From respected hip hop journalist Davey D. on a letter circulating warning of Black-Brown violence in L.A. on Cinco de Mayo (today)
For the most part, the letter appears to be a hoax. Folks who work closely with the gangs down here have not heard of any craziness jumping off, but because the letter has been so widely circulated, it has led to some town hall meetings and increased police presence on all the high school campuses down here.
This on going beef between black and brown is not happening in vacuum and seems to be sparking off in cities with large minority populations with increasing regularity. I caught up with LA rapper Kam not to long ago who spoke on the seriousness of this situation.
He noted that he spends a lot of time working to heal any rifts which he says starts from the racial segregation and divide and conquer techniques used in the California prisons. He noted that this tactic has now spilled out onto the streets and is starting to impact everyday folks buy into these rumors. Kam concluded as he did in his landmark record ‘Keep the Peace’ which addresses this issue that all of us are going to have to be aware of the outside forces that continuously work to keep large groups of people divided and separated. Black and brown unity becomes threatening to some who wish to maintain power and see the large numbers that both groups have as a threat to everything from job security to political outcomes on key issues.
This latest scenario involving the letter warning Black kids to not wear white t-shirts on Cinco De Mayo was a deliberate attempt to create drama where there wasn’t any.