Hyphy Go-Dumbers, Dangerous Music Byeatches, Saturday Morning Hofbrau Record Shoppers, Calvin Simmons Graduates, Folks Who Got Lucky in the Paramont Theater, Hill Dwellers, Flatlanders, Jingletowners, Eastmont Tape Slangers, Myrtle Ave. Strollers, People Who Still Call it "Oakland Coliseum", Those Who Brave Sunday Morning for Taqueria San Jose's Huevos Rancheros:My dear friend Kristy, third generation Oakland brownie, wrote an essay on the neighborhoods of East and West Oakland/critique of my
"Operation Snatchback" (a remix of The Coup's "Takin' These") that looks so close at those things that make Oakland beautiful that they appear ugly--the price one pays for being intimate with anything.[As an aside, I wanted to post this article here because Kristy was my focal point during our heatrock campaign (she even registered and bought a few things!), and, further, I won The Coup's
Genocide & Juice LP from DocBreezy (Rest In RealWorldedness). It was during this time--heatrockedness and slightly post-heatrockedness--that I was working on the Snatchback (after winning Deepstank's "Impeach the President" 45 I changed the break in my remix 'cause that shit, well, just fit), so I've got some emotional entanglements with
this place and
that place.]If you've ever
listened to Too $hort, substituted at a bankrupt Oakland school and had a student tell you that you were gonna have to "suck [his] big brother dick" for failing him, been robbed "just stepping out to get ice" at a party in the hills (when you thought it would be safe just ducking into a liquor store on East 73rd), wanted to see behind the behind-the-scenes footage of the
Making of "Tell Me When To Go" video, then you should read this:
"Revolutions and Revelations: Oakland"[/b]
"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."--James Baldwin"For all the bitches and the brothers in the Oak-town/ Pumpin' the dope sound, shit I'm on a roll now..."--Ant Banks"There is no there there."--Gertrude Stein "Now the originality of our principality is that we don't play the pimpBut the reality of our locality (and you'll learn this gradually)is that motherfuckas do this shit to pay they rent." --Boots RileyHow We Gonna Get It Straight When We Bent?[/b]
Bambouche
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Comments
I heartily endorse this article, as well as this post, which is in many ways a return to the before time in the Announcements section.
dCastilliotic, you out there?
i actually read the whole essay and i appreciate that there are accompanying photos but i find it shortsighted.
the ulililililila site got me thinking we should bring those days of the announcements back. mind game thread.
I'd be interested in hearing why you think it's shortsighted.
* * *
When I'd spend my pre-teen weekends with pops, he'd take me on errands that included going to the (then operational) Cypress Steel building, and its surroundings, to bend, cut, fire or otherwise alter large sheets of iron. I only remember this because the routine was always the same, he tell me to "get in the truck," while he went in the house. He'd come out tucking a handgun into his pants (acting as if he were hiding it from me while purposely making sure I saw it happen). He'd get in the truck and always have something, well, colorful to say about the inhabitants of that particular West Oakland neighborhood who were not involved in twisting steel.
This, during the closing of Oakland's Black Panther era, was my first exposure to the issues of race and class facing the city. Listening to my dad and his steel buddies joke about killing "them". It left me unsettled, to say the least, and still, to this day, gives me an upset stomach to consider the shameful way in which I came to view my neighbors. The realization, and exorcise, of that mindset was/is a daily (and most likely, lifelong) endeavor.
My feelings about Oakland, considering its place in my upbringing, are so ugly they're beautiful.
All that is to say, my view of the essay, it's fractured and slightly clunky trek, mirrors my experience with the city. It's multifarious and sometimes too ugly to deal with. Reading it made me feel similar to living there--slightly frustrated and hopeless, which is part of the reason why I left.
I think that's, perhaps, the same thing Ant Banks was getting at (in Parlayin'), regarding leaving Oakland for Atlanta, when he said:
"And I'll be damned if I leave my ghetto pass
Fuck ridin through the town with the pedal smashed."
* * *
I'd be interested in hearing why you think it's shortsighted.
---------------LIKE CRABS IN A BUCKET TRYIN' TO HOLD ME BACK---------------[/b]
I am not accusing the author of leaning this way or that way. However, I get the impression that her angle was to put forward an all inclusive call to arms for revolution. And that she uses her past and her present in Oakland to do so. The past, as stated, was solid. but I felt that she fell very short of understanding the current state of Oakland. I mean, im not an expert on Oakland, but I too worked in Oakland public schools in west, north, east and deep east Oakland. and by reading her article, it would almost seem as though Oakland is still predominantly black. Which it is not. I understand that the 60s/70s were an extremely important time in the history of not only Oakland, but African Americans nationally. However, to exclude the histories of other groups affected by poverty and institutional racism does nothing for furthering an all inclusive call to arms. i mean, I really don???t know what to think of this disparity. On the one hand I find it irresponsible. But I have a feeling that perhaps some of this can be blamed on lack of data and/or familiarity with these more insular groups. But what Oakland dweller doesn???t know the phrase ???mien pride???? id like to know about that. The SE asian immigration boom of the late 70s early 80s. the chicano population of the fruitvale district. The recent eastern European [Bosnian, serb, etc.] immigration. This is the present state of Oakland, yet there was no mention of these other groups. All that is said is that Oakland is ???diverse???. However, the more sublime message almost counters the ???diverse??? statement. Im not accusing her of being exclusive. But I am saying that the essay was most definitely exclusive under the pretense that it is inclusive. That is my issue.
Oh, and international blvd. I mean, im not from Oakland so I don???t know what west Oakland looked like bitd. But she mentions the mom and pop run joints in wso and talks about them as if theyre gone. As if big business has run them out. Im not sure, but it was kinda implied. And this may be true. Yet if you take a trip down e14th, youll see all the mom and pop joints you can handle. And in the grander scope of the nation, Oakland is actually not that bad as far as franchised cities go. I mean, there???s still no mall, there aren???t these giant minimegamalls ala Emeryville ikea or that one huge joint on Flatbush. Sure there are taco bells and church???s, but I just went to Monrovia, (coincidentally another historically African American community), and Monrovia is basically one giant patina group minimegamall. Oakland has managed to maintain a bit of its personality. Ok, im done rambling. Sorry if I offended you, great site, you guys do great stuff, and I really did like the pics.
Ps
I love Oakland
Pss
I miss oakland
I am here, bustin outta the grotto.
panning for resources on how to construct a mountain...