western nations. He underscores that apathy is not an option for those who oppose the oppressor. In this paper, we argue that Offendum’s music constitutes an effective tool of political propaganda that can raise social consciousness of the needs of Syrians today and inspire social justice. Because the political-ideological space that feeds his creative act is set in a civil-rights-conscious U.S., Offendum often appeals to a heritage, reminding the listener of the activism of the Black Panthers, the legacy of Malcom X, and the freedom battles of Rodney King and his followers. In many of his songs, Offendum uses Arabic, both as a means of highlighting the authenticity of his hybrid identity and as a method of marking a cultural space for a diverse audience to come together. In this paper, we offer a brief historical look at the role of hip-hop in the struggle for civil rights in the US in order to locate the legacy Offendum’s music builds on and to assess its power. We then perform a close analysis of three of his most famous songs and conclude with a brief discussion of the impact of Offendum’s on social media platforms globally. KEYWORDS: Hip-Hop; Activism; Social Justice; Omar Offendum; Social Consciousness; Syrian War; Syrian Refugees; Civil Rights

“WOKE” in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Saliah Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Civil Rights Era ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Core Components ◽  
The Impact

This research paper aims to examine and critique the impact and contribution of HBCUs in advancing societal issues and education while fostering a heightened understanding of social justice for today’s HBCU students. The purpose of this research is to discuss, expose, and share the impact HBCUs have had on the “WOKE” movement and social justice in the United States of America. The discourse centers on the development of scholars and activities who have been nurtured by and at HBCUs. The primary sources and events have been summarizing, focusing on the cause and effect of the injustice minorities face from the modern Civil Rights Era to the present day. The information/data demonstrates core components that have shaped American HBCUs from their establishments/foundation. Those ideals still evoke the same emotion of individuals who effort toward higher education decades ago up to today’s HBCU student bodies that embrace societal images upon their school. It also demonstrates how HBCUs have shown their ways of waking to societal limits in multiple forms of action to be heard through their oppression. Some sources broadly state approaches to reinstating these essential values, while some indicate the efforts to prove the name of HBCUs compared to PWIs. Some sources even show how our institutions solidify our government. This paper expresses how HBCUs in our nation keep students aware of the delinquent acts around them from social injustice and racial inequality.      

scholarly journals Patterson v. McLean: A Confirmation of the New Right at the U.S. Supreme Court

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1009
Author(s):  
George M. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Presidential Appointments ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

In two consecutive national elections a conservative, Ronald Reagan, was elected President of the United States. When Justice Lewis Powell announced his retirement during the late months of the Reagan administration, it was apparent that the President's last appointment could shift the ideology of the Court to conservatism for the first time since the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. President Reagan's prior appointments, Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia, had joined William Rehnquist, an appointee of President Nixon and Bryon White, an appointee of President Kennedy to comprise a vociferous minority of four in many instances, especially cases involving civil rights. The unexpected opportunity for the appointment of a conservative jurist caused great anxiety in the media and in the U.S. Senate, the later having confirmation power over presidential appointments to the Supreme Court. This article examines the consequences of the Senate's confirmation of Justice Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. The impact, which was immediate and dramatic, indicates that conservative ideology will predominate on major civil rights issues for the remainder of this century.

Local Boy, East Coast Sensibilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Joseph Lopa
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Population ◽  
Mentorship Program ◽  
Transient Nature ◽  
Black Art ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

This chapter was written from the perspective of a Hawaii resident who identifies as Black and local. My upbringing is explored including the cultural forces that shaped me and the impact that the portion of my upbringing on the East Coast has had on rounding out my Black worldview. This chapter also address challenges to the growth of the Hawaii based African American community including a lack of education about the pre and post-missionary presence of Blacks in Hawaii, the geographic isolation, the transient nature of the State’s largest portion of the Blacks: Service Members in the United States the Military. The struggle of local Black folks to connect to the Black Military population secondary to isolation fostered by base housing and the impact of the Military’s role in historical trauma related to the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. Solutions to the issue of Black community cohesion are explored throughout the remainder of the chapter. They include a Cultural Mentorship program for Hawai‘i’s Black Youth, connections to Black art and popular culture and it’s adaption in Hawaii (with a particular focus on reggae and Hip-Hop as the key conduits for identifying and facilitating Black Cultural impact in Hawaii).

The Congressional Black Caucus and the Closure of NASA’s Satellite Tracking Station at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
Keith Snedegar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Satellite Tracking ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Tracking Station ◽  
Minority Regime ◽  
The Impact

Keith Snedegar explores the impact of the civil rights movement on decisions related to NASA facilities outside the United States. Snedegar maintains that when Charles C. Diggs Jr., one of the founders of the Black Congressional Caucus, visited the NASA satellite tracking station at Hartesbeesthoek, South Africa, in 1971, he discovered a racially segregated facility where technical jobs were reserved for white employees and black Africans essentially performed menial labor. Upon his return to the United States, the Detroit congressman embarked on a two-year struggle, first to improve workplace equity at the tracking station, and later, for the closure of the facility. NASA administration under James Fletcher was largely indifferent to demands for change at the station. It was only after Representative Charles Rangel proposed a reduction in NASA appropriations did the agency announce plans to end its working relationship with the white minority regime of South Africa. NASA’s public statements suggested that a scientific rationale lay behind the station’s eventual closure in 1975, but this episode clearly indicates that NASA was acting only under political pressure, and its management remained largely insensitive to global issues of racial equality.

