it's okay not to dance

watching black power mixtape and my roommate walks in and says "Angela Davis? wasn't she on that mtv show?..." no man, she wasn't. i remember reading live from death row in homeroom and buying 'let's get free' after 8th period c++ programming class... knowing at an early age who Angela Davis was. i'm trying to think why my roommate doesn't know. i guess he's never had to know. he never experienced oppression or racism directed in his direction. not that i have experienced it to the capacity people with darker skin have... or the way my dad has growing up (being called wetback, spic, and various other racial slurs... his family growing up in the "camp" because Mexicans weren't allowed to buy houses in white neighborhoods), but i know to an extent. when a tsa agent tells you to step aside after returning to the country (i wasn't even getting on a plane - i was getting off the plane!) and another agent takes you to a side room full of people who, from first glance, look Middle Eastern, takes your passport, and begins to ask you question after question about motives for leaving the country, i think it changes your view of how racism is imprinted in the infrastructure of our society. honestly, i think it had a lot to do with my name over the way i look... though the flight attendant asked if i needed translator... so i don't know.
so i'm going to post two albums. both represent the same struggle, but at different times



max roach - we insist! freedom now suite



dead prez - let's get free