In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Albert Camus argued that artists bear a moral responsibility to engage politics with their art. He challenges artists to "create dangerously" and use creation as a medium for social criticism.

There is some honest, heartfelt, critical music coming out of Katrina's aftermath.

The Legendary K.O.'s "George Bush doesn't care about black people" -- a politicized remix of Kanye West's "Golddigger"

Public Enemy's "Hell No We Ain't Alright"

Posted by nicomachus at 4:08 PM | Permalink

The last time images like this, images from the United States, hit the international news, the Civil Rights movement of the 50s really picked up momentum. The U.S. was publicly embarassed to have the truth of its racist, classist government policies exposed so clearly and so openly. I can't help but think that emergency response would be different if the images coming from New Orleans were of white middle class soccer moms.

Change is coming.

In the midst of the chaos, David Gonzalez wrote for the NY Times a moving article on how race and class are factoring into the evacuation. If you don't have access to the NY Times archives, you can find the article at truthout.org.

Posted by nicomachus at 11:18 AM | Permalink