Don, stop talking...
DON LEMON: I think he would do the same thing with the black cultural influences of today. And who do you think that is?
TOM JOYNER: Tell me.
DON LEMON: Any idea? That's our young artists like Jay-Z. Like Kanye West.
TOM JOYNER: Good point.
DON LEMON: Like Pharrell, like Frank Ocean. Why am I so sure about that? I want you to ask yourself the last time you heard a young person walking around singing a church hymn?
Because just yesterday, just yesterday, I'm walking on St. Nicholas Avenue, two separate young men were singing a French Montana rap song: N- Ain't worried about nothing. You know that song? N- Ain't worried about nothing, right? They actually say the word. They're walking with their headphones on, their screaming on St. Nicholas Avenue.
So that's why in my work as a journalist, I constantly challenge and urge the rap, Hip-Hop and music powerbrokers to step on to the stage of positive influence and into the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream, because whether they realize it or not they are the new breed, they are the new Black leaders. They are the influences of our time. And I don't mean that I challenge them in a negative way. I mean that in the best possible way, that their names can too be one day be worthy of boulevards, and avenues and streets.
Yep, you Waka Flocka, Gucci Mane, you TI, Luda can be the next Harry Belafonte of the struggle. Beyoncé, Rihanna, you can be the next Lena Horne or Mahalia Jackson; of course, in your own way.
Jamie Foxx, you guys saw Jamie Foxx at the March on Washington last week. He got it right. You guys are the guys who replaced all heads. You are the relevant ones right now. And you know why? Because unlike some of the Black leaders who get so much criticism today, your livelihood as artists don't depend on keeping people thinking the same way they did half a century ago.
Your art signifies that one of the great minds of our times were Christopher Hitchens said, "One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority." The Bible even says "test everything, hold on to God." Thomas Jefferson said, "question with boldness even the existence of a god." Buddha said, "Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders."
We must question everything including our leaders and especially ourselves. So here's my challenge for you today on my first day here, even if it's just for today, to question what you think you know. To take the exact opposite position that you would normally take in a conversation or discussion even if it's about race, whatever it is. And see where that leads you. Become curious today instead of judgmental. And in the process you might just change your mind.
http://www.chicagodefender.com/index...aders-stand-up
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