Kyle Mays, who teaches at the African American Studies Department and the Native American Center at UCLA, says Hip Hop “builds solidarity between the two communities,” which share a complex history of slavery, displacement and state violence. Mays is author of the book, Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America.Water rights and climate change are connected with larger political empowerment issues. “We need to somehow deal with the issue of returning land to native peoples,” said Mays, who is of Black and Native American ancestry.
“If the Movement for Black Lives can indirectly lead to an expanded sphere of safety for white women of a certain class status, with no commensurate enhanced protection for black people
“I think the movement needs to organize the 93 percent of the work force that is not organized.”
“’Black capitalism’ was a crucial part of President Nixon’s ‘southern strategy’ and the rhetoric and administration of his program is still intact.”
“There can be no ‘black internationalism’ without an attack on imperialism and finance capitalism.”
“For 70 years Israel has been the biggest purveyor of war and chaos in what colonizers termed as the “Middle East.”