Educating Students with Chronic Illness

2020 ◽  
pp. 578-597
Author(s):  
Margaret Tseng ◽  
Rebecca Magee Pluta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle School ◽  
Chronic Illness ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Middle School Student ◽  
Physical Location ◽  
Available Technology ◽  
The Impact

Students with chronic illness have historically received an education via home and hospital instruction during their absences. This instruction is significantly inferior in both quality and quantity when compared with the educational experience of students able to attend school. This case study details the experiences of a middle school student in the mid-Atlantic Region of the United States whose chronic illness presented unique and multifaceted challenges that could not be met by her district's inflexible policies and disconnected resources. This case illuminates the need for schools to break away from the traditional administrative special education mold when responding to the challenges of educating frequently absent students with chronic illness. The educational Civil Rights of these students can be preserved, however, by utilizing affordable, available technology to minimize the impact of frequently missed classes, provide continuity of instruction and allow educational access regardless of a student's physical location during their absences from school.

The Impact of Social Injustice on Public Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Barry S. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Adverse Health ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Social injustice creates conditions that adversely affect the health of individuals and communities. It denies individuals and groups equal opportunity to have their basic human needs met. It violates fundamental human rights. It represents a lack of fairness or equity. This chapter provides two broad definitions of social injustice. It gives examples of social injustice, both within the United States and internationally. It describes adverse health effects related to social injustice. And it outlines ways in which health professionals and others can work to minimize social injustice and its adverse health consequences. Text boxes describe concepts of social justice, as well as the relationship between science and social justice. The Appendix to the chapter contains the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Social Impact of Sport

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
Joseph Cornelius Spears, Jr. ◽  
Sean T. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Social

The COVID-19 pandemic assumed an international health threat, and in turn, spotlighted the distinct disparities in civil rights, opportunity, and inclusion witnessed by lived experiences of African Americans. Although these harsh disparities have existed through the United States of America's history, the age of technology and mass media in the 21st century allows for a deeper and broader look into the violation of African Americans civil liberties in virtual real time. Also, historically, the sports world has been instrumental in fighting for the civil rights of African Americans; athletes such as Jesse Owens and Muhammed Ali led by example. This chapter will showcase how the sports world continues to support social justice overall and specifically during this international pandemic. The authors will examine contemporary events like the transition in support for Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality and the NBA play-off (Bubble) protest in 2020.

Nursing Civil Rights

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charissa J. Threat
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Army Nurse Corps ◽  
Military Nursing

This book investigates the parallel battles against occupational segregation by African American women and white men in the U.S. Army, using the microcosm of military nursing. As the book reveals, both groups viewed their circumstances with the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) as a civil rights matter. Each conducted separate integration campaigns to end the discrimination they suffered. Yet their stories defy the narrative that civil rights struggles inevitably arced toward social justice. The book examines the battles over race and gender discrimination and social justice by linking the civil rights story of the ANC to critical events in the United States between World War II and the Vietnam War. It tells how progressive elements in the integration campaigns did indeed break down barriers in both military and civilian nursing. At the same time, it follows conservative threads to portray how some of the women who succeeded as agents of change became defenders of exclusionary practices when men sought military nursing careers. The ironic result was a struggle that simultaneously confronted and reaffirmed the social hierarchies that nurtured discrimination.

scholarly journals Globalization/Human Safety: A Biopolitical Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Anastasia Kravets
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Human Safety ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Biopolitics focuses on the impact of globalization on the well-being of the individual and society as a whole. Accordingly, issues of human security and the threats posed by the process of globalization, as well as the transition from a disciplinary regime to a regime of governance at the global level, which, based on democratic values and liberal norms, are raised. That is why the problem of social justice and equality is solved. The issue of human safety within global governance should be emphasized. It is about a sense of security as a basic human need. Moreover, it is about the global security necessary for the survival and reproduction of humanity as a whole. As well as the study of potential socio-political consequences of the development of biotechnology and genetic engineering in the global dimension. This huge set of issues must be concretized, systematized, and logically structured through the analysis of the impact of globalization on the state of the individual, its relationship with the concept of bios; introduction at the international level of the doctrines of social justice, protection of human and civil rights at the global level; study of potential socio-political consequences of the development of biotechnology in the global dimension; introduction of new biopolitical models of power, governance and international relations; analysis of the theory of global evolution.

scholarly journals Jay-Z and O.J.: Sport and the Performance of Race in Hip-Hop Music

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-206
Author(s):  
Kellen Jamil Northcutt ◽  
Kayla Henderson ◽  
Kaylee Chicoski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Jay Z ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this study was to understand the symbolic messaging in hip-hop music as it relates to the lived experiences and realities of Black Americans in the United States. The study examined the song and music video titled “The Story of O.J.,” by hip-hop artist Jay-Z to gain a better understanding of how Jay-Z interpreted the impact of Black Americans’ lived experiences in the United States on their identity and ability to progress economically and socially, regardless of social standing, within subcultures such as sport. Employing a content analysis method, data were collected and analyzed using critical race theory. The results of the analysis of lyrical and video data identified three major themes: (a) battle with Blackness, (b) economic enslavement and financial freedom, and (c) systematic subjugation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document