The Web that Captures the Lion

As we all sat down for the final activity for the Tela retreat I was thinking to myself that I was glad it was almost over. It was hot and we were outside and I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. But when Jeff brought out the yarn and told us what it was for, I got nervous out of nowhere. I kept thinking to myself what am I going to say, is everyone going to agree with me I didn’t know. I remembered in the previous activities that people mad mention that they came from single parent homes like me. With this information I felt that we in some way were connected. Yes we come from different parts of San Diego and we all have different up bringing’s but our stories and goals are one in the same. I looked back on the activities we did and I’m glad I came; I got to learn a lot about my fellow scholars and I also learned a lot about myself. I made a start in conquering my fear of public speaking and it’s all due to the activities we did all day. Now I feel comfortable approaching my classmates and my teachers and I also learned that it takes an incredibly strong person to ask someone for help to achieve your overall goal. When the yarn was thrown to me I knew exactly what I was going to say. I realized that the yarn created a web and it represents that we are all connected as one community.

Universal Ent.

 

One of the biggest thing that popped out at me in this article was the first assumption where it states, “entertainment is meant to divert us away from all our routines and everyday problems”, and to me that sums up entertainment as a whole. Entertainment to me is colorless; there is no color barrier for any range of entertainment like music, movies, and television. I think just because you have a majority of a race listen to one genera of music doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on it. Entertainment is universal and I believe that people are blinded by both the media and the hatred of ignorant people. Some of my best friends aren’t black and we love the same types of music, television, and movies; yes we do have disagreements on things but we have made those decisions based on watching or listening to the entertainment first. Everyone has the choice to read what they want, listen to what they want, and watch what they want, But everyone in the entertainment deserves the chances to be heard and not ruled out based on their ethnicity.  

Thug or Activist: The Two Faces of Tupac

When I mindlessly listen to the “murderous” lyrics of Tupac I hear a man that blatantly disrespect women and law enforcement. But when I take the time to truly listen to his lyrics I hear a man whom wants better for our race and wants to be remembered as a rapping activist. With Tupac’s style of rap it makes me wonder if he is all about violence or sending a positive message to the communities that listen to his songs. To me his lyrics are paradoxical and contradicting, for example, in Tupac’s song “Ambitionz AZ a Ridah” he states,” Was born rough and rugged, addressin the mad public my attitude was, "Fuck it,", “Not bitches over money Stay on your grind nigga”. This tells me he’s embracing part of his negative life style and promoting it.

 

 

 

 

 But in Tupac’s defense mass media can and has affected how the general public views him as a person. But in other songs such as “Changes” and “Keep Your Head Up” he is practically putting women on a pedestal. In the song “Keep Your Head Up” he states, “I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women.’’, and in the song “changes” he gives us a direct challenge by saying, “It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other.” these quote shows that he’s a good person and wants the best for our race. When it comes to Tupac he personifies through his music that a human is complex. Tupac made it okay for men and women to have many faces to their own identity and that's why Tupac was one of the greatest rappers of all time