Testing the Waters

On Friday January 27, a week into his Presidency, Donald Trump made good on his dreaded campaign policy of implementing an executive order banning Muslims from entering the United States. After initial pushback on the campaign trail, Trump and his advisers worked on reformulating the framing of the ban from being perceived as religiously discriminatory as Rudy Giuliani revealed on Fox News. This meant that they would retreat from calling it a Muslim ban and claim that they were only going after travelers from countries that posed a grave threat to the United States. Despite claiming to target those from high risk areas, Trump’s travel ban does not include any countries whose nationals have killed Americans since September 11, 2001. It is also worth noting that none of the countries in which the President and his family have business interests in are included in travel ban, even though people with origins in some of those countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have perpetrated terror attacks within the United States. The countries that have been put on the list include Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, all of which have not been tied to a terrorist attack inside the United States in more than 2 decades. The executive order applies to all refugees from the aforementioned countries as well as those that are returning to the United States from abroad on student visas, work visas as well as those who have acquired permanent residency in the United States. This has proved to be devastating for many students and professionals who were visiting family and friends abroad as they can no longer return back to their lives in this country despite having done nothing wrong.

A positive sign that has arisen from this haphazard and bigoted transgression is the magnitude of protests around the country, with almost every major city across the country having some sort of demonstration again the travel ban. As a result of the protests, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will not target those that have permanent residency status, yet it seems like the executive order has given a blank check to immigration officials because Jordanian passport holders and American citizens of Lebanese descent have been targeted, despite both Jordan and Lebanon not being included in the list of countries facing restrictions. Though there have been lawsuits from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union that have resulted in judges ordering stays for some of the affected, there have also been many reports of Border and Customs officials not allowing lawyers to contact those detained. Many State department officials also claim that they were not consulted in regards to this travel ban and many were caught unprepared when they heard about the executive order on television.

The abrupt and chaotic nature of the Trump administration’s actions shows that it has no regard for the procedural norms of state institutions and is simply looking to consolidate and wield the power of the state to carry out its agenda. By rapidly implementing this travel ban, it seems as though the newly enthroned honchos in the White House want to test the waters in regard to public push back and were hoping to catch the public off guard. In the political calculus of Trump’s advisors, the Muslim ban probably presented the lowest risk of public push back because Muslims are still a tiny minority in this country, constituting slightly less than 1% of the total population, and going after non-citizens who have less legal protections compared to citizens made it seem even easier. While this travel ban has been framed by the President and his surrogates as a way to stop terrorist attacks in the country and not a total Muslim ban,  the consensus among experts is that the executive order will do little to stop future terrorist attacks.

For Trump, this is the most convenient way of instituting a Muslim ban because he can claim to the general public that it is not a ban on religion but rather on countries that pose a threat. Likewise, he can protect his business interests in the Muslim world by excluding those countries where he his businesses operate and he can still brag to his base that he kept his campaign promise because they will be satisfied with any arbitrary crackdown on Muslims. In addition to restricting travel from the seven countries on the list, the executive order also calls for a 30 day period in which senior administration officials will compile information to add to the initial order. This means that there is a very real possibility of this ban being extended and being more stringent. The only way to deter the Trump team from usurping power is to send a strong message that the American public will not tolerate their country being turned into a fascist police state that targets the most vulnerable sectors of society. Consequently, we should not only  continue these protests but also start building solidarity between all the different oppressed groups and challenge Trump on a united front. Though there is undoubtedly going to be difficulty and struggle in the near future, there is also a vast potential for the masses to ameliorate their condition by fighting this cartoonish buffoon looking to turn our nightmares into a dystopian reality.

RIP Yama Buddha

Earlier this month, Nepali hip-hop superstar Yama Buddha was found dead in his apartment in London as a result of a suicide attempt. Yama's death came as a shock to tens of thousands of Nepali hip-hop heads as well casual listeners who had become familiar with the rapper as a result of his efforts to popularize hip-hop in Nepali society. A man who had gained unparalleled status in his field was now gone as a result of depression and uncertainty about his career.

