Even if it’s old news, it’s probably new news especially if it’s been purposely hidden from the people as an agenda to continue to keep the people miseducated. This little known Sundance film entry “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” is a powerful treasure trove of footage collected by Swedish Television journalists. They packed it all into a thought-provoking documentary starring voiceovers from: Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Questlove, over footage of Louis Farrakhan, Lewis H. Micheaux, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, Dr. King, Malcolm X. And the people of Harlem who share their perspectives as addicts, prostitutes, and freedom fighters.
Top three reasons why you must see ‘The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975’:
Best Rap Line Ever By A Non-Rapper Writer and Harlem bookstore owner, Lewis H. Micheaux, not only gives you the best description of Malcom X, “The smartest uneducated man.” but, he also shares a story of when he schooled a group of boys who were chanting “Black Power.” Micheaux chanted back, “Black is beautiful but black isn’t power. Knowledge is power. For you can be black as a crow, you can be as white as snow. And if you don’t know and ain’t got no dough then you can’t go. And that is for sure.”
FBI Don’t Want An Intelligent Hip-Hop Rapper Talib Kweli reveals while researching and finding inspiration for his album “Gutter Rainbows” he had been studying civil rights leader, Stokely Carmichael. When he arrived at the airport, Kweli was met by FBI and escorted away for an interview. The rapper reveals in the doc why the FBI doesn’t want the underprivileged or those that can influence to know about Carmichael’s teachings.
Hearing Black Teens Say There’s No Future The year 1968 was a time of great tragedy and some triumphs. But overall, there was an overwhelming sense of impending gloom for the future of Blacks in America because every significant civil rights leader was assassinated that year. A male Black teenager said, “There ain’t no future. They killed Kennedy. They killed King. They killed Evers. They’re killing all the people that do something for the Black man…..It seems like it’s a conspiracy.”
As a critic I would say the worst thing about this documentary is that it doesn’t offer solutions and that it paints a bleak future. And it’s sad that Whites are still in control of our images and film media because we continue to let our stories be told by them. Hearing Angela Davis speak back then of how the fight will never be over until we get the basic freedoms as those of privilege. We’re now in 2012 and things haven’t changed. Davis has been silenced and is nothing more than a caricature of Black power. Her pupil, John Forte was incarcerated and where is he now? So the racism continues. The inequality continues. And people are less involved but claim activism by wearing an Angela Davis or Che Guevara t-shirt. The little civil rights that was won wasn’t won by wearing a self-serving tee — it was won by being heavily involved in the political arena.
For more info or to cop a DVD: ‘The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975’
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