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Issues drug policy essay
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Changes by tupac summary
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In Changes by Tupac Shakur a black hip-hop artist, now deceased, he rapped about the African American subculture in America. The record label released this song in 1998; it is still popular within subcultures of America. He grew up in the 1980s. The policies of that period had influenced some of his music. I found videos of the song after a quick search on YouTube. The lyrics of this song are found on the internet from Google search of “Tupac, changes”. I have read the lyrics while listening to the music, Tupac emphasized on “that’s just the way it is” (2Pac-Changes). Tupac wanted the African American community to change their behaviors and rise above the social perception, but he believed the perception would never change. The song is very depressing, as Tupac mentioned in the song, when he wakes up he would question whether it is worth living, and wanting to shoot himself (2Pac-Changes). He is desperately wishing the society to transform into a utopia, for people of all colors to get along.
He performed in an African American slang, often calls other black individuals “nigga, or negro,” which he used frequently in his music (2PAC LYRICS). The lyrics were coded with messages that would not make sense to individuals not did not live through that period. The alliteration of the last word in every line and the way Tupac enunciated those words made the lyrics rhyme fluidly. By listening to the song, it is apparent Tupac focused on the last word of each line. He wanted the message in the song to sink in to the listeners. . In the song it went, “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero” (2PAC LYRICS). During the 1980s and 1990s, United States still had problems of police corruption and brutality. Whe...
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...ever get to law back, cause I always got to worry about payback” (2PAC LYRICS). Kids would grow up to be just as violent and paranoid as the previous generation. The cycle of violence would continue in the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The policies addressed in song hovers around the failure of War on Drugs, which increased the number of law enforcement abusing powers to harass African Americans. The harsh drug policies implemented under the Nixon administration targeted specific ethnic groups of the American population. Crack was the drug of choice of the African Americans, while powder cocaine was the drug predominately used by Caucasians. The disparity of the two mandatory drug sentencing of crack was 100 times harsher than cocaine. The passing of The Fair Sentencing Act under the Obama administration brought the ratio down to 18 to 1 in 2010 (ACLU).
In the short story “Tupac and My Non-Thug Life” by Jenee Desmond-Harris she talks about the death of Tupac Shakur and the impact it had on her and her friend Thea. I think its interesting that although Harris and Tupac are polar opposites she uses the connection of their race and applys it to this “coming of age” journey. Harris expresses that Tupacs music made her feel apart of something and that she valued the racial equality being voiced through his music. I can relate to this on multiple levels. For example when I’m feeling down and listen to sad music that i can relate to. Listening to music and lyrics that you can relate to brings you a sense of belonging like you arent the only one that has ever felt this way.
The theme of lines 1-5 in, ¨Untitled 1¨ by Tupac Shakur is that African Americans have been oppressed, over many generations. He describes the world, ¨as a ghetto, that they cannot leave,¨ referring to ghettos such as
Human rights experts have reported that in the 70s, African Americans in the U.S were already being overrepresented in drug arrests, with twice as many arrests as Caucasians (Fellner, 2009). Since the war on drugs began, African
Tupac Shakur was one of the most influential music artist of the 20th Century. “Murda, Murda, Murda, and Kill, Kill, Kill…” these are they lyrics to one of the songs written by Tupac Shakur. Amidst all the controversy surrounding his personal life, this artist has managed to overcome all obstacles and spread his hope/hate message to a surprisingly receptive audience. Tupac’s music is borrowed from the styles of early rap and hip-hop yet its appeal rested in Tupac himself. His persona of “Thug Poet” opened up a portal into the new genre of “Gangsta Rap.” This new style of music revolutionized the music industry and allowed several new artists to break through in Tupac’s creation, Gangsta Rap, such as; G-unit, Eminem, and many others.
“Keep ya head up things are going to get easier, keep yah head up things will get brighter”. Tupac had such a great talent, which made majority of his songs classics. Most of the rap
Mass Incarceration: The New Jim Crow is the direct consequence of the War on Drugs. That aims to reduce, prevent and eradicate drug use in America through punitive means. The effect of the war on drug policies returned de jure discrimination, denied African Americans justice and undermined the rule of law by altering the criminal justice system in ways that deprive African Americans civil rights and citizenship. In the “New Jim Crow” Alexandra argues that the effects of the drug war policies are not unattended consequences but coordinated by designed to deny African Americans opportunity to gain wealth, be excluded from gaining employment and exercise civil rights through mass incarceration and felony conviction. The war on drugs not only changes the structure of the criminal justice system, it also changes the ways that police officers, prosecutors and judges do their jobs.
