from New York Newsday
Decent jobs and an end to war
by Bakari Kitwana
January 25, 2009
Bakari Kitwana is author of "The Hip-Hop Generation" and CEO of Rap Sessions.
***
Two-thirds of the 23 million 18- to 29-year-old Americans who voted in November supported Barack Obama. Now that the last Champagne bottles have popped, the administration needs to stay focused on what the younger generation expects from the new president.
On his first day at work, Obama was in meetings with top advisers about the Iraq war. This is good news for the hip-hop voting bloc, as this group is often called, because they told pollsters shortly before the election that ending the war is their No. 1 issue. This finding came in a nationwide Internet survey of roughly equal numbers of white, black and Latino 18- to 45-year-olds, commissioned by rapsessions.org, which conducts town hall meetings across the country focusing on the hip-hop agenda. More than half of the 1,000 young people surveyed had friends, relatives or associates who were in or had been involved in the military conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq.
The other huge priority for this generation is creating living-wage jobs. With an economic stimulus plan in hand and a campaign promise to end the war within 16 months, at least the two foremost priorities for young voters are in synch with the president's list. The question is this: Will Obama go far enough?
Read Full Article HERE
Decent jobs and an end to war
by Bakari Kitwana
January 25, 2009
Bakari Kitwana is author of "The Hip-Hop Generation" and CEO of Rap Sessions.
***
Two-thirds of the 23 million 18- to 29-year-old Americans who voted in November supported Barack Obama. Now that the last Champagne bottles have popped, the administration needs to stay focused on what the younger generation expects from the new president.
On his first day at work, Obama was in meetings with top advisers about the Iraq war. This is good news for the hip-hop voting bloc, as this group is often called, because they told pollsters shortly before the election that ending the war is their No. 1 issue. This finding came in a nationwide Internet survey of roughly equal numbers of white, black and Latino 18- to 45-year-olds, commissioned by rapsessions.org, which conducts town hall meetings across the country focusing on the hip-hop agenda. More than half of the 1,000 young people surveyed had friends, relatives or associates who were in or had been involved in the military conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq.
The other huge priority for this generation is creating living-wage jobs. With an economic stimulus plan in hand and a campaign promise to end the war within 16 months, at least the two foremost priorities for young voters are in synch with the president's list. The question is this: Will Obama go far enough?
Read Full Article HERE
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