Born Anil Adhikari in Morang district in Eastern Nepal, Yama Buddha grew up in Kathmandu in the late 1990's and early 2000's during an era when hip-hop was an unknown art form to most of Nepali society. As a rebellious kid who was active in the streets in Nepal and had exposure to the British grime scene during his college days in the UK, YB was able to pioneer hip-hop in Nepal by being one of the rare artists who could spit heat in both English and Nepali. This was in stark contrast to the Nepali rap of the mid and late 2000's, which was usually corny and reserved to being forced into remixed dance tracks. In most of his tracks, especially in his early days, Yama Buddha retained the purity and intensity of hip-hop in its natural unadulterated state. Many of his best songs were centered around various social problems, such as poverty in "Footpath Mero Ghar", political corruption in "Challenge", drug abuse in "Saathi" and female sex trafficking in "Yo Prasanga". In other songs like "Jutta Ma", "Ma Futchhu Tara Jhukdina" and "KTM Grime" he displays his high lyrical capacity in both Nepali and English.

In addition to releasing music, Yama Buddha was one of the founders and the initial host of Raw Barz, the first high profile battle rap league in South Asia. Coming from a background of battling in the grime scene in London, YB was able to give a platform to burgeoning young MCs in Nepal wanting to showcase their ability. As a result, many talented rappers like Unik Poet, Laure and Balen were able establish themselves in the scene and draw significant fan bases. The concept of battle rap became so popular in Nepal that even mainstream media outlets like Kantipur televised parodies of politicians battle rapping. Unfortunately, with the increased interest in the culture, Raw Barz was not able to maintain the same quality it had at its start and as a result Yama Buddha slowly distanced himself from the organization. Similarly, in Nepali hip-hop as a whole, the groundswell in popularity led to a surge in impostors, posers and lames masquerading as rappers similar to the rise of Vanilla Ice in America. Nonetheless, the status of hip-hop has clearly risen in Nepal, which is due in large part to the efforts of Yama Buddha. It's tragic that such a figure left us so early, but we can only honor his legacy by making sure Nepali hip-hop will flourish in the future.

Solidarity: A Lesson for the Democratic Party

In my last post, I defined solidarity as the act of showing unity in the face of a common struggle. Again, this does not mean that one has to agree with every single aspect of another person's ideology, nor does one have to endorse opinions that are problematic. Rather, having solidarity,especially in regards to class, means uniting against the domination of the elites while simultaneously engaging the problematic sectors of one's own class. Engaging those with contrary viewpoints is especially important in political organizing because it is the only way to expand one's base. Generally, there are three possible outcomes when engaging a person politically: support,opposition or indifference. This means that one group will already have similar opinions and that there is no need to overly preach to them. The second group on the other hand, will be too grounded in opposing opinions that they will usually not be swayed by logic or emotional appeal; rather a drastic event in their personal lives needs to occur in order for them to reevaluate deeply held convictions . The third group, which usually is the largest and most important, comprises of people who are indifferent and could be swayed to be a part of the first or second group. In politics, victories are usually won by two of the three groups merging together to beat the first group.

This could be a useful lesson for the Democratic Party establishment and many liberals who are a part of the coastal elite. For example, through out the last year Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, which was made up of the who's who of the Democratic Party, sidelined any rhetoric that displayed a broad based class coalition against the rich and powerful. When class-based rhetoric was brought up,mainly by Bernie Sanders and his supporters, the Clinton camp started a smear campaign against them, labeling them as "Bernie Bros" and insinuating that Sanders and his supporters were all just white men who were out of touch with women and minorities. Despite these claims being blatantly dishonest and erasing the identities of the vast amount of women and minority Bernie supporters, these claims lingered in traditional media partly due to the Clinton campaign's close connections.

Instead of adopting a clear political message, the Clinton campaign and the Democrats as a whole consistently portrayed contradicting images of themselves. For example, Hillary Clinton would claim that she was a moderate one day and a progressive another day. She would try to appeal to Hispanic voters by putting material comparing her to your abuela, while also previously calling for young children fleeing violence in Central America that were apprehended at the US-Mexico border to be deported. Hillary would correctly call out Trump for being a dangerous candidate while also having close relations with Henry Kissinger, a war criminal who is responsible for being the architect of a bombing campaign that dropped more bombs in South-East Asia than all of Europe during World War 2. Clinton would try to appeal to young black voters by going on TV and doing the Nae-Nae while also resembling a deer-in-headlights when a young black activist took her to task for her racially divisive "superpredator" comments. Despite all of these chinks in the Clinton armor, the Democratic establishment still had the hubris to think they were going to string together an ambitious voting bloc that included women, racial minorities and the LGBT community with the assumption that these groups would come out in droves for the Democrats simply because it was obvious that the Republicans were the bad guys. Yet when the results came in, Clinton lost the electoral college and the election had abysmal voter turnout, mostly due to the fact that Clinton and Trump were two of the most unfavorable candidates in history.

