Photo Credit: Chris Clayborne for A3C Media Services
The Combat Jack Show had a very special guest at their live show at A3C. The mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, Ms. Patricia de Lille traveled all the way to A3C to learn see how hip-hop can make a difference in social justice. She shared with us her vision to hit systemic racism head on in Cape Town and how Hip-hop can help her do that.
Mayor de Lille sat down with Reggie “Combat Jack” Osse to discuss the state of social justice in Cape Town and how it relates to Atlanta. “There’s a long history between Atlanta and South Africa,” explained de Lille. She put into perspective the correlation between the Civil Rights movement in the Southern U.S. and the Apartheid movement in South Africa. She said that she’s visiting Atlanta and A3C to see what we’re doing here can influence what she’s doing in South Africa.
She explained that Hip-hop has always had a connection with social justice. “I would like to take this concept of the A3C..to Cape Town,” said Mayor of Cape Town. She went on to describe the young people of Cape Town and Atlanta would benefit from connecting and sharing ideas to bring back to their home town. She explained that linking the creative side of Hip-hop to spread ideas can help bring change.
She then talked to the audience about the things they can do now to help move the process of change forward. She spoke about how to target racism and advised everyone to stop acting like a victim. Mayor de Lille explained that until we stand up and vote and try to push the culture forward ourselves, nothing will change. No one is going to do it for us, we have to lift ourselves up.
In a democracy, the people may not have the power to write the laws and enforce them, but we do have the choice to put the right people in place to do so. Mayor Patricia de Lille let us know that in order to have change we have to be the change. Combat Jack chimed in lastly and left us with this thought to, “nail down the weight of the responsibility that everybody in this room has in regards to effectuating social justice.”
We have the power to make the change, we just need to step up and do so.
