One of the most outspoken and socially conscious rappers around in the public eye today, Killer Mike, will be speaking at M.I.T. on April 24 as part of their Hip Hop Speaker Series. The Run The Jewels rapper will be address race relations in the United States, touching on recent flash points like Ferguson, the SAE incident in Oklahoma, white privilege and black empowerment. Since he is speaking at M.I.T., Killer Mike will also touch on how current and future technologies impact race relation issues.
The lecture is part two of the speaker series, which was kicked off with Young Guru earlier in the year. Lil B gave a speech in November at the prestigious sciences university. The speech is only open to M.I.T. students.
Mike has been a vocal activist about social issues in the United States, notably since the high-profile deaths of young black men at the hands of white police officers across the country.
He has appeared on CNN and penned several op-eds over the past few months. In a recent Billboard op-ed after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, he expressed his dismay at the state of policing in America and what he described is a sense of impunity that policemen have when dealing with American citizens.
"We trust police with the power of life and death and with that trust comes a greater responsibility to be better than the current standard of policing I see across America everyday. Being a cop must be hard. My dad was one, and never wanted any of his children to follow in his footsteps. Being a cop is often seeing the worst of the human condition and behavior. With all of that said, there is no reason that Mike Brown and also Eric Garner are dead today -- except bad policing, excessive force and the hunt-and-capture-prey mentality many thrill-seeking cops have adapted."
Expect much more of the same, powerful, activist message when he comes to M.I.T. on Friday evening.
