Common Dis-Invited as Commencement Speaker After Ugly Pig Outcry
April 1, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Monday, March 31, Kean University in New Jersey announced that hip hop artist Common, who recently won Grammy and Academy awards for the song “Glory” from the movie Selma, would address the school’s commencement ceremony this year.
But the president of the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association immediately raised an ugly outcry, saying the university's decision was a "slap in the face." He pointed to a song Common wrote 15 years ago about Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther now exiled in Cuba. The very next day Kean University withdrew the invitation to Common.
In his 2000 album Like Water for Chocolate, Common dedicated a song to Shakur (formerly Joanne Chesimard), who was accused of shooting and killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979, sought political asylum in Cuba and has lived there ever since.
“A Song for Assata” retells what happened to Shakur that night in 1973 when she, along with two others, were ambushed by the state police on the New Jersey turnpike:
There were lights and sirens, gunshots firing
Cover your eyes as I describe a scene so violent
Seemed like a bad dream, she laid in a blood puddle
Blood bubbled in her chest, cold air brushed against open flesh
No room to rest, pain consumed each breath
Shot twice wit her hands up
Police questioned but shot before she answered
One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his
Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her…
Kean University's dis-invitation of Common is shameful and outrageous—pandering to the police and other law enforcement that are STILL brutalizing and murdering the people every single day.
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.