Hip-Hop Activism: Will They Come to Vote?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18800



----------snip----------
The political doomsday possibility of a second Bush term has awakened many who may have been asleep at the wheel, or just disconnected from politics. This is especially true of hundreds of thousands of alienated or apolitical young people who are now open to being organized. Major efforts are underway to reach out to these young voters – both at the grand scale of huge arena Hip Hop concerts and at the grassroots where the method is more hands on.


...
Dire political circumstances have inspired many groups who have been traditionally content to remain outside the political arena. These groups are taking any number of non-traditional approaches to engaging potential new voters. Voting information tables and registration efforts are showing up in the most unlikely places – from malls to beauty salons, where, for example, one organization is attempting to reach unmarried women by distributing "Beauty Kits" that include voter registration material to nail and beauty salons.


Nowhere is this new and innovative electoral energy more apparent than in the hip hop community. Here the emergence of an election-oriented, politically sophisticated effort to register and mobilize thousands of younger voters and build a political power base is one of the most promising developments of the election season.

...


James Bernard, one of the convention's organizers, a founder of the hip hop magazine The Source and founding editor of XXL, says, "Newark is a coming-out party for a whole new generation of activists. We're about organizing a progressive movement for our generation of black, Latino, Asian and white hip hoppers. We need muscle at the polling booth and a presence in the street." He calls the convention "the kickoff of an intense campaign to register and mobilize tens of thousands of young people between now and election day."

Each of us should find five people we've registered and carpool with them to vote on election day. That's really the only way to be sure.