Quoted: Dream Hampton on occupation, democracy, and divestment

The following is from an interview '90s era hip-hop journalist Dream Hampton did with a site called The Starting Five. So, far, I've only had time to skim it (gotta feed the monkey), but it looks like there's a shedload of knowledge being dropped. Along with a lot of names. Ha!

Mizzo: History of course is written by the victors.

Dream: We sit around and have these ridiculous conversations about whether Spanish should be spoken in a state whose name is Spanish. California is a Spanish word. Texas is a Spanish word. Arizona is a Spanish word. These lands were so called won by Roosevelt in the Spanish American War. We can accept as a fact of occupying land. All people don’t, but this happens in the world and in history…I understand that.

What’s happening in Gaza in terms of starving women and children…killing women and children. Since the Korean War, there have been more women and children victims than men. We’re the the ones who suffer because of war.

Israel has been behaving like thugs for so so long and they do it with money that America gives them.

It’s really important that we divest.

South Africa is free…finally. Their people never stopped resisting. Their people were also too, resisting with rocks.

What finally ended up breaking down the Apartheid regime in South Africa was a divestment. An international divestment economically.

It’s difficult in America to look at Palestine. People won’t even allow you to call it Palestine. They call it Israel and the Palestinians.

As Edward Said wrote…his grandmother went to the post office to send something to Palestine and the person working said there is no such place. So, we don’t even have language in America. When we do we are bullied.

Whenever we talk about Israel, we are bullied by accusations of antisemitism…as if Arabs weren’t Semites.

Palestine is in a precarious position of being an anomaly in the Arab world as more and more Arab countries are moving more and more towards Shia. Israel claims to be the only Democracy in the region but hello…Palestine is a Democracy. They vote. Women don’t veil there–not that that makes you a Democracy.

The American definition of Democracy is a joke. America with its broken ass voting system. Their definition of Democracy…what they use as a watermark to determine whether or not a place is so called Democratic is its voting system. Palestinians elected Hamas just like dumb ass Americans elected Bush. I wish I could have went and did a land invasion of Florida or bombed Ohio off the map after they elected Bush, but that’s not how it works.

They did the same thing in Lebanon. They didn’t like Hezbollah. They didn’t like the people who the people of Lebanon put into power…

Whatever, I can’t even go on about Israel…

The most important action we can take is to not be afraid to talk about it because we can’t even talk about it or have sane logical conversations about Israel because of again antisemitism charges and also because of how super organized they tend to be. If you care about human lives then divest in any way that you can. Stop shopping at Starbucks. Stop shopping at Toys-R-Us. Stop shopping at Dunkin’ Donuts. Stop buying Häagen-Dazs.

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Checkit: D Original: Interview With Dream Hampton [The Starting Five]

Previously: Quoted: Kosha Dillz on why hip-hop should be pro-Israel