Jasiri X: "Keep Your Check"-- Gangstas Run The World On The Backs Of The Poor

Recently a Democratic strategist told some colleagues in the battle against the 1% that he felt badly about this but that times are tough and he has a family to support and that he might have to take a job working as a consultant for a Republican campaign. And that wasn't from some Inside-the-Beltway whore... it was a trusted progressive. Was.

We met Jasiri X a few weeks ago and listened to his song, "Occupy (We the 99)." A lot of people have been impressed by that powerful, compelling song-- including the students who bring the events to U-Conn. They hired him to play at a "Political Awareness Rally" on November 4. About a week before the event he got an email from the organizer, who, ironically I'd say, he met at Occupy Wall St. The e-mail stressed that "people" were concerned about his expected performance, particularly of "Occupy (We the 99)." This was all the more strange because the whole premise of the booking rested on the notion that institutions of higher learning welcome all types of ideas and that the event was, after all, a rally for political awareness. The organizer-- you know... a liberal type-- told Jasiri he would not-- would not censor him... but if he performed "Occupy (We the 99)," he might not get paid." No censorship there. It reminded me of when I was the one booking the events at my state-funded university in the turbulent mid-1960's-- University of New York, Stony Brook, just over the Long Island Sound from U-Conn. Let me go off on a tangent for a minute and we'll circle back to Jasiri's story right after, OK?

It's 1965 and I'm the freshman class president, just starting to understand the intersection between popular culture and political activism. Julian Bond was one of 8 African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Come January 1966, however, and the Georgia House votes 184-12 not to seat him because he publicly opposed the War against Vietnam. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House was depriving him of his freedom of speech and that they must seat him. They did and I booked him-- I was Chairman of the Student Activities Board by then-- to give a lecture at Stony Brook. Mrs. Couey, my lovely, batty old faculty advisor told me I couldn't present such an unbalanced program at a tax-funded university. I asked her if she wanted me to book the head of the KKK to balance it. "Now, Howie, you're so funny. You do the right thing." So I booked Senator Strom Thurmond as a speaker for the same evening. Balance!

A week before the event I called Thurmond's office and explained that we're a state university and the budget is tight and that I couldn't pay him the $5,000 I had offered and could he do it for $2,500. They said OK. I then called Bond and explained there was a change in plans and we would have to give him $7,500 instead of the agreed upon $5,000. I felt I needed to do more.

Strom & Julian Bond- balanced

The day of the event I picked Julian Bond up at the airport in a fancy rented car and took him to the most exclusive restaurant in Suffolk County. We had an amazing dinner and when we were leaving we were approached in the parking lot by two waiters who said that although almost all the waiters were African Americans this was the first time (1966 I think) an African American had ever eaten there. They both had tears in their eyes.

Earlier I had asked my hospitality committee chairman to walk over to the Long Island Railroad Station and meet Thurmond. I gave him $10 and asked him to take the Senator to a beer and pizza joint down the road from the campus for dinner. I knew Stephen would be very polite and charming to him-- it's in his nature. He was the most flamboyantly gay person I knew at the time.

Julian Bond spoke and the audience gave him a standing ovation. Then Senator Thurmond took the stage and the entire audience-- as one and with no prompting-- got up and walked out of the gym. Ms. Couey and Stephen, forever the most courteous and proper guy I had ever run across, stayed to hear Thurmond. No one ever told me what he talked about.

Last week Jasiri received another e-mail, from U-Conn, this one from the comptroller of the Undergraduate Student Government saying specifically he could not perform “Occupy (We the 99).”

Below is a video of the event. Before you watch it, though, here's what Jasiri told me about how he saw what this was all about:

I initially agreed to perform only a set of songs the University of Connecticut deemed “not political” because the event had already been advertised around campus and didn’t want to disappoint my fans by not showing up. I also didn’t want to let down the organizers who did a lot of hard work in putting the event together. But when I arrived at the University of Connecticut I had a change of heart. As I looked around the crowd I began to think of all the people around the world occupying for a better tomorrow, being arrested and brutalized by police, sleeping in the cold and rain, sacrificing comfort for freedom. I knew at that moment I had to perform the song, “Occupy (We the 99)” as well as other “political” songs like "Real Gangstas" (about the Wall St. bankers) [the video up top], even if it meant I would not get paid. At some point in this movement all of us are going to have to make sacrifices, if we truly want to see real change. The 1% control the 99% with promises of money, access, and comfort; we have to put our own souls above all three."

My life had just come full-circle! "You don't have enough money to tell me when I get behind a microphone what I can and cannot say-- especially in the hour when people need to hear this type of music.