Hos vs Queens

Tupac Shakur had many controversial views on life. However, one view about women differed from many rap artists who refereed to women as "bitches" or "hos". Tupac believed that there were three types of women: Bitches, hos, or queens who deserved respect. If a woman demanded respect then she deserved respect. I agree to some respect that this is correct but can it no apply to men also? Aren't there assholes in both genders? On a different note, in the film Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel: Life of an Outlaw, people compared him to the late Malcolm X. Although they both valued education and African American culture and pride, Malcolm X did not participate (after surrendering to the Nation of Islam) in drug use, fornication, or a typical "thug life". In fact, Malcolm X eventually valued himself in way that Tupac did not. Tupac perpetually smoked weed and drank. In the film I mentioned before a fellow artist said that Tupac did not like to be sober. Malcolm X did not want to put poisons into his body at all, because he believed that it was giving the white man power because you could not drink without breaking a government seal on the bottle. Despite the different Tupac Shakur was a revolutionary who reviled the truth about the ghetto and life in general. He admits his mistakes, and he fights for the truth to be unleashed.

The Problem is still here

(The Quote above was said by Malcolm X)

After listening to the blues and watching the movie Malcolm X, I ask myself How can I be proud of my heritage that is based on enslaving innocent people? The answer is that I am not proud at all. If anything I myself hold resentment to the fact that my ancestors enslaved innocent men and women. In a lot of ways, American has made leaps forward in racial equality, however, it is not equal. There are many examples from my own life dealing with racial inequality, both experiencing hatred towards me because of my skin color and also witnessing racial inequality towards black people. I was in the mall when I was around twelve years old when an older black woman came up to my friend and me. She said, " Boy you talkin' to the wrong color. White girls will only get you in trouble". From then on I thought something was wrong with being white, and now I am still not sure what to think. I am from a small and fairly liberal city in Virginia, but in the outskirts of my city it is like stepping back in time. My freshman year in High School I was determined to bridge the separation between the races. My sister told me after she picked me up from school one day that she had never seen such a divided school before. People who say racial equality has been reached are extremely naive. Watch this clip of Malcolm X's speech on the progress of racial equality. Then ask yourself how much has it really changed? If you think everything is dandy go to rural Virginia or Alabama or any place in the South and ask people questions. 

John Lee Hooker

Censorship?

How can the publishing company NewBooks censor such a great novel like Huckleberry Finn? Huck Finn is an accurate representation of the that time. Censoring just shelters our youth from the truth. We listen to music that uses the term "n*gger" everyday, and it doesn't even serve as a historical representation. Censoring Huck Finn makes what the slaves had to go through not accurate and not as horrible as it actually was. Soon enough our text books might not even use the term "slave" because it might offend someone;Hiding the truth just breads ignorance.

The Technological Era

Today any information is accessible throughout Internet, iphones, and many more devices. This advancement opens countless of doors. However, there are many downsides in having no boundaries. Growing up my family always had a TV in our house and at least a family computer. Eventually, we all got our own laptops. As a result, we spent less time together as a family causing us to talk less. I believe that this is a major problem for families today. Not only has technology lessened family time, it has changed media forever. For example, many people would rather watch a news broadcast on television or look up the news online than read a newspaper. Along with the news industry, the music industry has been effected greatly by technology. Today a person could find any song online and listen to said song for no cost at all. This many sound appealing, I myself do this, but the privilege of free music only damages the industry. Although it is illegal to download free music piracy still does damage. The people that do the most damage to the music industry are those that make mass copies of counterfeit albums. These people take away the revenue earned by the musicians we love so much. I also believe that the appreciation for music has depleted. People tend not to cherish something so readily available. I remember listening to my mom's story about saving her allowance and buying a vinyl record. She told me how she would always take such good care of her records, and she still has many of them today. I look back to when I would buy a CD and realized that I did not value the music as much as I should have. Nowadays CDs are rarely purchased because of the internet and things like itunes. I ask myself, what should we do about this problem? I have no answer. I also use these resources, but I think this realization is disheartening.

Entertainment downfall

Recently I have come to realize how much American entertainment has dumbed down and lacks intellectually stimulating content. From Reality T.V. to Jersey Shore, the television and music quality is on a downward spiral. Most of television and popular music today is about having sex, getting wasted, or money. Are these things really what the youth of America chose to live by? The following video clip is from the featured film "Idiocracy". This clip shows an extreme version of how our world could be like in the future. 

Although some of America's youth values intellectual entertainment, the majority waste their time listening to ,"Yeah you can shake some more" by Pittbull when they could be listening to music that actually serves a cause, besides making money, getting laid, and getting wasted. Unfortunately I have could not think of a resolution to this unfortunate problem. This only thing that I can think of that could change this pattern is something so horrible happening that it sparks a revolution. For example, in the 60s the Vietnam war utilized drafting which caused many to protest. If the U.S. today used the draft, I believe that it would have had the same effect on American youth.