Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney and her running mate Rosa Clemente spoke to Amy Goodman this morning on her Democracy Now! radio show. Feels like yesterday Cannibal Ox, El-P and Elvis Costello were rocking with Ralph Nader at an MSG fundraiser. via Democracy Now!, audio/video
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to the Green Party presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Cynthia McKinney, joining us from Washington, D.C., Rosa Clemente, from Charlotte, North Carolina. Rosa Clemente, Wyclef Jean, Kanye West, they’re going to be performing at the Democratic Convention. Your response?
ROSA CLEMENTE: They’re on the wrong side. You know, I respect many other rappers in the hip hop community, but hip hop is bigger than rappers. It’s bigger than recorded artists who perform and make millions of dollars. I understand the historical nature of a Barack Obama, but I also understand the historical nature of a Cynthia McKinney or Rosa Clemente, especially being Puerto Rican and understanding the colonial relationship that my island and my people have with this country and remembering being at Vieques on May 1, 2005, when we kicked the US Navy out.
If Barack Obama is not going to talk about the issues that are affecting the people that look like him, if he’s not going to talk about the freedom of political prisoners in this country, and if he’s not going to acknowledge the hip hop generation, which he really hasn’t, then we as a generation must be very clear. Are we picking someone based on emotion or what symbolism looks like, or are we picking the Green Party? You know, and I encourage everyone to pick up the platform. This platform includes social justice, an end to police brutality, and the list goes on and on.
Video of Rosa Clemente speaking in front of a hip hop crowd after being nominated for VP, after the jump.