For those that live in liberal bubbles and follow politics regularly, it seemed like a no-brainer that a hideous narcissistic demagogue would lose to an establishment insider who had more or less followed the rules of the Washington. She had patiently waited her turn while her husband was in office. She bit the bullet when her husband publicly humiliated her in front of the world and stood by him. She helped build the political infrastructure for her family. She followed in the footsteps of Bobby Kennedy and won a coveted Senate seat from New York. She courted all the key Beltway players, be it key Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs or foreign governments like Saudi Arabia or surrogates of foreign governments like billionaire Haim Saban.

However, the truth is that most people in this country do not follow politics closely, as evident by the routinely low voter turnout, because they are most likely too busy working (the most overworked workers in the developed world). The average American does not have time to scroll up and down PolitiFact to see which political statements are true or false,they don't have the time or interest to read lengthy op-eds  written in the New York Times or Washington Post by writers that are totally disconnected from their daily struggle. For better or for worse, much of  this society would rather watch football to see the week's biggest play or the newest reality show to see the next level of human absurdity; this not unlike the waning days of Ancient Rome when the plebeians, who were similarly overworked by the patricians and equites, would flock to the stadia for the circus and gladiator duels. To win elections, one must be aware of the realities on the ground and the peculiarities of the people.

It should not be a surprise that a narcissistic scumbag, a sexual predator reality TV star was able to get millions of Americans to vote against their interests by using his sole talent: being a good marketer. Similar to Obama's 2008 campaign, Trump was able to capture the role of the outsider; someone who has the perception of being successful in his own realm (obviously with lots of handouts from daddy) and has not gotten his hands dirty in backroom deals. This message resonated with a significant enough portion of middle and lower income white people away from the coastal regions who were largely left out of the economic recovery after the 2008 recession. Obviously, the white middle and lower class was not the only group left out of economic growth, there's good evidence that black people of the same economic class have been lagging as well. Yet unlike with black Americans, there are not the same racial barriers against white Americans in joining the Republican Party. In contrast, many economically insecure white Americans actively delve themselves in racist rhetoric as sort of a

crutch against their diminished social status.  It is important to note that many of the perceived qualities of Trump are just perception, he has had a long history of leveraging his wealth to influence politics. Regardless of the facts, as this election cycle has paid little attention to them anyway, the election of Trump is just the next chapter of American absurdity as seen on TV.

A crucial lesson from this election cycle was the importance of narrative, because the average voter will cast their vote with their gut feelings, even if they might disagree with whomever they're voting for. This is evident by the large amount of former Obama voters who cast their vote for Trump. Similarly, white women were expected to support Clinton in the election especially after Trump's leaked off-the-record admission of sexually assaulting women, yet white women ended being a key demographic that voted for Trump. In interviews with these aforementioned groups, there are a variety of reasons they state for voting Trump. Some of them are tinged with racial animosity and nativist sentiments, but just as common are distrust of the establishment and economic uncertainty. Many of Trump's voters admit that he was far from a perfect candidate, but their rage at the establishment, which Hillary was a part of, was the reason for their vote along with his simple clear campaign message of redemption for those left behind in the recovery after the last recession. In comparison,some Democratic strategists were worried that their candidate lacked a clear message months before the election but these voices were drowned out by the Clinton loyalists.

As the days have passed from the election and people have gotten a chance to truly see Trump starting to navigate his way around the office, more and more of his voters are starting to regret the choices they made last November. Aside from just anecdotal evidence on Twitter, it is clear that Trump is massively disliked because he has historically low approval ratings for someone who just won an election. For example, many of the coal miners that heavily supported Trump in Appalachia are now worried that they will lose their healthcare coverage due to Republican plans to overturn the Affordable Care Act. This concern is not limited to just Appalachia, but rather throughout the country. In another example, a lifelong Republican challenged Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan about his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. For those on the left, this evidence shows that now is the perfect time to organize and build a broad-based movement to push back against the neoliberal policies of the last 4 decades. As stated before, there are are three possible outcomes when engaging another person politically. With this much disillusionment among Trump voters, especially those who are furious at the political establishment and economically precarious, there is a good chance of building a left movement based on much needed economic redistribution, genuine plans for racial justice, strong support for LGBT rights, continued support for women's rights, environmental sustainability and anti-militarism. All of these principles were a part of the Bernie Sanders campaign in some form, which is why he was massively popular with young people of all races and genders, independents, and the white working-class. Sanders' popularity with the white working-class and struggles with black Democrats often led Clinton supporters to smear the Sanders camp as racist, but the fact is that age had much more to do with this than race. Older black women are the biggest group within black Democrats, and older women in general overwhelmingly supported Clinton, probably because of a sense of loyalty from the 1990's. In contrast, young black voters were more likely to support Sanders compared to Clinton.

