Among the awards young singer and actress Alicia Keys has won are 11 Grammys, 11 Billboard Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards, and 14 NAACP Image Awards. But it turns out that Ms. Keys (nee Alicia J. Augello-Cook) has a sense of racial politics less aligned with the historic ideals of the NAACP than it is of the Black Panthers.Indeed, the 27-year old has a thing for the Panthers. She's read several of their autobiographies and hopes to write more political songs presenting their philosophy. Keys told Blender magazine, "If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton 'had the outlets our musicians have today, it'd be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself.'
The article also presented some of the conspiracy theories she's adopted. One is that "gangsta" rap music was a method developed by the white power structure as "a ploy to convince black people to kill each other." She also is convinced that the violent feud that cost the lives of rap musicians Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."
Keys has even made her new ideas into a fashion statement, wearing a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead."
Another role model for America's teenage girls?
