TUPAC ON WHY WE’RE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY!

In this clip from a 1994 MTV News interview, hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur (1971-96) explains how frustration with a defunct system can build up - and boil over. At first, people ask politely for change… but when nothing is done to address their distress, over time, politeness turns to rage.

The Civil Rights Act outlawing race-based discrimination was signed in 1964. Over six decades later, policies rooted in centuries of racism and White-supremacism continue to impact Black people in the US.

For example, in the prison-industrial complex, Black people are disproportionately incarcerated: while they make up only 13% of the US population, they account for nearly 40% of all people in jail.

In 2024, Black people accounted for almost 23% of those killed by police.

Instead of finding solutions to such urgent matters, the US continues to ignore its obligations to the descendants of those whose enslaved labour it benefitted from for over 400 years. Worse, the current Trump administration took the retrograde step of scrapping policies such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that were introduced as attempts at redress.

Sources

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/racial_and_ethnic_disparities

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org

https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons-the-sentencing-project/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/30/1964-civil-rights-act-turns-60/73892426007/

https://apnews.com/article/trump-dei-executive-order-diversity-inclusion-f67ea86032986084dd71c5aa0c6b8d1d

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/18/trump-administration-gives-schools-deadline-end-dei-programs-risk-losing-federal-money/