Ripple Effect Concert

What: Ripple Effect Concert
Where: Lawn of Capitol St. Paul, MN
When: September 2, 2008

I am glad that I attended the RNC event with our class on September 2nd because I’ve never been to anything like that before and the experience that I got out of it was just thrilling. For some reason, I expected there to be more people and less police guards, except it was quite the opposite. Although there was a good amount of people at the concert, what got my attention, and kept me cautious and alert throughout the evening was not the different crowds of people or the anarchist, but the riot police and the snipers. There were so many of them, they were intimidating. They stood around the lawn with dark shades, arms crossed, protective gear, and guns. Ironically, the supposed to be “safe space” ended up being very unsafe for me, at least.

Aside from the whole “riot police” experience, I had a great time listening to Davy D and Rosa Clemente talk about their political views and their experience in the Hip Hop industry. Davy D, who is a Hip Hop historian, journalist, and community activist, talked about how our news coverage is saturated and misrepresented through the media. He provided us with some “behind the scene” with radio stations and the role that power and money play in how music is disperse. Everything is done in a very systematic and hierarchical way, in which only the most powerful and the richest have the right to decide what’s going to be broadcasted on radios and televisions. He then went on to talk about how the media (which are run by heterosexual elite white men) can easily alter our perceptions because of misrepresentations.

Rosa Clemente, on the other hand, is just phenomenon. I am so impressed with her accomplishment and her courage to be Vice President for the Green Party, running alongside Cynthia Mckinney, who is also a woman of color. Rosa’s talk was eye-opening, especially when she talked about her experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and having been the only journalist of color there to document what could have easily been covered up by our homogenous media. Rosa makes it clear that her campaign is about the poor people, many of whom are unable to speak for themselves. I was impressed with her passion and her eagerness to grow the Green Party. With the presidential election coming up, we’ve seen a lot of interesting things happening. First, there’s Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, one of the first woman and African American to be running for a presidential seat. Then, we have Rosa Clemente and Cynthia McKinney running for the Green Party. Now, we have Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate for the Republican Party. There’s no doubt that this year is the year of “Change” as Obama’s campaign slogan says. Despite the media’s negative representation of women, Rosa and Cynthia (as well as Hillary and Sarah) have already shown us that women are just as capable as men to run for political positions.

As a result, after hearing Davy D and Rosa Clemente talk, I felt hopeful about the future. I’m proud that there are intelligent and courageous people of color like Davy D and Rosa Clemente who have stood up to do something that they’re passionate about –that being, speaking for those who can’t speak and fighting for justice and equality. In addition, this class has made me so much more aware of media representation and the effects that it has on our perceptions.