In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, the Black Student Union brought Public Enemy rap legend, producer, orator and author, Chuck D to the SFCC campus to give a speech.  One would expect a talk on race and segregation, the history of Dr. King, the struggle of African Americans to gain equality; instead Chuck D chose to take a more holistic approach and speak on the importance of education, seeking higher knowledge, following passions via art and research, but most importantly, establishing one’s voice.

“Chuck D didn’t narrow his speech by making it just about race.  It resonated on a more global level so that everyone in the room from students to faculty, visiting guests, artists, musicians, could relate on a personal level to what he was saying,” explained Carl Richardson, advisor of the Black Student Union. Richardson, also an art teacher and advisor to the art club at SFCC, emphasized the importance that Chuck D brought a message to the mass of people about finding one’s voice.  Art and music, seeking higher education, all of this is difficult and one must be proud of the struggles and sacrifices that come along with voicing truth, being a student.

During the early days of hip-hop, “hooptie” was a term most often used to describe a form of transportation that barely worked; a bike with no brakes, a car that would barely turn over and had a cracked up windshield; a hooptie was anything “ghetto” used for a means of transportation. Chuck D stated,” How are you gonna spend so much money on an education and graduate with a hooptie GPA?”. Richardson truly agreed with this statement and said it’s important to recognize that going to school and getting an education is a struggle; one shouldn’t be ashamed of being intelligent even if you had to eat only peanut butter to make ends meet.

Steven Witham, an older student at SFCC, grew up listening to music that “went against the grain” and considers Public Enemy to be the punk music of Hip-Hop. Witham, being a musician himself, was encouraged and inspired by Chuck D’s speech and said it was nice to hear someone of his generation talking about how important it is to not lose sight of the significance of getting a good education, how everyone, especially today’s youth need to, “be wary of the weapons of mass distraction(iPhones, Facebook, corporate media).” Chuck D said that these, “weapons of mass distraction are leading to the dumbassification of America.” Another reason, according to Witham, to not add to the “hooptie GPA” pool.

“It’s our responsibility to use arts, music, education to talk about some real shit”, Zac Fawcett said, local musician from the band Real Life Rockaz.  Fawcett, although not a student at SFCC came to see Chuck D speak because he is, “a student of music, a student of life and knew about Public Enemy and Chuck D and was thinking the speech would be geared towards music and industry.” Fawcett was pleasantly surprised that it was all that and more.  Chuck D reinforced the fact that as an artist, musician, and student, it is a struggle, a sacrifice, but it is important to “continue to lend my voice and keep music, arts and education about expression rather than the fluff that the ‘corplantation’ is presenting to the world through pop culture.  Chuck D did a beautiful job in expressing that our voice is the essence of this world and that democracy requires us to dissent, just as Martin Luther King Jr. did in his day in order to fight the struggle of inequality, not just in race but in every situation of cultural dilution.”

Chuck D brought a message of hope, a message of voice. He stated how important it is as a student, musician, artist, passionate being, to continue to use your voice in “ the fight of intellectualism vs. antillectualism”. His speech gave students, faculty and visiting guests inspiration and perspective into our responsibilities as educated individuals. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.