While the War on Drugs may have been portrayed as a colorblind movement, Nixon’s presidency and reasoning for its implementation solidifies that it was not. Nixon coined the term “War on Drugs” in his 1971 anti-drug campaign speech, starting the beginning of an era. He voiced, “If there is one area where the word ‘war’ is appropriate, it is in the fights against crime” (DuVernay, 13th). This terminology solidified to the public that drug abusers were an enemy, and if the greatest publicized abusers were black, then black people were then enemy. This “war” started by Nixon claimed it would rid the nation of dealers, but in fact, 4/5 of arrests were for possession only (Alexander, 60). Nixon employed many tactics in order to advance the progress
United States Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs (Vol.12, No.2 (G)). New York: Human Rights Watch. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from Human Rights Watch Web site: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-01.htm. ACA Policies and Resolutions -. (2004, October ). The.
stated his hope that "the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities" (King 980-981). Unfortunately, upon analysis of the drug war, it is found that those dark clouds remain suspended above America,and that fog is as blinding as ever. Research into drug usage and selling has found that "drug use and selling are comparable across racial lines" (DPA). In light of this fact, it logically follows that arrest rates would be fairly even across racial lines, however, this is not the case. In fact, "African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense" (NAACP). There are many contributing factors that lead to these statistics, but the most prominent among them is the heavy scrutiny of poor, mostly minority neighborhoods. To make matters worse, sentencing for drug crimes also has a high racial discrepancy. According to the Sentencing Project, "African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months)"(NAACP). Another example of this is the disparity in sentencing is the comparison of those caught with powder cocaine and those caught with crack cocaine. Despite being essentially the same substance, "federal penalties for
The past quarter century of American history has been profoundly impacted by the “war on drugs.” Ever since the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 was passed by President Richard Nixon, the number of yearly incarcerations for drug violations has grown exponentially. America’s drug policies have cost billions of dollars and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Americans, yet rates of drug, property, and violent crime have failed to decrease. Yassaman Saadatmand summates the consequences of Nixon’s policies: “Not only has the drug war failed to reduce violent and property crime, but it has also shifted criminal justice resources (the police, courts, prisons, probation officers, etc.) away from directly fighting violent and property crime.” The issue is further complicated by racial inequalities in the rates of drug use and crime. Whereas Whites consist the majority of the population of any state, they are outnumbered by African-Americans in both state and federal prisons (E. Ann Carson 2013). This incongruity is paralleled with many other races, such as an overrepresentation of Native Americans and an underrepresentation of Asians in rates of drug use. What causes this imbalance? What purpose do the higher rates of incarceration for certain minorities serve? As this topic is explored, it becomes evident that the racial disparity in drug crime is perpetuated by America’s legacy of bigotry and racism, capitalism, and a cycle of poverty.
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests, though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug-related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases, whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to be a race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.” The war on drugs is greatly concentrated on cocaine and even more so on crack cocaine.
In “Changes” he raps about how his community needs change and he is the one to address the problem. Tupac’s lyrics go as follows, “We gotta make a change… / It 's time for us as a people to start makin ' some changes. / Let 's change the way we eat, let 's change the way we live / and let 's change the way we treat each other” (Shakur). In these lines he sets out what needs to happen in Harlem to make it a better place to live. Older rappers and rap groups like as N.W.A, Tupac, and Biggie are leaders that started change for their cities. Biggie Smalls was an iconic figure of this era as well. The song, “Sky’s the Limit” shows that he is trying to send the message that even though he came from a family of poverty, he did not let that bring his life down. “Take a better stand/Put money in my moms hand/Get my daughter this college plan, so she don 't need no man/Stay far from timid/Only make moves when ya heart 's in it/And live the phrase Sky 's The Limit” (Notorious B.I.G.). “Sky’s the Limit” gives the audience the hope that if you are born at the bottom, you do not necessarily have to end up in the same place. The biggest thing the Biggie Smalls is trying to say is that you can always have what you want, but it only matters if you be what you want. Biggie Smalls is drawing attention to
The lyrics that the rapper spit out has an impact on the community. The people who listen to rap listen to it and try do these illegal stuff in the street and get arrested by the police. This also impacted the African community by the police racially identifying them because they think they’re going to some illegal stuff. The type of rap Rappers are publishing in the 90’s made the police almost hate the whole Black community. Rap groups such as N.W.A had the worst by getting in trouble with the police almost all the type at concerts, crossing the street, in their own house and even in front of their own houses the police has to racially identify you if you’re doing anything
For example, Tupac commences his rap song by referring to poverty in the first few verses in his song as he states, “I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself/ Is life worth living should I blast myself? / I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black/ My stomach hurts so I’m looking for a purse to snatch,” (Shukar l. 2-4). In these verses Tupac indicates that many African Americans live in poverty and they are not given many opportunities to do well for themselves. Changes to better their situation seem unobtainable and he portrays the voice of impoverished groups as he questions his purpose in life. He contemplates whether or not he should continue living. This verse also indicates that people with very little opportunity must deviate from the norms which society has placed on them, meaning that because they have no opportunity they must resort to stealing in order to avoid