Public Enemy Shows Good Purpose, Poor Taste

In printing comments from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference surrounding the release of a new video from the rap group Public Enemy, the Los Angles Times (Calendar, Jan. 10) failed to make it clear that we were not responding directly to the video, which we had not seen at that point.

As the Calendar story reported, the “By the Time I Get to Arizona” video shows re-enactments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 slaying and scenes from the 1960s civil rights movement, cut into dramatizations of Public Enemy leading an insurrection against Arizona state officials (portrayed by actors). The apparent idea is to protest the fact that Arizona does not observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday.

Public Enemy has produced a series of public service announcements against drugs and promoting staying in school, safe sex and encouraging young people to vote--all issues Dr. King would be hard pressed not to support.

But Public Enemy’s “Arizona” video--which we have now seen--is violent and implies that the assassination of Dr. King and the lack of a holiday could justify the deliberate killing of those key to preventing a celebration in Arizona, a state that is the shortsighted holdout.

The obvious irony is that the group uses violence while supporting the celebration of the ideals of a man whose strongest belief was in not being violent and treating others with kindness and respect, a man who would be the loudest voice in support of SCLC’s new nationwide effort to “Stop the Killing!” of our brothers and sisters that goes on every day in our cities and suburbs.

Perhaps the Public Enemy production is symptomatic of the kind of atmosphere that currently exists in this nation which allows for homeless families, millions without health care, hunters to buy machine guns in pawn shops and 13-year-olds to be shot accidentally because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Violence does not have to be physical to be detrimental. Words can cut almost as deep as actions. They can be personal, as in one-on-one conversations, or they can be presented to a mass audience. What we need is conscientious consciousness.

There should not necessarily be limits on what we creatively produce. But there should be a sensibility to the appropriateness of how it is exposed to audiences for which these creations may not necessarily have been intended. This goes for rap music, any kind of music, writings, whatever.

Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, president of the SCLC and Dr. King’s friend and successor, has provided an eloquent and targeted response to the Public Enemy video:

“The video is poor in taste and timing but rich in purpose. At a time when our neighborhoods are war zones and our streets crimson with blood of our youth, we don’t need even a hint of affirmation or encouragement of violence by popular artists.

“There is possibly a positive note, however, if the video stimulates debate that reminds us that Martin was not a passive dreamer but a radical revolutionary who established the efficacy of non-violent militancy as an effective means of achieving social change.

“Our celebration of his birth and life is incomplete if all we do is engage in ceremonies and neglect justice which characterized his ministry and brought the national holiday into being. We disrespect Martin when we ennoble the man and ignore his message.”