Inequality in America
America is commonly known as the “Land of Free”, but it’s a nation built off of the death and suffering of minorities. Despite the Constitution stating “all men are created equal”, this has rarely been put into practice during the United State’s history. Even with all the reforms we have seen, there still have been many instances of injustice for African Americans, such as Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Americans have expressed their distaste about inequality in America through many forms. Such as protest,poetry, television and movies, and especially in music.
In over the 200 years the United States has existed people have made hundreds of songs talking about the injustices. The playlist that I’ve created has nine different songs talking specifically about the inequalities African Americans go through, broken into three different sections. The first section of the playlist has songs describing the inequalities that African Americans face, and how it’s affected our communities. The second part of the playlist shows the anger of the community and how they’re tired of change not happening. And the final section of the playlist shows the hopeful side of the community, and how people are determined to make change happen.
The first third of the playlist features songs from artist J. Cole, Denzel Curry, and Joyner Lucas. These three songs describe some of the discrimination African Americans have to go through, and they each express it in different ways. In the J. Cole’s song, “Be Free”, Cole is rapping about how African Americans are still basically going through slavery whether it’s in a phyiscal or mental sense. On the Genius page explaining the song it states, “Speaking for all the people that have experienced a worldwide phenomenon that is still happening to this day; slavery. However, Cole is specifically talking about the calamity that has imprisoned generations upon generations of African-Americans. There are several forms of slavery, ranging from psychological binding to physical incarceration. Here, it’s a mixture of all. The classicism, the racism, all of that combined here. The chains of brutality and injustice on a whole ethnicity of people.” On Denzel Curry’s song “SIRENS” he talks about the state of the U.S government and how it misunderstands and mistreats African Americans through various metaphors. One metaphor in the song is, “On a airplane yelling, ‘Mayday’ With a good girl gone bad girl Who went gay ’cause of date rape That's a metaphor for the US 'Cause they got us all in the same state.” This line is basically using a metaphor of a female being scared of getting raped to describe the relationship of minorities and the government. The Genius page states, “The girl is also a “good girl, turned bad girl”, which is a metaphor for a moral/innocent person to turn to crime as a result of poor treatment by government, authority etc.” The final song in this section “I’m Not Racist” by Joyner Lucas shows how some white people are ignorant of the inequalities that we face, and refuse to really try to understand what we’re going through. Joyner himself said, “Yeah, he keeps making those statements—"I’m not racist, I’m not racist.“ I’ve heard that growing up. You’ll hear somebody jump out the window and make the craziest statement and then back it with, "I’m not a racist; I got a black cousin.” They think that because they have somebody that they know or that they’re close to that is black, that it gives them the order to vacation. It makes them feel like they’re justified in saying some racist shit. They hide behind that, then I wanted to address that.” All three of these songs have different approaches, but they all have the same basic meaning to them. The United States oppresses and discriminates against minorities.
The second section of this playlist shows the anger that has been building up inside African Americans for decades of mistreatment and inequality, and how we take out that anger on police and even our own. This section features artist Denzel Curry, Kendrick Lamar, and the late XXXTentacion. In Denzel Curry’s song “PIG FEET”, he and other artists Daylyt and Terrace Martin are showing how people are reacting to the police brutality and systematic oppression in riots to try to show them how it feels to be violently attacked. In XXXTentacion’s song “Riot” he addresses that he himself is tired of the oppression and violence from the government, but he knows that rioting is simply hypocritical and is only making their situation worse. He portrays this in many lines of the song but a specific line showing this states, “What's the justice in sayin', "Fuck it," and grab the pump? Then kill a woman with many children? Makes you a chump.” Finally in Kendrick Lamar’s song “XXX” he talks about how young African Americans in poverty due to how the government treats them are forced to crime, but describes how this only brings more chaos and destruction to the community. On the surface these songs could be shown as supporting the violence that erupts when a tragedy happens to the community, but on the contrary. These songs are showing that they understand why people are angry and understand where they’re coming from, but are against people acting rashly as it only brings them more chaos.
Finally in the last section of this playlist it features songs from a more peaceful and hopeful side of the community after a tragedy happens. This section features artists Kendrick Lamar, 2Pac, and Sam Cooke. In 2Pac’s song “Changes” he describes how he doesn’t see changes in America even after all the reforms and calls for people to stand up for change. In the song he says the line, “Take the evil out the people, they'll be actin' right' Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight And the only time we chill is when we kill each other It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.” In this line 2Pac is stating that even though both communities commit crimes, African Americans are the ones who get labeled as criminals, and that the only time blacks and whites truly get along is when we are killing each other. In Sam Cooke’s song “A Change is Gonna Come”, he states that despite the discrimination going on in America he’s hopeful that change will eventually come. Despite being made in the 1960s this song still holds weight as even to this day, true change hasn’t really come. And finally Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” he talks about no matter what African Americans have to go through, whether its poverty, discrimination, etc. we’re going to be alright. This song has been used in Black Lives Matters protests across the country, and the album this song comes from has many more songs talking about the black community in America.
Every artist I chose in this playlist have either personally felt the pain of discrimination from the government, or have actively protested against it. The three sections are supposed to represent state of mind a lot of people usually go through whenever a tragedy such as George Floyd happens. The first section represents how we’re sad and tired of change never happening. The second section represents the anger we show and how we’ll force change to happen even if it’s in a violent way. Finally the third section represents how no matter what happens to use we’ll always be hopeful that change will eventually come to us if we speak out against the government.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0YZdLqKkfic1G9-NPqLR02OLmKjwveE2
America is commonly known as the “Land of Free”, but it’s a nation built off of the death and suffering of minorities. Despite the Constitution stating “all men are created equal”, this has rarely been put into practice during the United State’s history. Even with all the reforms we have seen, there still have been many instances of injustice for African Americans, such as Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Americans have expressed their distaste about inequality in America through many forms. Such as protest,poetry, television and movies, and especially in music.
