The Green Party's Hip Hop Power Move: An AUDIO Interview with Green Party Vice-Presidential Nominee Rosa Clemente

Part 1 - Nadir's Audio Interview with Rosa Clemente
(13 mins 25 secs; 12.3 MB)
Part 2 - Nadir's Audio Interview with Rosa Clemente
(15 mins 23secs; 14.1 MB)

Rosa Clemente is a community organizer, journalist and co-founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention. In July 2008 she makes history again as the vice-presidential nominee for the Green Party of the United States. Clemente joins Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney to become the first US presidential ticket led by two women of color.

I am an independent voter who has been sympathetic to the Green Party since Ralph Nader's presidential run in 2000, but I've never become a member. Where the party has fallen short, in my estimation, has been in its inability to organize among young people, the working class and the people of color who might embrace the party's progressive agenda. By nominating McKinney and Clemente, the Greens seek to erase that perception, and to change the face of the organization from its current image of older white hippies and tree huggers to a young, vibrant multicultual political party with fresh ideas and hip hop swagger.

During our 30 minute interview Mrs. Clemente discusses the difficult obstacles that the Green Party faces in its campaign to secure 5 percent of the vote this November. The hip hop activist also confirms the Green Party's commitment to the progressive values that young people and the hip hop community list as their most important issues - eliminating police brutality, reforming the prison industrial complex and ending the corporate domination of the US political landscape.

Clemente balks at the notion that any political candidate can "transcend race" in America. She offers some frank criticism of Barack Obama for signing the FISA bill, for pushing to transfer troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and for "running his campaign to the right".

Click below to listen, save and share.

Part 1 - Nadir's Audio Interview with Rosa Clemente
(13 mins 25 secs; 12.3 MB)
Part 2 - Nadir's Audio Interview with Rosa Clemente
(15 mins 23secs; 14.1 MB)

AUDIO: Another Seat at the Table

Originally Published at Think.MTV.com

The Green Party's presidential and vice-presidential nominees Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente are the first presidential ticket led by two women of color. But this is no symbolic or token campaign by a minor party.

The Democrats and Republicans have allowed corporate interests to dominate public policy making, and the interests of the people have been ignored.

The Green Party nominees say their bid to gain five percent of the vote this November isn't an alternative. It's imperative.

Click HERE to listen to the 4 min 5 second audio report

Nader, Obama and 'White Guilt'

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I was a staunch supporter of Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign. In fact a pro-Nader piece I wrote called, "The Lesser of Two Evils or The Greatest Common Good" found its way onto listservs and blogs across the Internet in October of that year.

However, I have become disappointed in Ralph Nader, his decision to abandon the Green Party, and the fight to create a viable option to the nation's oppressive two party system. His actions since 2003 seem self-serving and divisive to me.

So I had to weigh in when I saw that Nader is catching flack for some comments he made to Colorado's Rocky Mountain News recently:

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said.

"Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

And...

"I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a Black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law," Nader said. "Haven't heard a thing."

Barack Obama's response to this statement was:

"What's clear is, Ralph Nader hasn't been paying attention to my speeches," he said. "Ralph Nader's trying to get attention. He's become a perennial political candidate. I think it's a shame, because if you look at his legacy ... it's an extraordinary one. ... At this point, he's somebody who's trying to get attention, whose campaign hasn't gotten any traction."

Well, I have two comments to make about that. First of all, I've been to three Obama events in the past six weeks covering election issues for MTV's Street Team '08, and I can say, I haven't heard him talk about these issues either. With the exception of criticizing John McCain's economic stance and his pretty general talking points about improving education for everyone, Obama doesn't say a lot about the conditions of Black folks. If anything, it is most evident that he DOESN'T talk about Blacks much at all. More on that in a minute.

My second comment to Obama's reaction is that he is right. Nader talking about criticizing Obama and the Democrats will get him more press than he'll receive talking about his stance on the issues. The same was true in 2000 when he outlined the differences between him and Al Gore stating that Gore was no different than Bush. This attitude has proven to be horribly false, but the point remains... no one is listening to Ralph Nader's good ideas. They only listen to his controversial statements

Nader said he is not impressed with Obama and that he does not see him campaigning often enough in low-income, predominantly minority communities where there is a "shocking" amount of economic exploitation.

He pointed to issues like predatory lending, shortages of health care and municipal resources, environmental issues and others.

"He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician," Nader said. "He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as Black is beautiful, Black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up."

This may be true, but I've talked to several of my Black friends who like the fact that Obama doesn't speak like a Black politician. He speaks like a winning politician. The absence of race in his rhetoric is calculated, and it is working.

Nader's comments are also calculated. He will raise questions about Obama in an attempt to get some of those votes to swing his way.

What Nader doesn't have this year as he did in 2000 is a national party that is standing behind him. In fact, Cynthia McKinney, a Black woman, is the likely Green Party nominee. McKinney doesn't shy away from discussions of race, and that has gotten her into trouble in the past.

Lebanese-American Nader, on the other hand, was accused of avoiding the issue of race by his supporters during his own 2000 campaign, ignoring racial disparities and couching the debate in terms of class. He hasn't discussed the plight of Arab Americans, and he hasn't talked about the problem of Islamophobia. This is a problem Obama will be forced to address in 2008. What about Nader?

So while I don't agree with the substance of Nader's criticisms, I do disagree with his own hypocrisy. Frankly, this a case of the pot calling the kettle Black?