Ella Baker Has In Common With The Fifth Elements Of Hip Hop

After watching this video, you will know what Ella Baker has in common with the fifth element of hip hop. I use this video to complement the article written by Bettina Love in my literature choice regarding her philosophy for learning. The video starts with a powerful quote from Ella Baker, "Be quiet, children. Everyone is somebody. Just make sure that when you walk, you take deep, strong steps, so the children behind you know where to go." The student ends his quote by dabbing and receiving cheers from his classmates. As the Hip Hop music transitions the video into the classroom, the words "Fight the Power" blares, followed by the teacher's greeting, "What up! What up!" The children respond; and the excitement of the lesson is evident throughout the entire clip.
When the video focuses on a Caucasian student to define the fifth element of Hip Hop, she gives the correct answer, emphasizing Love's point that Hip Hop is not only for the Black community, but has essential concepts to help all children of diverse backgrounds.
The students at Kindezi Elementary in Atlanta, Georgia share that Ella Baker was an influential member in the civil rights movement that had a Knowledge of Self and Community (the fifth element of Hip Hop), that represented her history, and was not afraid to speak her mind. The teacher then reminds the children that speaking one's mind is a critical part of Hip Hop. At a point where the children learned they received an invitation to have one speaker represent their school at the Georgia Tech March for Education, every child raises his or her hand to show interest in being a qualified candidate. You can even hear students saying, "Me" and "I gotta a loud voice." When the school narrowed the speakers to five contestants, the video shows the student speaking at the march. At the conclusion of the video, the entire class participates in restating the quote by Ella Baker that the one student used to start the
video. The video gives a music credit for "Microphone Fiend" by Eric B. & Rakim. Bettina Love's YouTube video gives outsiders an inside look in her classroom practices. Anybody is able to view the videos, ask questions, and give positive feedback. The fact that the children visited a college campus shows that one of Love's teaching ideologies is extending student learning behind the walls of a classroom. When a viewer posts a question about the origin of the fifth element of Hip Hop, it shows that learning becomes communal when a teacher properly uses technology as a cultural tool. Another viewer congratulates the children on the superb job they did in presenting their content to a social media following, making the remark, "Way to go class! You all are so inspiring! Can I share this with my adult students?" The viewer's request to share the content with an adult class is evident that Love's objective to break down the generational gap in understanding the role of Hip Hop in society is effective. As one continues to search the Real Talk: Hip Hop Education for Social Justice channel, the videos show community support with hundreds of views. Another clip documents the children learning about Travyon Martin, and how to overcome segregation and discrimination, in exchange for inspiration. While Bettina Love defends that instructional learning is taking place in the classroom, I would like the videos to help educators learn how a curriculum can integrate Hip Hop to creatively teach other subject areas like language arts, writing, math, science, and reading.