With all the evidence presented above, the talking point that the white-working class is a lost cause for Democrats seems a little lazy. There is no doubt that an enormous percentage of Trump supporters are hideously racist and sexist. As for the others who weren't, it is extremely disappointing that Trump's dog whistles and his many of his supporters' behavior weren't enough to turn them off from voting for him. But many of these people, especially the white-working class also supported Sanders, a candidate who clearly said black lives matter, who unequivocally supports women's rights , who had support from many prominent black celebrities and nominated militant black activist Cornel West to the DNC platform committee. An explanation for this phenomenon is that politics is the process of determining who gets what. In supporting Bernie, many of these people who probably hold many racist beliefs chose to overlook his support for racial and women's policies that were distasteful to them because of the personal benefit they saw in Sanders' economic populism. This also why many of these voters supported Obama in 2008 and 2012; they were attracted to his economic populism. Obama's hard- hitting campaign ad from 2012 is exemplifies his populist campaign strategy. The same phenomenon can also explain how Peter Thiel, a gay billionaire, consistently supports Republicans because the financial benefits for him outweigh their anti-gay agenda. Accordingly,laying blame only on racism and sexism for Clinton's loss in 2016 seems like a convenient excuse to cover up the numerous flaws in the Democrats' campaign strategy.

Going forward it is imperative that the many disillusioned Trump voters are actively engaged and informed of the material consequences of a Trump presidency, such as attacks on public education and the elimination of health insurance coverage for millions, and are presented with radically different alternatives. Some starting points for these alternatives could be advocating for a more progressive and re distributive tax system, free publicly-funded education from the primary to higher-secondary levels,repealing anti-worker legislation and strengthening labor unions, universal basic income, moving from the heavily privatized health insurance system under the Affordable Care Act to a single payer system where Medicare benefits are extended to all Americans. Along with these economic issues, the push for justice for victims of institutional racism (which many times inter-laps with economic issues), systemic gender discrimination and LGBT discrimination should be advanced as well.
However, it seems like Democratic elites have not learned their lesson and instead of working to make up lost ground, they're too busy celebrating coal miners losing health insurance, supporting milquetoast centrist candidates that refuse to take basic stands against the influence of the wealthy, and joining Republicans in defending pharmaceutical companies. Following the leaders of Clinton camp,the trend of castigating lower class white folks and all of middle America seems to be a popular trend among upper class coastal Clinton supporters on social media, with this post by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Melinda Byerley exemplifying the class contempt. Almost all of these people are white, well off and looking for a source to feed their superiority complex. It would a be a faux pas for them to publicly show their class contempt against people of color because they wouldn't be able to maintain their liberal status, so they conveniently use poor white people as an easy target. In the post, Byerley chides Middle America for its social backwardness, but if this brand of elitism persists, the resentment between the so-called flyover country and the coasts is only going to increase. Not to mention, blaming the Middle America for all the ills in this country totally exonerates the racism and inequality that takes places on the coasts. Most of these people have no interest in actually doing the hard work of organizing and changing attitudes on the ground, mostly because it would be a drastic change from their cozy upper-class lifestyles. Instead, they want to absolve themselves of blame and hop on their lifeboats while the whole ship is sinking.

To clarify, nobody expects historically persecuted minority groups in this country to be on the front lines in engaging racists and changing hearts and minds. That effort should be lead by ideologically committed white leftists.The racial privilege of white leftists means they are in a safer position to reach out to the white working class. Likewise, I am in no way minimizing the viciousness of prejudice in this country; as a brown kid with a funny name growing in the Midwest during the height of the War on Terror, I have had my chance to experience how ugly racism can be. Therefore, it should be the utmost priority of those seeking a more just future to smash out fascism and other reactionary movements at their base and not allow them to grow any larger. This will not happen by alienating the entire white working-class. To take a lesson from history, the Black Panthers allied with the Young Lords, a working class Puerto Rican organization, and the Young Patriots, a working class white organization to form the Rainbow Coalition. As a result of their cross racial working class alliance, the Young Patriots decided to drop Confederate imagery from their organization in solidarity. This is not to say that black people need to take the initiative to reach out confederate flag wielding white people, but rather that exposure to class based solidarity along with strong anti-racist ideology can be effective in combating racism.

