Within

When we do find true free from

And peace from a piece of

Will our hearts fall into the unconditional love we shed  and blood for

Or will we twist our heads backward

And realize the daily comsumption of battling the concepts set forth that gave us a purpose led by that search of true peace

Energy is eaten alive by those starvin for attention to lead...

Missing the vicious cycle of the cries and how our wounds bleed...

Wonder no more for what is on the out has been inside the whole time...

Within...

How Tupac Shakur is Relevant to Native Americans

How Tupac was Relevant to Native Americans

Before Tupac Shakur was born, his maternal ancestors resisted oppression alongside Native Americans.  In the years to follow, Tupac’s life reflected the same resistence.  Poverty, oppression, drug epidemic, and violation of civil rights is explored in the book, “Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon”, co-written by Fred L. Johnson III PhD.  The relevance between Tupac Shakur and Native Americans is the social problems in inner city black communities and Indian reservation communities.  Tupac’s internal message was to help his community overcome disparity. 

When he was born in 1971, Afeni first named him Lesane Parish Crooks.  She then renamed him Tupac Amaru, who was an Incan Emperor around 1571 to 1572.  Johnson points out that he was known for resisting Spanish colonialism and injustices (33).  Tupac would revitalize this name and be influenced by Native American stories and his families involvement in fighting for civil rights. 

Afeni shared stories with Tupac about the Lumbee Indians in North Carolina. Tupac’s maternal ancestors were influenced to resist against oppression by the Lumbee Indians (Johnson 5).  Stories like the Henry Lowery War in 1865, where Henry Lowery and the Lumbee Indians began a seven year campaign of guerilla war against the Confederacy.  Another story was about how the Native Americans, Black Americans, and poor White Americans came together to disperse a rally by the Ku Klux Klan in Lumberton, North Carolina in 1958.  This began Tupac’s education about the struggles in oppression and poverty. 

            As Tupac went through his childhood, he realized his family was poor.  America was at its best to gain material wealth and forget about its poor communities.  In Tupac Resurrection: In His Own Words, Tupac expresses, “Poverty, if I hated anything it’d be that” (DVD).  He wrote poetry and kept a diary to escape reality.  His mother became concerned about his education and placed him into the Baltimore School of Arts.  Tupac began to develop his talents as an actor and rap artist through skits and song performances.  In 1988, due to unemployment, his family moved to Marin City, California.  This transition broadened Tupac’s view on poverty. 

            In Marin City, Tupac realized that poverty not only affected his family, but black communities in general.  When he saw similarities in black communities he said, “I made it to where I had knowledge that… it was my people… getting dogged out it wasn’t just my family it was all of us” (DVD).  Tupac could relate to all his people that were impoverished.  Despite the hardships, he tried to remain positive and believed goods things would come.  At this time, drug addiction devastated his community.

Crack cocaine became a drug epidemic in black communities.  His mother became addicted to crack cocaine. Tupac then turned to the streets he lived in for guidance of a male influence.  He hung out with drug dealers, pimps and criminals that influenced his character.  Tupac stated in his movie Tupac Resurrection that, “These were my role models” (DVD).  He tried to sell drugs but he didn’t know how.  He started to utilize his talents he acquired at the Baltimore School of Arts.

            Tupac became recognized as raw talent in the rap world.  The hip hop culture was beginning to develop into mainstream America.  In the book, “Tupac Resurrection: 1971 to 1996”, Tupac expresses opportunity to write songs about the oppression in his community (70).  This idea came from the footage of the Vietnam War.  In his first album, “2pacalypse Now”, Tupac’s first single “Trapped” became a hit.  The song reflected on police harassment and how young black males start to despise law enforcement.  A month after his album debuted, Tupac’s single became reality.

            On October 17^th, 1991, Tupac became a victim of police brutality.  He was stopped by police officers for jay walking.  The police officers ridiculed him about his name.  Tupac offended the officers causing them to throw him to the ground (Johnson 91).  They choked him until he was unconscious and took him to jail.  Tupac filed a lawsuit against the City of Oakland, California, Dept. of Police.  Tupac experienced first hand the violation of civil rights.  This motivated him to resist against social issues.

            In relevance in police brutality, John T. Williams was killed by Seattle Police.  He was shot for carrying a 3 inch knife in public.  He was to be considered a wood carver which is tradition.  According to The Seattle Times newspaper, Jenine Grey stated, “This tragedy should never have happened… We are worried about our most vulnerable community members who suffer harassment and abuse on the streets of Seattle”.  This evidence is recent of police brutality because this took place in 2010.  Tupac’s Thug Life would resist police brutality as well.

