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Racial discrimination within the U.S. criminal justice system
Racial discrimination within the U.S. criminal justice system
Race discrimination in the police force
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Throughout the years many people have put their feelings about the United States Justice system into poems or songs. We have heard various artist refer to the system as being very corrupt and about public officials abusing their power. In 2002, Lauryn Hill released the MTV Unplugged 2.0 album. On this album, there were twenty-one songs. One of the songs was called “The Mystery of Iniquity”. This song featured many verses that reflect the corruption in the American legal system. This song also reveals many significant facts about America’s justice system. Finally, in this song she instructs people to wake up and realize that everything the government tells us is not the truth. Lauryn Hill has never been shy when expressing her beliefs in her songs. Lauryn Hill was first with the Fugees when America first heard her unique voice. As a singer and rapper, she has always been very …show more content…
In this song, she sings about events that have oppressed the African American people and other ethnicities in the United States for many years. In the song she states (line 60) “Mafia with diplomas keeping us in a coma trying to own a piece, of the "American Corona”, The Revolving Door, Insanity every floor, Skyscraping, paper chasing, What are we working for? Empty traditions, Reaching social positions, Teaching ambition to support the family superstition?” In this part of the song she is saying that everyone today is trying to be successful and trying to accomplish the American dream. She says that trying too hard to be successful is toxic and it will mess with one’s traditions that he or she does. She also is saying that in some ways it will mess with one’s social abilities with one’s family and friends. Success is only good if one is doing good and feeling good in the end. It is not good when there is no good in involved. Therefore, that’s why she calls it
... song entitled “Formation”. The filming took place in Los Angeles, but features references to Hurricane Katrina, with Beyoncé on top of a police car in a flooded street and later cuts to a man holding a newspaper with Martin Luther King Jr.’s face on it with the title “The Truth”. Later a young hooded boy dances in front of a line of police officers with their hands up before the video cuts to a graffitied wall with the words “stop shooting us “ tagged on it, at the end of the video the police car sunk with her on top. Not only did this song, bring awareness to the 10th anniversary of hurricane Katrina it also brought awareness to police brutality, racism, and the “black lives matter movement”. I stand with Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, the people of New Orleans and the countless others who are pushing for a change in the way minorities and the lower class citizen are treated.
“Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase (Charles Caleb Colton).” Colton describes that once corruption has begun, it is difficult to stop. Corruption has existed in this country, let alone this very planet, since the beginning of time. With corruption involves: money, power, and favoritism. Many people argue today that racism is still a major problem to overcome in today’s legal system. American author (and local Chicago resident) Steve Bogira jumps into the center of the United States justice system and tells the story of what happens in a typical year for the Cook Country Criminal Courthouse, which has been noted as one of the most hectic and busiest felony courthouses in the entire country. After getting permission from one of the courthouse judges’ (Judge Locallo) he was allowed to venture in and get eyewitness accounts of what the American Legal System is and how it operates. Not only did he get access to the courtroom but: Locallo’s chambers, staff, even his own home. In this book we get to read first hand account of how America handles issues like: how money and power play in the court, the favoritism towards certain ethnic groups, and the façade that has to be put on by both the defendants and Cook County Workers,
She alludes to the idea that as people we must look deeper into our lives and see were we may have been given unearned privilege whether is be from race, gender, or sexuality.
The music video of “Crooked Smile” by J. Cole illustrates a story that not most people see. The music video reenacts the incident that involved the slain of Aiyana Jones. Although the music video portrays a tragic event, the lyrics of the music video tell a different story. The lyrics tell a message to people, especially females, to love themselves and to not worry what others think of them. In the music video “Crooked Smile,” Cole illustrates the war between the government, drugs, and the innocent victims who are caught in between them. With the song and music video combined, the message to its viewers is to find change and peace not only in the community, but also in our minds.
The article “Rap Lyrics on Trial” written by Erik Nielson and Charis E. Kubrin was about Vonte Skinner, a man who was convicted for attempted murder for 30 years based on the evidence of rap lyrics written before the crime. The court case didn’t have sufficient evidence to convict Skinner because the witness changed their stories many times to be considered consistent, but the jury felt convinced Skinner was guilty when they heard Skinner’s lyrics: “In the hood, I am a threat / It’s written on my arm and signed in blood on my Tech” and “I’m in love with you, death”. Neilson and Kubrin argued whether rap lyrics should be presented as a piece of evidence after Skinner’s conviction is overturned. They claimed that when rap lyrics are
It starts by describing a young woman in college, stating, “she has no idea what she’s doing in college, the major she majored in don’t make no money, she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny (West).” By doing this the song establishes that this woman wants success but she doesn’t know how to obtain it since she was basically pushed into pursuing a career in college that she was unsure of in order to obtain success. The song furthers the story of the woman when she states that she gives up and goes on to say that her tuition money is enough to buy a few pairs of new shoes. The desire for success and frustration of not being able to achieve it, is what essentially leads the woman to take this shortcut of dropping out of school to acquire material possessions in the “now” instead of the slower, more standard route of finishing her education and finding success through that. Kanye West then describes in the song his addiction to material possessions when he began to acquire wealth from his music career.