In over the 200 years the United States has existed people have made hundreds of songs talking about the injustices. The playlist that I’ve created has nine different songs talking specifically about the inequalities African Americans go through, broken into three different sections. The first section of the playlist has songs describing the inequalities that African Americans face, and how it’s affected our communities. The second part of the playlist shows the anger of the community and how they’re tired of change not happening. And the final section of the playlist shows the hopeful side of the community, and how people are determined to make change happen.
The first third of the playlist features songs from artist J. Cole, Denzel Curry, and Joyner Lucas. These three songs describe some of the discrimination African Americans have to go through, and they each express it in different ways. In the J. Cole’s song, “Be Free”, Cole is rapping about how African Americans are still basically going through slavery whether it’s in a phyiscal or mental sense. On the Genius page explaining the song it states, “Speaking for all the people that have experienced a worldwide phenomenon that is still happening to this day; slavery. However, Cole is specifically talking about the calamity that has imprisoned generations upon generations of African-Americans. There are several forms of slavery, ranging from psychological binding to physical incarceration. Here, it’s a mixture of all. The classicism, the racism, all of that combined here. The chains of brutality and injustice on a whole ethnicity of people.” On Denzel Curry’s song “SIRENS” he talks about the state of the U.S government and how it misunderstands and mistreats African Americans through various metaphors. One metaphor in the song is, “On a airplane yelling, ‘Mayday’ With a good girl gone bad girl Who went gay ’cause of date rape That's a metaphor for the US 'Cause they got us all in the same state.” This line is basically using a metaphor of a female being scared of getting raped to describe the relationship of minorities and the government. The Genius page states, “The girl is also a “good girl, turned bad girl”, which is a metaphor for a moral/innocent person to turn to crime as a result of poor treatment by government, authority etc.” The final song in this section “I’m Not Racist” by Joyner Lucas shows how some white people are ignorant of the inequalities that we face, and refuse to really try to understand what we’re going through. Joyner himself said, “Yeah, he keeps making those statements—"I’m not racist, I’m not racist.“ I’ve heard that growing up. You’ll hear somebody jump out the window and make the craziest statement and then back it with, "I’m not a racist; I got a black cousin.” They think that because they have somebody that they know or that they’re close to that is black, that it gives them the order to vacation. It makes them feel like they’re justified in saying some racist shit. They hide behind that, then I wanted to address that.” All three of these songs have different approaches, but they all have the same basic meaning to them. The United States oppresses and discriminates against minorities.
The second section of this playlist shows the anger that has been building up inside African Americans for decades of mistreatment and inequality, and how we take out that anger on police and even our own. This section features artist Denzel Curry, Kendrick Lamar, and the late XXXTentacion. In Denzel Curry’s song “PIG FEET”, he and other artists Daylyt and Terrace Martin are showing how people are reacting to the police brutality and systematic oppression in riots to try to show them how it feels to be violently attacked. In XXXTentacion’s song “Riot” he addresses that he himself is tired of the oppression and violence from the government, but he knows that rioting is simply hypocritical and is only making their situation worse. He portrays this in many lines of the song but a specific line showing this states, “What's the justice in sayin', "Fuck it," and grab the pump? Then kill a woman with many children? Makes you a chump.” Finally in Kendrick Lamar’s song “XXX” he talks about how young African Americans in poverty due to how the government treats them are forced to crime, but describes how this only brings more chaos and destruction to the community. On the surface these songs could be shown as supporting the violence that erupts when a tragedy happens to the community, but on the contrary. These songs are showing that they understand why people are angry and understand where they’re coming from, but are against people acting rashly as it only brings them more chaos.
Finally in the last section of this playlist it features songs from a more peaceful and hopeful side of the community after a tragedy happens. This section features artists Kendrick Lamar, 2Pac, and Sam Cooke. In 2Pac’s song “Changes” he describes how he doesn’t see changes in America even after all the reforms and calls for people to stand up for change. In the song he says the line, “Take the evil out the people, they'll be actin' right' Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight And the only time we chill is when we kill each other It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.” In this line 2Pac is stating that even though both communities commit crimes, African Americans are the ones who get labeled as criminals, and that the only time blacks and whites truly get along is when we are killing each other. In Sam Cooke’s song “A Change is Gonna Come”, he states that despite the discrimination going on in America he’s hopeful that change will eventually come. Despite being made in the 1960s this song still holds weight as even to this day, true change hasn’t really come. And finally Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” he talks about no matter what African Americans have to go through, whether its poverty, discrimination, etc. we’re going to be alright. This song has been used in Black Lives Matters protests across the country, and the album this song comes from has many more songs talking about the black community in America.
Every artist I chose in this playlist have either personally felt the pain of discrimination from the government, or have actively protested against it. The three sections are supposed to represent state of mind a lot of people usually go through whenever a tragedy such as George Floyd happens. The first section represents how we’re sad and tired of change never happening. The second section represents the anger we show and how we’ll force change to happen even if it’s in a violent way. Finally the third section represents how no matter what happens to use we’ll always be hopeful that change will eventually come to us if we speak out against the government.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0YZdLqKkfic1G9-NPqLR02OLmKjwveE2