The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth, Activism and Post-Civil Rights Politics

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}From youth violence, to the impact of high stakeseducational testing, to editorial hand wringing over the moral failures ofhip-hop culture, young people of color are often portrayed as gang affiliated,“troubled,” and ultimately, dangerous. The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back examineshow youth activism has emerged to address the persistent inequalities thataffect urban youth of color. Andreana Clay provides a detailed account of thestrategies that youth activists use to frame their social justice agendas andorganize in their local communities. Based on two years of fieldwork with youth affiliated withtwo non-profit organizations in Oakland, California,The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back shows how youth integrate the historyof social movement activism of the 1960s, popular culture strategies likehip-hop and spoken word, as well as their experiences in the contemporary urbanlandscape, to mobilize their peers. Ultimately, Clay’s comparison of thetwo youth organizations and their participants expands our understandings ofyouth culture, social movements, popular culture, and race and ethnicrelations.