Turning a Generation Into a Political Force

By L. Alexis McGill

Hip-hop has always been political: Its lyrics speak of the experiences of a marginalized and disadvantaged generation of urban youth. As a cultural force, hip-hop has always challenged convention. The music highlights struggle, social injustice, and an unyielding legacy of institutionalized discrimination. Even excessive materialism in some songs can be understood in the context of a world lacking economic opportunity.
Beyond music, the term "hip-hop" has come to describe a multicultural generation of young Americans who came of age in the '80s and early '90s. It defines our fashion, our language, and now our politics. Our intent as a cultural force is to challenge convention and to forge a collective voice to fight societal neglect and disregard.
The problem is no one listens. Unlike in our parents' generation, today's dialogue doesn't happen solely in church. It happens in school, in the streets, in clubs, and on the Internet. But if we really want to be heard, our conversation must move to the voting booth.
If hip-hop is about being "real," then the harsh reality in the hip-hop community is that when it comes to youth voter participation, we've performed poorly. According to the US Census, 40 million young voters (18-35) represent 25 percent of the voting population. But only half of those young people were registered to vote in 2000. Moreover, young people (18-24) account for the lowest voter turnout in the country (36 percent) while older Americans (age 65-74) participate at twice that rate (72 percent). Participation is even more dismal for African-American and Latino youth.
Looking at the numbers, it's not difficult to realize the potential voting power of the hip-hop generation. There are more than 40 million of us, and when presidential elections are decided by mere hundreds, we could be a solid swing vote. That's why in 2001, Russell Simmons and Dr. Benjamin Chavis co-founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) -- to leverage and empower this modern-day collective. So far, we've registered more than 200,000 young people, but we're aiming for millions. Our goal is eventually to rival the influence of organizations such as the American Association of Retired People.
Hip-Hop Team Vote, launched in 2003, is HSAN's initiative to connect with young voters: It's a national voter registration drive and coordinated grassroots and media campaign designed to organize the hip-hop generation into a political force. The project is based on a simple premise: When their albums drop on any given Tuesday, hip-hop artists mobilize millions of young people to buy their records. The political parallel is obvious. On Nov. 2, these same artists will mobilize their fans and encourage them to move beyond just self-reflection through music and culture and towards self-empowerment through political influence.
To engage my generation, however, will mean more than voter registration. Lack of formal political participation speaks to a fundamental disconnect with the political process. Indeed, cynicism driven by a lack of substantive representation and accountability on the part of elected officials explains part of this disconnect. Poverty, underresourced educational and healthcare systems, as well as racial and cultural profiling within the criminal justice system explain the other part. Put simply, voting can seem like a luxury when you're focused on survival.
The motivation to vote will come from engaging young people about the issues that directly affect their lives and developing a political agenda that speaks to their needs. If HSAN is to harness even a 10th of this generation's billion-dollar consumer power, it must be done by educating young people about how their collective involvement in politics can change policy and, therefore, change their future. Only then will the hip-hop generation become an undeniable political force.
Just like the AARP, our movement is nonpartisan. In the past three years, under the banner "Taking Back Responsibility," HSAN has held Hip-Hop Summits in cities across the country. Artists like Fabolous, Beyonce, Ludacris, and Kanye West attend our summits (not to perform, but to talk). They join industry executives and community activists, providing a forum for young people to express themselves and encouraging them to think about collective empowerment. The price of admission at these otherwise free events is registering to vote or getting a friend or family member to register if age, citizenship status, or felony convictions create ineligibility.
Working in partnership with local organizations on the ground, we've already registered 20,000 young people in Houston; 60,000 in Los Angeles; and 30,000 in Chicago -- this year alone. We'll be in Boston on July 26 to continue our registration drive there.
Ours is just one tributary of a growing hip-hop youth movement. And we believe a direct route to power is in the vote, which can invest young people with a sense of ownership, a sense of agency, and a sense of pride at having achieved significant rates of participation in such a short time. Once we have the vote, our generation cannot be disenfranchised, ignored, or taken for granted. Like true hip-hop, we're priming young people across the nation to collectively "flip the script" and take back responsibility for their future.
L. Alexis McGill is political director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.
© Copyright 2004 The Boston GlobeCompany
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