The War On Drugs And Living For The City

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Thesis: The War on Drugs, the rise of gangs in Los Angeles, and incidents of police brutality all had a significant impact on social dynamics and prolonged structural injustices. Well-known songs like “Changes” by Tupac Shakur and “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder highlight these hardships and the perseverance required to overcome hardships, calling for group action in the direction of justice and equality. In the 1970s, New York City was an economic wasteland plagued with limited economic opportunities, wage gaps, and systemic issues like redlining, which have compounded over time, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. New York City was riddled with severe economic and political troubles, unlike what the city’s inhabitants had experienced …show more content…

On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon held a press conference, declaring drugs to be “public enemy number one” and therefore initiating the war on drugs. However, when Nixon resigned from office in 1974 and Jimmy Carter stepped in, these policies became dull. After Jimmy Carter's presidency, the war on drugs gained renewed momentum during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and he significantly expanded these efforts. At first, domestic anti-drug policies were widely accepted because the use of drugs, such as crack, was accompanied by an alarming spike in homicides and other violent crimes nationwide. These policies had the backing of most of the black community because they wanted to get drug dealers out of their neighborhoods and help the people negatively affected by the drug epidemic (Morrison). Reagan went on to later lose a large portion of that support because in 1986 Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. This act established mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain drug offenses. While good in theory, this policy was heavily criticized for its racist ramifications, as it allocated longer prison sentences for instances involving the same amount of crack rock, which was used more often by black Americans, as powdered cocaine, which …show more content…

This led to Tupac being a very outspoken and influential adult who was not afraid to express his ideas. In his song, "Changes," he reflects on the harsh realities and systemic disadvantages he has faced: “I’m tired of bein’ poor, and even worse, I’m black. My stomach hurts, so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch” (Shakur). Tupac emphasizes the inherent struggle of a black person to become successful in society, simply because of their skin tone. The line, “I’m tired of being poor, and even worse, I’m black,” demonstrates that due to the finite amount of opportunities for black Americans to find jobs and prosper economically, being black is an even worse fate than being poor. He later goes on to explain that a leading cause of crime is desperation. The lack of income in the black community is such an abundant issue that some people within the community resort to crime just to put food on their table. This crime, which originates from necessity, evolves into violence, resulting in people within the black community harming each other. Due to the rise of gangs in Los Angeles and the violence that comes with it, Tupac believes that “and as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped /

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