"Stand Up" for Oscar Grant not the Spectacle

David Banner and East Palo Alto's Hoodstarz team up to pay tribute to the slain Oscar Grant and demand that the Bay Area community stand up. This is particularly important since Officer Mehserle was just released from Santa Rita on bail.

"Stand Up (RIP Oscar Grant)- David Banner & Dem Hoodstarz

I think these sentiments are real and should be heeded, but we also must be smart regarding how we go about standing up. Protests are important to rally people, but spectacle is not enough. I think too many of us have these romanticized images of us being modern day Panthers in the face of gross injustice. The Panthers did rally, most famously to Free Huey, but they also had survival programs which included the Breakfast for School Children Program, Free Health Clinics, Liberation Schools, Community Control of the Police and Street Patrols of Oakland Police.

Watch to the end to see Huey P Newton speaking. He speaks on the party, the police and white people's place in the struggle, something very relevant for the white folks out rallying for Oscar Grant.

If we are so worried about police brutality, why are we not following police around town and monitoring them as the Panthers did. Or filming police activity with video cameras as Tupac used to do? Why are we all big talk down at City Hall but not focusing more energy on helping Oscar Grant's family? Remember that one of the Panther's mottos was "Survival Pending Revolution." We can't forget about the survival part amidst our activist fervor. This is not to bad mouth any one who is down protesting, but more of a challenge for us to act more strategically. We must care more about the cause and the people truly affected by it, than we do the allure of public action.