I want to be a civil rights leader when I die

In case you were able to go all day without hearing the news and shedding a tear or “pouring some liquor,” yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Tupac Amaru Shakur. I found out from the hub of all hip hop news—NPR. What shocked me about NPR’s coverage of this “story,” was the airtime that they gave Tupac’s mother and the others involved in the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts and other charities set up in his name.

You should have heard her talk about her son. About the 9 foot tall bronze statue of Tupac (in a three piece suit and cross necklace, or “Jesus chain”) that stands in the middle of the Foundation’s expansive grounds. About how complex, conflicted, and misunderstood her son was. About how NPR had to play snippets of the same song four or five times because the rest of his songs were ripe with foul language or explicit topics. Oh wait. That last one wasn’t mentioned.

What really riled me up was how everyone seems to have forgotten what he was actually all about. In ridiculously sharp contrast to the comparisons to Malcolm X and MLK Jr. that several people affiliated with his Foundation were making, Tupac was obsessed with the violent gang culture that eventually did him in. Anyone who has seen the 2 hour VH1 Behind the Music about the whole east coast/west coast rap wars will remember the footage of Tupac grinning widely while brandishing a fistful of cash under the watchful eye of Suge Knight. I think that his mother is guilty of misunderstanding who her son was and what it is he represents.

I am not putting Tupac down here. I just want his legacy to accurately reflect who he was. I listened to him quite a bit during college and readily admit that he was a talented guy. Nobody before or since has looked as tough as Tupac while wearing a denim vest. After all, I modeled my own “Thug Life” tattoo after his. My beef here is the comparisons with Malcolm and MLK. His mother even spoke about her hopes to coordinate the efforts of the Foundation with Nelson Mandela’s work.

As soon as that happens, I’m going to suggest to Bill Gates that we merge our fortunes and coordinate our philanthropic activities.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the end of segregation in the Mansfield ISD. To hear people like Tupac being, as one NPR pundit put it, “repurposed” for this generation, I fear that those of us who weren’t around to hear MLK speak or ride a bus across town to a school in a different neighborhood, will cease to appreciate what kind of person it actually takes to motivate people to do good and bring about positive change. Let’s listen to Tupac’s music, but not follow in his footsteps.

Tupac and MLK were both killed by guns—Tupac because of his violent lifestyle, MLK because of his resistance to hatred. There’s no need to “repurpose” someone like Tupac when there are so many good people out there to follow.