kontextmaschine

As a reminder, the playing out of the last racial civil rights movement did in fact result in police-enforced government hegemony in black communities giving way to the reign of structures organically emerging from the communities themselves! This was the crack gang war era, and it was largely not considered a triumph!

kontextmaschine

It’s worth pointing out here with the benefit of hindsight that the “gangsta rap” 90s did not represent a mainstreaming of this phenomenon but rather a downslope, “divert energy into competitive poetry and bold fashion” is actually a pretty well-precedented way of demobilizing armed bands.