The morning of April 25, 2008 was one that should have awakened the senses of America – in particular the products of Hip Hop culture. The similarities of this day and April 29th 1992 should draw instant comparisons - if it wasn’t for our lack of memory. Back in 1992, the acquittal of four police officers who were caught on video beating down Rodney King incited a community into acts of rage and violence. The cops were caught red handed and the evidence seemed to make this an open and shut case. But once our wonderful judicial system inserted their influence, those four boys in blue walked away. The aftermath would go down in infamy as one of the most disturbing scenes in recent memory. Although I don’t condone violence, I understand the civil unrest and ire birthed from this.

Fast forward nearly sixteen years to the day. This time, three officers (out of five involved) were acquitted of all charges after firing 50 shots at Sean Bell as he left a strip club a day before his wedding back on November 26th 2006. The cops thought he had a gun, which somehow justifies 50 shots being fired at one person. One cop fired 31 shots himself - which takes 12.3 seconds and 1 reload to get the job done. It takes one bullet to incapacitate a man. 50 bullets would be easily described as overkill – no matter how “in the wrong” an individual is. Did I mention that Bell was unarmed and approached by plain clothes officers? Two of which were black but I digress…

Surely, upon hearing that these three cops were “not guilty” the community would be outraged. Not to say they weren’t, but this pales in comparison to the scene back in 1992. Rodney King got beatdown, Sean Bell got murdered. “Who’s going to speak on our behalf,” I questioned as I scanned the news to find one black face. And there he is…

Barack Hussein Obama Jr

As I stare at my television, I wait for Obama to say something profound about the Sean Bell case while he is in the midst of delivering yet another round of gas/war/food rhetoric to the public. Someone finally asks about the Sean Bell case. You know what that is kids?

Catch 22: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

I’ll explain later.

Obama stammers a bit before being as vague as humanly possible in regards to how he feels when cops who shower an unarmed man with 50 bullets are acquitted of all charges. He basically sums it up to “taking precautionary measures to ensure these things don’t happen again,” followed by something to the effect that we must “respect that judgment and not react.” What the hell does that mean?

See, I’m not questioning Barack Obama’s blackness. I’m not likening him to any black man who cares more about the mighty dollar than our community. I’m questioning what Barack Obama can and can’t actually do in the oval office. He's a politician and has to play the game of a politician. When situations like this arise, I would love to see Obama with eyes of fire. I would love to see him make a joke out of our flawed judicial system. I would be elated to see him articulate the black struggle to the American people in a manner that is not as threatening as it is educational. I would love to see a black man who genuinely is hurt by how society treats minorities, stand up on national television and in so many words say “fuck that shit! That shit ain’t right!” (devoid of the curse words but filled with the same passion of course).

Obama can’t and will never ever be able to do that as president of this country. But I will still vote for him with the understanding that his contributions during his first four years are more inspirational to minorities than tangible.

So, what can’t Obama do for me? Well, he can’t do anything about the Sean Bell case. There are a number of factors that go into this case that prove today’s America to be desensitized and constantly conditioned by media.

For one, how many individuals know who Sean Bell was - prior to Friday's ruling of course? If you didn’t, I’m not upset as much as I am disappointed with our culture and the media outlets that project it. If it isn’t in a rap song, you don’t know about it. The news will give it maybe 2 minutes of its precious time before moving on to Miley Cirus’ “too hot for TV” pictures or the latest American Idol reject. And although we have the power of the internet at our fingertips, most of us don’t spend our days looking to see what’s happening in our community. Rather, we mill around to find out what Jennifer Lopez’ babies look like or what Lil Wayne said about sizzurp.

Even outlets like HipHopDX aren’t devoid of the blame, but we still try to give you news on Jena 6, the political campaign and Sean Bell. The fact is: nobody is reading it. We have been desensitized to care about what goes on in our society outside of what celebrity is dating who and if the new Game track leaked to the net.

Which brings me back to Barack Obama.

This particular election isn’t about who you want to become president, it’s about who you don’t want to become president. I’ve argued with many people how I don’t think Obama will make that much of a difference, he has to play the game the way it was meant to be played. I obviously don’t want to see Clinton or McCain in office but I really don’t think Obama can make that much of a difference on our community. Continued on page 2 »