Bad Boujee: Musings on Brilliance and Solidarity

Every few months, a new anthem comes along, one that is near universally recognizable among the youth. These songs are omnipresent; pervading online discourse, high school and college parties and every car with a decent sound system. For much of the autumn months of 2016, Rae Sremmurd's banger "Black Beatles" held the distinction of being the preferred track of young people, especially with the popularity of the Mannequin Challenge. With the coming of the winter months, "Black Beatles" has been surpassed by the  Migos' tour de force "Bad and Boujee", with the first two lines "rain drop, drop top" becoming the hottest new meme on Twitter and Instagram.

"Bad and Boujee" is essentially a testimonial by the Migos' enforcer Offset to the bourgeois mentality and attractiveness of his female partner as well the ruthlessness of his male companions. Offset is backed up in his claims in the second and third verses by fellow Migos member Quavo and Philadelphia rapper Lil Uzi Vert respectively, with renowned producer Metro Boomin providing the backing instrumentals.

 The premise of the song is brilliantly dichotomous, illustrating the double-lives of young black men who came up in rags-to-riches circumstances. Offset makes this clear in the opening seconds of the song, asserting, "You know, so we never really had no old money, we gotta whole lotta new money though." He goes on to start the hook with vivid imagery, describing himself hot-boxing a convertible with high end marijuana in the rain.This line uses quintessential hip-hop braggadocio to the point of incorporating magic realism,  since having an enclosed area for smoke to gather is one of the basic requirement of a hot-box. However, for Offset, the laws of nature are just tiny obstacles standing in the way of him making timeless classics. He continues the hook rapping about his swashbuckling ways, including bragging about having sex with the listener's female partner, calling the aforementioned female partner a thot, cooking crack in a Crock-Pot, acknowledging his rags-to-riches background, declaring his distrust for everybody, announcing he has a plethora of high-capacity magazines and of course asserting that his female partners are "bad and boujee" while his male companions are ruthless savages.

 Almost every part of the song contains contrasting imagery between wealth and poverty, high-class and low-class, ruthless and sensitive. This starts with the first few lines of the song, with Offset flipping the idea of the hot-box, something traditionally done by cash-trapped teenagers packed in a hooptie to get high as possible with a limited amount of weed (word to Barry O) on its head by describing himself hot-boxing a luxury convertible. The contrast continues,especially when Offset talks about his female interests versus when he talks about himself and his male friends. The male figures in the song are almost exclusively described as "savage", "ruthless", distrusting and so on, while female figures are described attractive,"bad" and high class,"boujee". Such is inline with traditional gender roles around the world, even mirroring the Chinese concept of yin and yang, where yin, the feminine energy,is passive,while yang, the male energy,is active. However, rigid social expectations come with costs, which is evident in Offset's lyrics; he raps a line where he says "I tell that bitch to come comfort me" followed by a line where he describes his general distrust of society and uses his material success as a crutch, "I swear these niggas is under me,they hate and the devil keep jumpin' me, bankrolls on me keep me company...". It's clear that the pressures of growing up as a disadvantaged black male in an unforgiving environment has taken a toll on Offset, which he tries to counteract with the quintessential measure of success in America: material wealth. Nevertheless, material wealth cannot take the place of basic human needs, which is evident in Offset's call for comfort as quoted previously.

