Real Talk XpressThe Blacker the Blog the Sweeter the Truth

Jasiri X on the roof of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center-site of the G-20 Summit-Photo by Paradise Gray

Pittsburgh was the host city the G-20 Summit that took place September 24th and 25th and of course me and Paradise were on the scene. Once I found out the G-20 was coming I immediately began to think about creating an episode. People had been asking me about This Week With Jasiri X and when it would return so I thought why not come back with a bang, when the whole world would be watching Pittsburgh.

The concept of the song, “The Only Color That Matters is Green” is dealing with how these few wealthy families and countries set policies that negatively effect the rest of the world. That to them we are not a race or religion or from the hood or the country were just another person that can be exploited. But being the G-20 would be in Pittsburgh we also wanted to show the “Real” Pittsburgh.

Leading up to the G-20 the leadership of the City of Pittsburgh was spinning Pittsburgh like it was this recession proof city with little unemployment and a “revitalized’ economy. No doubt we got new stadiums and a casino but the majority of the people in our neighborhoods are suffering. Hell right across the bridge fro the Convention Center that hosted the summit is where homeless people sleep . So in the video we made it a point to film there and also in a neighborhood called Homewood on Formosa Way.

Lastly and most hypocritically was the demonetization of the protesters. Maybe it’s just how I think, but here are people that are actually organizing and bringing attention to issues that effect the average Pittsburgher, the need for good jobs, health care, affordable housing and an end to war. But yet they were portrayed as these destructive fools by the media. Yet the very people responsible for the global economic collapse that has made financially tough for almost everybody to get by, are treated like royalty and giver the VIP treatment. Plus weren’t we all just praising and supporting the Iranian students for taking to the streets to protest the election and criticizing the Iranian government for it’s crackdown? BTW all footage showing the Police attacking citizens happened in Pittsburgh, not a dictatorship, but the United States of America.