Yasiin Bey Discusses Police Brutality, America's "Oppressive, Murderous System"

by DANIELLE HARLING

Yasiin Bey says "the power is with us" while addressing police brutality.

Brooklyn, New York rapper Yasiin Bey recently took time to address current events involving the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, during an audio recording posted by Stop Being Famous. While offering his commentary, the lyricist stated that we’re at a critical time and added that this critical moment has provided “an opportunity for necessary change.”

“Where are we? We’re at [a] critical time,” Yasiin Bey said. “We’re at [a] watershed moment for humanity. I imagine we’ve been here before and I imagine that we’ve probably been here for longer than we realize. I think many of us are becoming even more aware of where we are. And the urgency to change this miserable condition on this Earth, as Malcolm X said, is occurring to many of us and reaffirming itself. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It’s an opportunity for necessary change. Positive change. And it’s not necessarily convenient or comfortable. As I’m sure it is with any period of growth.

“I read somewhere that in order for an arrow to fly the bow has to be drawn back with some pressure involved and I think we’re all feeling that pressure," he added. “Some of us are more aware of it than others. Some of us are trying to drown it out. But we all feel it one way or another in indelible ways in these times and days.”

Yasiin then began to read a portion of Max Ehrmann’s 1927 poem, “Desiderata.”

In the second audio recording, Yasiin began his commentary by stating that he was upset and hurt following recent events, and then proceeded to address the power of human beings. He referenced Malcolm X and The Wizard Of Oz while speaking on the power “with us.”

“We have a great deal of power as a people, as human beings,” he said. “To change ourselves and our environments. I think that we’re being tested on that. How much do we believe in our own ability. How much do we believe that we have a right, a duty to defend our quality of life. Our very lives. Do we believe in the system, an oppressive, murderous system, more than we believe in our ability to change it…We’ve been bamboozled, as Malcolm said. We’ve been run amuck. We out here thinking that the wizard of Oz is a giant when the wizard is just a frail, scared figure behind a giant curtain projecting the image of power. And really the power is with us, in us.”