TDE rapper SZA is calling out southern states which have banned the teaching of race in schools (Critical Race Theory) but have passed a bill that recognizes August as “Hip Hop Recognition Month” and November as “Hip Hop History Month.”
“Can’t explain how disrespectful it is to give “hip hop” a holiday but allow Tennessee and Texas to literally BAN teaching about racism . We ain’t ask for no f–king monument. Do the right thing ,” the singer tweeted.
Last month, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 331 to give hip Hop a national holiday. The legislation was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and co-sponsored by senators Alex Padilla and Senator Bill Cassidy.
Several Republican states have banned race teaching in response to the 1619 project. Eight states (Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, and South Carolina) have passed legislation.
State school boards in Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Oklahoma introduced new guidelines prohibiting CRT-related discussions.
SZA is right. The genre, which was born out of a need to speak out against oppression, has been honored with one hand and shackled with the other.
“Whereas, on Aug. 11, 1973, at a Back To School Jam organized by his sister Cindy Campbell and held at the recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York, Clive DJ Kool Herc Campbell introduced his innovative style of disk jockeying and, together with the master of ceremonies engaging the crowd with rap on the microphone while partygoers known as B-boys and B-girls danced, introduced a new style, later known as Hip Hop, which combined the elements of a disk jockey (commonly known as a DJ), a master of ceremonies (commonly known as an MC), music, art, fashion, and dance,” the bill reads.
“Whereas, from its humble beginnings in New York City, the music, lyricism, dance, fashion, and art of Hip Hop has become a culture, now found in communities across the United States, and has long been a worldwide phenomenon; Whereas the art and culture of Hip Hop is an original American creation; Whereas the Hip Hop genre has been reinvented often over the years since 1973, reflecting the State, city, and region of the music, from G-funk and Hyphy on the West Coast, to Bass and Trap in the South, to Drill in the Midwest, to many other sounds from coast to coast and from abroad, including the New School, which continues that trend,” the bill continues.
“Whereas hip hop artists and supporters, originally of African heritage, now transcend many different ages, ethnicities, religions, locations, political affiliations, and socioeconomic statuses, which demonstrates the melting-pot quality of Hip Hop art and culture.”