The song is set around Chief keef being on the phone and talking to a woman, he refers to the woman on the song as a bitch, hoe, and thottie. The word thottie is derived from the word thot, which is an acronym for “that hoe over there”. The song states “You wanna Glo up, baby, Keef got you/You's a gold bottle, these hoes pink Moscato/Baby I'm the owner, you can be my castle”. This line right here compares the woman to other women by saying she is a better bottle of liquor than other women and calls her his property when he says you can be my castle. Then he goes on to say in the song “ Baby cause I like you/Only reason I text you and why I Skype you/I just wanna fuck on you, I don't wanna wife you/But you gotta brush your teeth and do what I say though/(Hello?)/Bitch can you hear me?/Keep your pussy in park, no 360... I don't wanna smell you/Cause I'ma cut/you off, quicker than I met you/I'ma swipe your name up off my schedule/And if smoke this blunt, girl, I'm gon' forget you”. The lyrics basically says the women is just there for his sexual pressure and he does not plan on making her more than that; he also tells the women that he has to be the one in control if she wants to continue this relationship; then he tells her, he will completely stop communicating/seeing her, if she does not do what he wants her to do and she can be
Hip-hop music is the best base form of music to invoke change because songs can be written quickly by rappers to address their communities. Hip-hop started in the early 1970’s in minority-filled neighborhoods that were surrounded with poverty, crime, and drugs. Over time, hip-hop has been changed to express different messages. At its beginning the message was positive addressing the problems of poor neighborhoods and now the message is flashy and unclear. With this change
Hi-tech lynching has even effected the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson. The “policemen of the electronic age” have been involved in destroying the reputation of Jackson by playing video clips and interviews that mock his personal lifestyle (Koppersmith 1). Various networks feed on ratings, instead of the valued notions of morality. Michael Jackson’s case has become the example of guilty until proven innocent, even though we, as American citizens claim to value due process and equal representation under the law.
Tupac Shakur, born the son of two Black Panthers in 1971, grew up to be one of the best-selling rappers of all time, selling over 75 million records even after his tragic death in 1996. His song “Changes” recorded in 1991 and produced in 1998 (based on Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is") discussed many of the injustices the African American population face, focusing on racism, the war on drugs, the perpetuation of poverty, and the overall oppression the African American population experiences (Statistics Brain Research Institute, 2017). I chose this song to discuss because some of the specific injustices he mentioned throughout the song mirrored many discussions we have had in class.
“Polluted, recruited and suited judicial charm.”(Hill , Line 49). This line from Lauryn Hill’s poem “Mystery of Iniquity” describes the status of the Corrupt Judicial system in America past and present .This poem describes a world of Corruption, racial inequality and racial oppression .This poem was published and released a year after the terrorist attack 9/11 at this time Other minorities and African Americans were often being violently lashed out at by Americans because of terror attacks in New York. In addition, for years African Americans have been incarcerated more and faster ten any other race in this country. The way this poem is formed is very unique and influential. It
This song implies that individual’s are violating the norms and values of society. They start the song with a verse that expresses this concern. “What’s wrong with the world, mama/ People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas…” (lines 1-2). This makes one aware of the disobedience of values that are held in the family. Values are “standard[s] of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes.” (Newman, 32) Another verse in this song that illustrates how society is defying norms and values is when they sing: “People killin', people dyin'/ Children hurt and you hear them cryin/ Can you practice what you preach/ And would you turn the other cheek…” (lines 50-53). These lines utter that society has failed to act in a sane and coherent way that society once viewed as correct. The actions affirm that individuals are not living up to society’s norms. Norms are similar to “rules of conduct” and suggest how an individual “should” act. (Newman, 34) In the song they question the acts that would be taken that violate certain norms. Another example of the infringement of society’s norms and values is expressed when the s...
The famous song “Let the Mystery Be,” written and performed by Iris Dement in 1992, is centered on Iris’s personal philosophy on the question of religion and life’s origins. The song begins with the chorus, which is repeated two times throughout track. The first half of the chorus states that people are always concerned with the question of how life began and what happens after we die. Then in the second half, Iris ties the theme of the song together by maintaining that since no one knows the exact answer to these questions, she’ll just “let the mystery be.” The first verse of the tune considers popular perspectives on the questions mentioned in the chorus. She begins each idea with, “some say…” and then summarizes its ideology. Some of the
Hip Hop was, at its inception, a means for African Americans to tell their unaltered story. Towards the mid-’90s however, the genre began to be way more salse conscious than it ever was before. Artists, such as Nas for example, began to stray from their genuine and authentic selves to start making music about drugs, violence, and sex because that was what pushed their sales to the corporate level. This album was Lauryn Hill coming to re-educate the people in an attempt to bring them back to the root of Hip Hop. This poem focuses on many different themes, however this focuses on religion. In the poem Mystery of Iniquity the writer Lauryn Hill examines religion to illustrate racial discrimination, corrupting and crooked
In the opening section of the Investigations, Wittgenstein gave a simple statement as ‘a particular picture of the essence of human language’. The individual words of language name objects sentences are combinations of such names. In this picture of language we find the roots of the following idea: Every word has a meaning. This meaning is correlated with the word. It is the object for which the word stands (PI 1). It means there is a relationship between words and objects through language. We might say that in the case of word and object it is one of meaning- the meaning of a word being ‘the object for which the word stands’. The meaning seems to depend, rather, on the meanings of the words making up the sentence.