The My Fellow Americans project is an attempt to spread and affirm respect for Muslims as fellow members of the United States. By encouraging “concerned Americans” to declare their support, the project hopes to collect stories that will illustrate the fact that, despite how they might be represented by certain facets of society, American Muslims are every bit as much citizens of this country as anyone else.
Def Jam co-founder and American entrepreneur Russell Simmons recently recorded a video of his own, which can be seen above. If you’re interested in participating, head to the My Fellow Americans site, where you can take the pledge and submit your own video or story.
To dismiss Russell Simmons, who is a prolific and prominent activist for black youths, because of his connection to hip-hop, particularly in the context of his promoting kinship with Muslim-Americans, is both racist and foolish. I’m assuming when you say *modern hip-hop culture,* you actually meant *modern music culture,* or really just *modern culture* in general, because, as you’ll see from this University of Buffalo study (http://www.buffalo.edu/news/12769), the cover of Rolling Stone has become increasingly sexualized over the years. Rappers very rarely cover Rolling Stone. And this isn’t to point the finger at RS exclusively—they publish a lot of great… Read more »
Russell Simmons also supports and has been an integral part of modern hip-hop culture, which serves to put men in a very small box and promote sexism.