Thanks to one of my regular readers (Pjazzy) for alerting me to this story. Within the past week, the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (located in Stone Mountain, Georgia) has twice been the target of vandals. During the morning of October 20th, vandals not only defaced the building, but they also tied a noose around the neck of the Bronze statue of the slain rapper. On the following Monday, the statue was covered with fliers which contained rants about 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The fliers were also alleged to contain veiled threats against various rappers and record companies. The Dekalb County Sheriff's office is investigating both acts as hate crimes, with one male suspect in police custody. For the complete story, click here.First, we had the Jena 6 case. Then, earlier this month, a noose was hung on the door of a black professor at Columbia University. This foolishness has got to stop!
3 comments:
Around the Net, I've seen increasing candor of racial hatred, the vast majority of it whites ranting about non-whites (Latinp, "immigrants," African American, so on). I'd expect a lot more of it to come in future generations--not just the threat of violence, but violence itself, eventually.
Society has become increasingly segregated in my lifetime, so there is less opportunity for direct cognitive dissonance, even in places like Jena, which was racially integrated as a school, but where racial divides were enforced by choice and custom.
I thought that this was a sad state of affairs. What I mean by that is, Tupac's mother established this center as a creative outlet for children and I find myself appalled when some knuckleheads come around to deface what she is trying to build. How depraved are the individuals that would do something like this?
Dell X's comments are dead on when he says that society is "increasingly segregated", which does create divisions and thus minimal communication. It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Forcing individuals to intergrate does not bring about any meaningful understanding or change.
Locking whoever did this in jail is really not the answer. That alternative leads to more hate and bitterness. They should definitely have to make restitution by literally cleaning up the mess they made and possibly serving probation and some community service in the place they attempted to destroy.
Wow. This is one sad story. This really got to me:
"The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation is now in the process of raising money to construct a fence around the parameters of the Center to prevent these types of incidents from occurring again"
So rather than this money being spent to further along the positive work that this foundation is doing they are being forced to reaise funds to protect the building from _________ racists? This is sick. What is wrong with people? Seriouly - I don't get it, I can't comprehend this kind of ignorant hate.
My listens to mostly Hip Hop and is a big fan of Tupac, he says no one else has come close to being as good at getting a message across.
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