I chose these quotes because I felt that they either spoke a truth, provided an important perspective, or resonated with me personally. Growing up in the south Bronx I was raised on Hip Hop and so a lot of these readings felt personally relevant and made me reflect on how I have been influenced by the culture. This class has made it that much more apparent to me that as a larger community we aren’t truly having discussions about holding each other accountable for perpetuating systems that oppress us. One quote that stood out to me was from Hip Hop Feminist, “I wanted a feminism that would allow me to explore who we are as women–not victims. One that claimed the powerful richness and delicious complexities inherent in black girls now–sistas of the post–Civil Rights, post-feminist, post-soul, hip-hop generation.” This quote stood out to me because for so long, in the back of my mind during feminist discussions, I felt what this quote articulates. Too often I’ve been in conversations that were so focused on what’s been done to us that we forget to focus on our power and strength. We allow ourselves to be defined by hardships instead of focusing on how we can help each other flourish. This quote connects to one from Hip Hop Is not Responsible for Sexism in which our lack of dialogue around toxic masculinity isn’t happening on a large scale. We need more education and awareness from a young age because many of us look up to figures in Hip Hop while they continue to include hateful messages in their content. The media we consume has a larger impact on us than we tend to realize and it ends up informing our views about the world so we should want to strive towards acceptance and respect for each other.  

My last three quotes are more specifically about the interactions between Hip Hop and the LGBT community. This matters to me particularly as a member of the LGBT community because it baffles me that to this day homophobia and transphobia are still such large issues. While the companies and labels that work with artists obviously push a certain agenda, the artists don’t have any problems going along with them. The quote from Oprah about her relationship with her close friend stuck out to me because of how succinctly she addressed the issue. We cannot be comfortable with homosocial interaction unless we sexualize it or create some ritual or circumstance that makes it acceptable. Unfortunately, so much of what we are surrounded by comes from a white/colonized perspective, but because we aren’t taught this we’re unknowingly reproducing the views of our oppressors. The bigger picture that so many of us seem to be missing is that we’re stronger together and being misogynistic or homophobic isn’t productive and does nothing to uplift our communities; these mindsets only hold us back and keep us stuck. Hip Hop began as a way to express yourself and transform your struggles into art, an escape. But you can’t escape or evolve if you’re stuck in a detrimental mindset. We must hold each other accountable while understanding that things aren’t black and white, there is no one solution or way to do things.