The melting pot’s already injecting ‘em with the rules,ĭaughters gotta be barbies to get in with the cool,įellas wanna be like fathers that they never knew, God forbid our kids go to school to learn from fools,

One artist that I turn to is Ojibwe rapper Tall Paul and his track titled “Protect Ya Spirit.” So, how can I convey this idea in a General Education course on hip-hop where many of the students have little knowledge about Indigenous peoples? As Coulthard points out, “the politics of recognition in its contemporary liberal form promises to reproduce the very configurations of colonialist, racist, patriarchal state power that Indigenous peoples’ demands for recognition have historically sought to transcend” ( p.

Not only are Native artists producing hip hop culture but, utilizing Glen Coulthard’s idea of rejecting the “politics of recognition”, it is not enough to suggest to my students and recognize that Native rappers exist. Thus, when I discuss Native hip-hop in my course, I have many students who are often surprised to learn that not only do Native peoples exist but they can rap, break, scratch, and write graffiti. In fact, when it became national news last year that on my campus a group of Greek organizations held a party themed “Colonial Bros and Nava-hoes,” many of the students who participated continue to assert that nothing was wrong with this party or this act of redface. Instead, the assignment romanticizes and celebrates these missions within California’s history to the point that, when these fourth graders become young adults and enter into their college curriculum, many of them have vested interests and ideas in neocolonialism and anti-Indigenous racism. This project does not implement a critical lens on the colonial and genocidal project of the mission system, nor does it offer these students accounts of Indigenous resistance to this violent and abusive system. This means that they have all conducted a “mission project” in the fourth grade during their elementary school education. Since the university I teach for is located in California, I have many students who were raised in the public education system of this state. For the past three years, I have taught a course in my department titled “Ethnic Studies 310: Hip-Hop, Politics and Poetics.” This class, a favorite of mine to teach, always generates interesting responses when we discuss Native hip-hop.

Imperialism 2 paul the tall