            Thug Life-The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone, was Tupac’s philosophy on social changes.  The changes he wanted to see dealt with black on black violence, drug addiction, and drug dealing.  Due to gang warfare, drug addiction, police brutality, and fascist laws, the community was destined toward genocide (Tupac Resurrection 116). .  In 1992, a Truce Picnic between Bloods and Crips adopted Tupac’s codes of the Thug Life.   Although the people that went through the turmoil and disparities understood Thug Life, mainstream America didn’t.  Tupac’s ambition for social change turned him into a leader. 

            Gang violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has devastated the communities youth.  Relevance to what Tupac had seen in his own community.  According to the New York Times on Dec. 13^th, 2009, “Indian gangs are one more destructive force toward the poorest county in America.”  Again, Tupac’s social change would be beneficial to the Native American youth today.  His message is relevant to today’s social issues among Native Americans society. 

            Tupac’s message was inspired from other powerful leaders who also wanted to see change for their people.  Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were some of leaders who inspired his efforts.  Tupac’s message told the people in his community to bring order to the streets (Tupac Resurrection 117).  If selling drugs was part of the community, then it would be regulated by where it could be sold and who could sell it.  Other people that were involved in social change were Leonard Peltier and Geromino Pratt.  Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner of the United States and he was an American Indian Movement (AIM) member.  Geromino Pratt was Tupac’s godfather and he was a member of the BPP who is a political prisoner of the United States.

            The BPP and AIM were relevant to Tupac’s social changes because their primary purpose was to bring justice and equality to their people.  Even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were to give minorities equality, these Acts did little to help reverse the oppression in poor communities in America (Johnson p.15-18).  Tupac uses a metaphor of hungry people asking for food inside a building filled with food:

“’We are hungry, please let us in’…After about a week that song is going to change to ‘We hungry, we need some food’…After two weeks it’s like ‘Give me some food, we’re bangin’ on the door’…After a year its like, ‘I’m pickin the lock, comin’ through the door blastin’… We asked with the Black Panthers.  We asked with the civil rights movements.  Now what do you think we are going to do… Ask?” 

This is when Tupac’s life did a 180 degree turn. 

In 1995, Tupac was shot five times in New York, NY.  He was also convicted of sex abuse.  He felt paranoid because he felt betrayed by the community he represented.  He also felt the injustices of his conviction of sex abuse.  In his sentencing statement, Tupac Shakur stated to the judge:

            “You know Your Honor throughout this entire court case you haven’t         looked me or my attorney in the eye once.  It is obvious that you’re not here in search of justice so therefore there is no point in me asking for a      lighter sentence.  I don’t care what you do because you’re not respecting us.  This is not a court of law as far as I’m concerned.  No justice is being         served here and you still can’t look me in the eye.  So I say do what you           want to do.  Give me whatever time you want because I’m not in your          hands.  I’m in God’s hands.” (Johnson: pg.154).

           

In the documentary, Incident at Oglala, Leonard Peltier made a similar statement to a judge regarding the injustices in his conviction of murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  The statement as follows:

             “There’s no doubt in my mind or my people’s minds you are going to         sentence me to two consecutive life terms.  You are and have always        been prejudice against me and any Native Americans who have stood           before you.  You have openly favored the government all through this trial.     And you are happy to do whatever the FBI would want you to do in this     case.  Your about to perform an act which will close one more chapter in   the history of the failure of the United States courts and the failure of the           people justice in a case of a Native American.  Could I have been wise in             thinking that you would break that tradition and commit an act of justice?” (Incident at Oglala DVD)

These two men were victims of a society that judged them for what they stood for.  Tupac would find out who shot him and seek retaliation through his music.

Tupac appealed his case and signed a music contract with Death Row record label.  This signed contract gave Tupac the ability to bail out on a $1.4 million dollar bond.  “Tupac is Death Row”, is what Suge Knight told news reporters (Tupac Resurrection DVD).  Suge Marion Knight was the co-executive producer of the record label.  Other rappers signed to the Death Row record label were amazed with Tupac’s work ethic as a rap artist. 

            The people that laid the foundation for Tupac to strive for what he believed in were his mother, members of the Black Panther Party and people is his neighborhood.  He was definitely for the people that had nothing and were impoverished.  The things that Tupac and some other rappers rapped about already existed long before rap music started.  Tupac was telling stories of people he was influenced by and considered role models.  The ones that helped him become successful as a writer were those that participated in the street game. 

