Peer Presentations
By: Kareema Bangura
Tuesday, November 12, 2020
Group 1: Miles Rosser, Madison Myles, and Obiora Okeke
Tell us what are your thoughts on the lyrics below. How does this relate to our leadership development and does this inspire you to go out and conduct your own “changes”.
The section of lyrics that really stuck out to me was in section four in the song Changes:
4. And still I see no changes can’t a brother get a little peace?
It’s war on the streets and the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs
So the police can bother me
And I ain’t never did a crime I ain’t have to do
But now I’m back with the blacks givin’ it back to you
Don’t let ’em jack you up, back you up
Crack you up and pimp smack you up
Throughout the entirety of the song, Tupac is describing his experiences as a black man in this world and giving insight through lyrics and music to others who can relate to his struggle and to those who are unfamiliar with this struggle. It allows others to be educated on a more personal level, and it inspires me to take a close look within my community and see what I can do, even if it’s a small impact, to change the community for the better. The lyrics, “instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs,” give a reference to the fact that many people, especially people of color, are incarcerated for doing drugs when there is a much bigger problem going on within impoverished communities. The line “And still I see no changes can’t a brother get a little peace,” reminds me of the world today and how a lot of the issues that were happening during Tupac’s life are still happening now. It’s frustrating because like Tupac said, I still see no changes, and though this generation has done a lot of things to encourage change, I think the real change has to occur within the facilities that operate on a broken system and orchestrate inequality on several aspects. This song alone is an inspiration in itself for the younger generation to notice and recognize what is wrong with our society and what we can do to help better it. Tupac was prime in his time and noticed these issues within his community and within the world as a whole. Instead of looking past these issues, he used his own talents and acknowledged the intersectionality of being poor and black, and how these circumstances leave us to constantly question life or death, he speaks on police brutality, he talks about wanting unification, and he encourages listeners to begin their own journey of change within their communities. This makes me want to do as he did- live in this world and do what I love, but also using my own talents to inform and encourage change in unjust situations. I also have hope for my generation and for generations to come that we are very much insightful and our eyes are becoming more and more open to realities that are simply not right.
2. I see no changes all I see is racist faces
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
One better place, let’s erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they’ll be acting right
’Cause both black and white is smokin’ crack tonight
T.H.U.G L.I.F.E
Section 2 of Changes reminds me of the film The Hate U Give. A lot of this film exemplifies what Tupac expressed in his song and a lot of what is happening and has been happening in this country for centuries. The phrase THUG LIFE is very common within the Hip Hop/Rap industry and became popular because of rap artist Tupac. THUG LIFE stands for, (excuse my language), The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. Thug Life is also a term used to describe someone who started from the bottom- from nothing but built themselves to the top. The reason I bring this up is that the film and book, The Hate U Give, it displays an important theme: racialized poverty and violence are cyclical and entrap poor black neighborhoods for generations. One of the characters, Khalil, began dealing drugs due to his family’s poverty, which resulted from the lack of opportunities he and his family had, and also because of his mother's drug addiction. After a cop shoots Khalil because he was holding a “weapon.” (it was a hairbrush), his drug-dealing becomes the justification for his death. This cycle entrapped Khalil with no options and then punished him for his lack of options. Both Tupac and the author of The Hate U Give call this system “hate” to emphasize the viciousness and malice of this system and how black people trapped within it are intentionally set up to fail. It goes beyond prejudice and discrimination. The problem lies within the system.
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Group Two: Kendra, Alicia, and Anna
Disney’s The Princess and the Frog came out in 2009. The animated-musical/film grossed at $269 million dollars. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, the film follows an ambitious young woman, Tiana, in New Orleans during the 20th Century Jazz era. The story follows Tiana on her journey to getting her restaurant. Her dream, however, takes a major detour when she meets Prince Naveen who previously met with Dr. Facilier aka The Shadow Man. Naveen is turned into a frog and convinces Tiana that a kiss will restore him to his normal self, although their kiss turns them both into frogs. The two then search the bayous for a powerful voodoo priestess to break the spell.
Assignment:
Watch Disney’s The Princess and the Frog and identify traits of strength and leadership that Tiana demonstrates throughout the movie and then compare these to the previous characters we’ve read about before.
Growing up, The Princess and The Frog was one of my favorite Disney movies, and Tiana was my favorite Disney princess. I hadn’t seen many princesses that represented me, so I was astonished to see a resilient and strong black Disney princess! Throughout the movie, we see Tiana demonstrating many traits that represent her character and her leadership skills. We know that Tiana is naturally a hard working woman. She spends her day working as a server and spends her nights dreaming of having her very own restaurant. She is not only hard-working, but persistent, generous, and fairly selfless. Princess Tiana has a willingness to tolerate frustrations and delays. Due to a greedy man, she is turned into a frog after he tries to resolve his own curse by kissing her. Obviously, that plan does to dismay. Instead of giving up and focusing her anger towards Prince Naveen, she chooses to put her energy towards finding a proper solution to the current situation she is in. Her great strength and perseverance are encouraging enough to allow her and Naveen to work together and achieve their goal of regaining their human forms (which they ultimately accomplish).
Tiana is very hardworking and is even willing to work two, very strenuous jobs so that she can achieve her goal of opening up her own restaurant. Instead of just wishing for things to work out and relying on other people to help her, Tiana works very hard to achieve her goal and support herself. While this is a good thing, her adherence to struggle doesn’t allow her to ask for other’s help. While she strains and works tirelessly, her friend, Lottie, offers to “help” her by lending her lost of her dad’s money. While Lottie lives lavishly, Tiana struggles with two jobs that just barely cover the cost of the building she wishes to own for her dream restaurant. Nonetheless, Tiana chooses not to envy her close friend.
Princess Tiana is very generous and selfless. She will drop everything she is doing to help someone in need. Tiana was willing to give up her dream so that she could stay with Naveen forever. She was also willing to give up her free time to help her friend get ready for the masquerade ball and gain the love of the prince.
Tiana is also very caring. She is constantly trying to make everyone happy. She is always there to help her mom and Charlotte. She also helps comfort Charlotte throughout the movie. Tiana also kisses Naveen, when he was a frog, to help turn him back into a human.
Similarly, Moana is a character that possesses similar leadership traits as Tiana. Against her family’s wishes, she leaves the island to take on the adventure that the ocean is calling her to complete. She too, just like Tiana, is tasked with working with a man (Maui the demigod) who partially caused the problem of the plot. Moana also has the ability to influence other persons’ behavior. Maui thought he was in the right when he stole the goddess’s heart millenniums prior, but Moana is able to open his eyes to his wrongdoing and persuade him to fix his mistake with her help. Using her intelligence and confidence, she was able to restore peace to her island. Both Moana and Tiana express a drive for responsibility and task completion. Without that drive, neither would have been able to conquer the “evil” that disrupted their lives. Both Tiana and Moana are prime examples of how society and media reaffirm that there are character traits that can help to predict a successful leader. I think it is incredibly important for these traits to be expressed in movies and media as well as showing these strong traits in women to continue to empower their growth in leadership roles. It is one thing to tell our small, female friends that they can grow up to be anything they want to be, but it’s another to give them women to look up to whether in real life or within their favorite Disney princesses.