Hip-hop scholar addresses social issues

Using his hip-hop background to address urban problems, Penn Graduate School of Education alumnus and Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill spoke about bringing social change to the United States.

“Hip-hop is important on its own, but it’s also a window to the world,” said Hill, who researches hip-hop. “Even when I’m not studying hip-hop culture itself, all of hip hop’s aesthetics and logic and world view shape the work that I do. I’m always [researching] … with a hip-hop commitment to truth telling.”

On Thursday night, Hill addressed the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice about “Building Communities in an Hour of Chaos: Progress in the Age of Obama.”

“These are trying times, these are desperate times,” Hill said, stressing the importance of building communities “at moments where our nation is facing unprecedented pressure from all sides.”

Although the United States has a black president and more black chief executive officers than ever before, Hill said that there is still room for improvement.

During “The Age of Obama … in some ways the stakes have never been higher, but public attention and concern has never been lower,” he said.

When addressing his audience, he emphasized the importance of taking action to combat a number of the issues including poverty, racism, and homophobia.

“If you remember nothing else I say, just remember that the problem with the world today is that there are too many people who don’t do anything,” Hill said. “At this moment in history, we cannot afford to do nothing.”

Hill also mentioned that he has been the target of racial prejudice on the part of the Philadelphia police. On June 29 last year, Hill said he was pulled over by a Philadelphia police officer for no apparent reason. Hill said that although he explained to the police officer that he did not possess a gun, the officer did not believe him and forced Hill to exit the car. When Hill showed the officer his checkbook, which indicated that he was a doctor, the officer finally let him go.

“Every single day, this situation happens,” Hill said. “And very few people get the chance to fight back.”

The Penn community seemed responsive to Hill’s message.

“It feels to me like a call to action,” Steve Wilmot, an SP2 adjunct faculty member and chair of the SP2 alumni council, said. “It feels like a challenge for some of our students, both at SP2 and throughout the University, to challenge themselves to get involved.”

“He’s really passionate,” Abigail Reikow, a second-year SP2 masters student, said. “He talks about issues in a way that we don’t normally talk about it at Penn. He talks about these general issues, but he doesn’t let us off the hook…But he also gives us hope.”

“Sometimes you have to get outside of your comfort zone and see things from the perspective of others,” Timothy Wortham, development and alumni relations officer for SP2, said. “And I believe that Dr. Hill brings that unique perspective.”

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