Hip hop has played a role in the Zapatista movement by teaching and educating urban youths with artistic styles of collective resistance. This form of music is instrumental in highlighting past struggles relating to indigenous peoples resistances against powerful institutions of the state. Moreover, hip hop pedagogy plays a role in reclaiming a cultural heritage that has been deteriorated by Neoliberal policies and globalization. This music teaches and energizes youths in urban communities to not remain submissive to authority. One of the goals of hip hop pedagogy is to erase the colonial mindset that has persisted throughout the centuries. For example, structures of power still exist within urban environments that festers into racial discrimination
