Common’s ‘Letter to the Free’

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper and actor. He wrote ‘Letter to the Free’ in 2016.

• His debut album was ‘Can I Borrow a Dollar?’ (1992).

• Common won his first Grammy award in 2003 for ‘Best RnB Song’ for the single ‘Love of my Life’.

• He co-wrote the song ‘Glory’ for the 2014 film ‘Selma’. He starred in the movie and won the Academy award for best original song.

Lyrics

Lyrics from ‘Letter to the Free’

“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings”

• The idea that black people living in America are often considered ‘lesser’ to those in political power and even civilians who support the right wing, hegemonic views.

“Black bodies being lost in the American dream”

“Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13“

The 13th Amendment  

Politically, the 13th Amendment states that …

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

• The 2016 Netflix original documentary film ’13th’, directed by Ava DuVernay explores how slavery and racism is still present in the prisons of America even though it was seemingly abolished in 1865.

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest

Key idea = The political, personal and cultural are always intertwined.

Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Antonio Gramsci talked about Hegemony and Hegemonic culture, the way in which the dominant ideologies are in power.

Sub cultural theories – Subcultures offered young working class people a solution to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.

Postcolonialism

Looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism under the shadow of Slavery. It is a way of critically looking at culture.

Edward Said

He said that ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’. The way in which literature, music, art etc. frames the Western countries as the dominant culture and Eastern countries inferior. He has the idea that culture was created by white Europeans to give themselves a privileged position. He wrote a book called ‘Orientalism’ in 1978.

Orientalism = The stereotyping of the east. The assertion of western power over the east.  a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African society.

Jacques Lacan “the other”

• Lacan was a French Philosopher. He came up with the ideology that we never really know who we truly are, our identity is impossible to fully see ourselves.
• His ideas stem from the way in which children first see themselves in a mirror and make a connection that it is themselves in reflection.
• We are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.
• Linking to postcolonialism, this would be to suggest that the West uses the ‘Other’ (East), to identify and construct itself.