Hyper-masculine attitudes such as those described above are common throughout history as an imperfect coping mechanism in areas suffering from abject poverty and violent conflict, be it in Medieval Europe, present-day Yemen (worthy to note that the United States government plays a huge role in perpetuating violence in Yemen),parts of present-day of Central America and South Asia, or in the case of the Migos, the slums of metropolitan Atlanta. This isn't to say that such hyper-masculine attitudes are inherent in the aforementioned areas or peoples, but rather, these attitudes are the by-products of living in feudal and scarce environments. One of the great lessons of history is that no situation will remain static; the world is an ever-changing, dynamic entity. For example, both Japan and Western Europe were two of the most feudal societies of the past thousand years,with constant internal warfare and strict social hierarchies. However, by attaining social stability,generating wealth for most sectors of the population and instituting a social outlook based on reason and rationality, these societies have developed into some of the advanced in the world. It is important to point out that both Western Europe and Japan civilized their own societies while simultaneously engaging in some of the most barbaric acts in human history during their quest for resources in the Global South. Still, it is not a necessity to engage in such rampant barbarism to civilize a society, it is possible to distribute wealth to undeserved sectors of the population without extreme bloodshed as shown by the recent developments in Ecuador and Nicaragua.

Similar to how traditional gender roles are evident in "Bad and Boujee", the lack of class consciousness in American society can also be identified throughout the song. Historian Ronald Wright paraphrased American novelist John Steinbeck by writing,"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires." In the case of the Migos, the part about being temporarily embarrassed millionaires does hold true, as the group has accumulated a vast fortune through its musical success. Nonetheless, for the vast majority of people in poor, black communities across the United States, the obstacles for upward mobility remain greater in comparison to any other demographic group. This means being disproportionately targeted by the police, having less access to good education, being less likely to get job offers despite having competent resumes, and so on. The experience of the people residing in these predominantly low-income, black communities can roughly be compared to the gladiator duels that took place in the stadia of Ancient Rome. In both cases, the most marginalized groups of the respective societies have to duel it out with the others from the same socio-economic status for the enjoyment of the masses while getting fed crumbs by those in power. Like the Migos, there were numerous gladiator champions who were able to fight their way to freedom and glory, however, this could only happen by brutally competing against and eliminating their peers in their journey to the top. Yet in the case of the Migos, some remnants of class solidarity are still evident, especially in the imagery shown in the music video, which only adds to the ongoing dichotomy in the song. Such imagery starts from the opening seconds of the video, where Offset and two female video models, all wearing high-end designer clothing and jewelry, are juxtaposed with low-income housing visible in the background. This continues, with scenes of the group eating out of takeout Chinese boxes that have designer logos painted over them. Next the group heads over to a greasy spoon diner, now joined by fellow Migos band mates Quavo and Takeoff, where they are simultaneously popping bottles of gold plated champagne while eating instant cup-noodles and fried chicken buckets. The video then alternates with the group buying alcohol from a hood liquor store with credit cards (if you've never been to a hood liquor store, the  vast majority of transactions are cash-based) and ends with Lil Uzi Vert joining them riding quads and dirt bikes through open streets, a tradition popular in the urban core of Uzi's home city of Philadelphia. All of this shows the dual lives of those straddling two distinct identities, something inherent in those whose identities may deviate from what is acceptable or common in mainstream society.

 As the way history is subject to change through time, the same is true of people. For example, the founder of the Black Panther Party Huey P. Newton led a  life of crime in his teenage years before teaching himself how to read in jail and later obtaining a college degree. Through his formation of the Black Panther Party, Newton was able to organize an entity that provided  much needed
social services such as free breakfast for inner-city youth and armed patrols against police brutality. Which is to say, it's entirely possible that groups like the Migos can be develop stronger class solidarity in the coming years, similar to how Spartacus led the gladiators against the the repression of the Roman Republic in the Third Servile War. Despite many of the problematic parts of "Bad and Boujee", it is still impossible not to like the song (unless you're a swaggerless clowncake) and root for the Migos' success, which why the song is currently topping the charts. These are three men who beat all the odds, displaying their brilliant, staccato-ed rap delivery and eccentric ad-libs; it's as if a Horatio Alger novel was recreated with a modern setting and more a diverse cast. With all the nuance in the positive and negative aspects of the song, it is possible to take away many lessons on solidarity from all that is discussed above; solidarity does not mean agreeing with every single aspect of another person or group's values but rather showing unity in the face of a common struggle.

