The new global and urban order: legacies for the “Hip-Hop Generation”

Abstract

This paper discusses the historical conditions confronting young Black political activists at the end of the 20th century. It argues that globalization, racism, and the suppression of progressive/radical social movements have left urban Black communities socially stigmatized, and economically isolated. These factors also have helped mold a contemporary political climate in Black America. This climate, the paper argues, is characterized in part by conservative nationalist thought, liberal electoralism and negotiation, and what some may term rampant “lumpenism.” The current political environment has shaped ideological and cultural trends among Black youth, with potentially debilitating effects. Nevertheless, activists of the so-called “Hip-Hop Generation” are rising to the challenges of the new millennium.