            In the future, people that want to help others and understand time lines of people that became a voice for those that experienced oppression, will need to research Tupac Shakur and what he stood for.  His music is a lay out of his life’s work and also a mystery in prophesying his own death.  For the lifestyle that he lived, death is always around the corner.  Tupac Amaru Shakurs accomplishments gave him an ambitious and complex charismatic identity.

           

           

Works Cited

Hoye, Jacob and Karolyn Ali Ed. Tupac Resurrection 1971-1996. 1^st ed. New York. Atria Books. 2003. Print.

Eckholm, Erik. “Indian Gangs Grow, Bringing Fear and Violence to Reservation.” New York Times. New York Times, 14 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2009.

Incident at Oglala. Dir. Michael Apted. Narr. Robert Redford. Artisan. 1991. DVD.

Mapes V. Lynda. “Native American leaders call for probe into shooting death”.

 The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times. 3 Sep. 2010. Web. 4 Sep. 2010.

McQuillar, Tayannah Lee and Fred L. Johnson III. Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Idol. Cambridge: DaCapo, 2010. Print.

Tupac Resurrection: in his own words. Dir. Lauren Lazin. Narr. Tupac Amaru Shakur. MTV Films/Amaru Enterainment, Inc. 2003. DVD.

Annotated Bibliography

McQuillar, Tayannah Lee and Fred L. Johnson III. Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Idol. Cambridge: DaCapo, 2010. Print.

1. Tupac’s great, great grandparents met in Lumberton, North Carolina, where the Lumbee Indians resisted the Europeans invasion for two centuries (pp.5-9).
2. Tupac’s mother Alice Faye recalls the time of educational injustices and how municipal leaders defied the development of infrastructure in black communities both south and north states.(pg.13)
3. Tupac became a young activist in his generation and showed it thru his talents of rapping, poetry, acting, and demonstrating ambition in its truest form (chap. 19,22,33).

Tupac Resurrection: in his own words. Dir. Lauren Lazin. Narr. Tupac Amaru Shakur. MTV Films/Amaru Enterainment, Inc. 2003. DVD.

1. “If there was no money and everything depended on your moral standards and the way you treated people.  We’d be millionaires. We’d be rich.  But since it’s not like that were stone broke…Poverty, if I hated anything it’d be that.”(qtd. Tupac Shakur, chapter 2. Poverty’s no joke).
2. “When I say I live the thug life baby im hopless…I’m doing for the kid that really lives the thug life and feels like it’s hopeless…I think I’m being responsible but its hard…I get writers block, can’t say that…”(qtd. Tupac Shakur, chapter 9. My Big Mouth)
3. “When I’m saying thug, I mean not criminals, someone that beats you over the head, I mean the underdog.  A person that has nothing…overcomes all obstacles…no home to go to…my head is up high, my chest is out…I’m being strong.  What makes my freedom less worth fighting for than Bosnians or who ever they want to fight for this year.  They should be giving money to the ghetto… The code of thug life…putting order to the violence in the streets…”(qtd. Tupac Shakur, chapter 8, America is Thug Life)

Monjauze, Molly ed. And Coz, Gloria ed. And Robinson, Staci ed. Tupac Remembered: bearing witness to a life and legacy. San Francisco: becker&mayer!. 2008. Print.

1. Jada Pinkett Smith reflects on when she met Tupac Shakur and how there friendship developed into a definition of unconditional love (pp.30-35).
2. Lori Earl, a veteran publicist reflects on the media trying to make Tupac Shakur’s music negative toward society as a whole (pp.54-56).
3. Maya Angelou reflects when she met Tupac and how she gave him guidance and wisdom to keep positive (pg.74-75).

Hoye, Jacob and Karolyn Ali Ed. Tupac Resurrection 1971-1996. 1^st ed. New York. Atria Books. 2003. Print.

1. Tupac Shakur endures police brutality and files a lawsuit against the City of Oakland, California (pg.78-79).
2. Tupac expresses how his mother and other female figures helped him have a heart and express issues in his environment (pg14-17,50,90-93)
3. Tupac was convicted of sexual abuse in 1995, and with the help of the media he was viewed as guilty before he was judged by the jury (pg.139-149).

Pevar, Stephen.  The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Authoritative ACLU Guide to Indian and Tribal Rights.  Ed. Eve Cary.  New York and London.  American Civil Liberties Union. 2004. Print.

1. A history of Federal Indian Policy (pg.1-15).
2. The source and scope of federal power over Indians(pg.58-59).
3. The civil rights of Indians and the struggles they have faced in the past and in the present (pg260-273).