Workplace Dynamics in the NBA: A Lesson For Every Fan

The New Year has finally arrived, the weather has reached it's cold wintry nadir and as happens every year,the National Basketball Association has started to heat up. For millions of NBA fanboys like myself, the six month period which begins with the highly anticipated Christmas Day games between the leading league heavyweights and ends with the NBA finals in mid June, is the best half of the year. No longer will we have to struggle through the ugly adolescent phase of the season, wincing at each team's growing pains as the rookies and newly acquired players struggle to find their place in the pecking order. After December 25th, team chemistry will start to form, rivalries will start to boil and bubble and personalities will start clashing. For the NBA fan, this means that there will be a constant source entertainment, be it from LeBron's latest chase-down block,  Draymond Green's constant temper tantrums or Swaggy P's wildly inconsistent play. All of this is a much needed cushion to rest our heads on after toiling and slogging for crumbs, be it at work or school. While the average viewer is well versed in the nuances of the game, be it Steph Curry's pure stroke from distance or Kyrie Irving's immaculate dexterity with the ball, we could learn considerably from the workplace dynamics between the players and the owners.

The labor interests of NBA players are represented by the NBA Players Association, the oldest labor union of the four major sporting leagues in the US and Canada. The NBAPA was formed in 1954 through the initiative of Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy, and was officially recognized by the league in 1964 after threatening to go on-strike before the first televised All-Star game. Through the efforts of the Players Association, NBA players have earned many workplace victories, such as a minimum salary for all players ($543,471), a solid pension plan, and revenue sharing deal where the players collect 50% of all the money brought in by the league. The revenue sharing clause is actually a downgrade from years past, where players collected 57% of the revenue brought in by the league. This is especially unfair, considering that the league would be worthless without the labor of the players; nobody would want to watch empty arenas with glib rich dudes living out their fantasies (really the only things the owners provide). However, behavior  like this is to be expected from the owners; they didn't get rich by being generous, they did so by leveraging their wealth to add to their already enormous fortunes.

All of the above is a huge contrast to the working conditions of the average NBA viewer or moreover, the average American worker. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unionization rate in the American workforce stands at 11%, a stark contrast to the 1950's, where 35% of the workforce was in a union. When Americans who came up during World War 2 and the 1950's fondly reminisce about the abundance of well paying jobs, jobs that allowed a single earner (usually the husband ) to provide for the entire family, this was the result of union militancy during the Depression and the early 1940's. In fact, a study by the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute has shown a link between the decrease in unionization in the American workforce and wage stagnation. This isn't to say that the 1950's were perfect; discrimination against African-Americans was legal and socially encouraged throughout much of the country, it was still taboo for women to assert themselves as equals in society, homosexuality and sodomy were still illegal, which forced countless LGBTQ Americans to live in the shadows. However, it is still possible to take the lessons from the past as well as the present and apply them to the future. After years of dormancy, there has been a resurgence of militancy in the US labor movement, be it the Fight for $15 movement led by fast food workers throughout the country, National Nurses United union, which has been active fighting for the working conditions of nurses as well as showing solidarity with other struggles, airport workers in Chicago fighting for better wages and the Chicago Teachers Union, which has been nationally prominent since their strike in 2012. All of this points to a deep human desire to have a dignified existence, to be more than obedient workers subject to the beck and call of the boss, to have a say in how the fruits reaped by their hard work are distributed. There's a common feeling of hopelessness and despair among those who belong to my generation, commonly known as the Millennial generation. This has to do with lots uncertainty, highlighted by this study that predicts Millennials will be the first generation to earn less than their parents. To combat this hopelessness, our generation will have to buck the cliche "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" spiel that has been force fed to us for countless years and look to NBA players and striking fast food workers for inspiration for being militant in our demands in the workplace.

While negotiating for higher wages and better working conditions could be a good start, the next logical step in removing the hierarchy between bosses and workers would be in removing the bosses altogether and having workplaces managed  by those who labor in them. This might sound far-fetched in most cases, with most workers struggling to get by in their day-to-day lives, but the NBA is one organization where this could be possible. The average  player makes $2.5 million a year, enough money to cushion them for unemployment compared to the average American. If all players past and present pooled their resources to create a parallel league with the coordination of the NBAPA, there could be a league organized by players and for players, democratically managed and without the dependence on old rich guys living out their fantasies vicariously through their employees. Obviously, something this drastic could not happen easily;there are billions of dollars at stake for NBA owners, network television companies, basketball gear manufacturers, sports drinks manufacturers and so on. Furthermore, with millions of dollars on the line, many players would be tempted to break solidarity and not give up their status for an uncertain future. Yet the fact remains that the NBA is a highly profitable entity solely because of the high-flying athletic brilliance of its players. If the players maintain true solidarity and set up a better league, this could provide inspiration for millions of NBA fans throughout America if not the world to take an active role in demanding how their labor is used.