Boy, We Livin’ in a Warzone: Part 2

            On September 16, 2016, T.I. dropped the music video for his then single. The reason this might be my favorite rap music video can be described in two words, “role reversal.” This video depicts four specific incidents in which rather than white cops arresting, beating, and shooting, black men and teenagers, its black cops brutally arresting and killing white men and teenagers. Bold, risky, yes, but let’s be honest this is one of the best ways to spur thought in people who neglect that police brutality incidents are a huge issue. See without even realizing myself till watching this video the news and social media have really blinded me towards really understanding or feeling for the people we were killed in police brutality incidents cause it’s shoved down our throats so often we tend to overlook and quite honestly ignore its existence. Brutality is something that we are very conscious is happening, but takes something bold and different to make us break that overconsumption wall that is put up. Sadly, in our day that means we must literally swap roles for people that don’t break and realize what’s happening.

To explain this in a different maybe more clear way, lets relate to something shoved down our throats even more often, but isn’t as controversial, Marvel Movies. Now no matter how you feel about them, you have an opinion on Marvel movies, and this opinion was created or better put solidified by your experience with the first few movies you saw in the series. If you enjoyed the first few you saw you will gain their trust and generally think that you will like the rest of their series because they follow a similar story arch. If you disliked the first few you saw you will most likely stop going and seeing them or see them and continue to dislike them cause they remind you or the others you saw in the series and disliked strongly. So what is the only way to change a person’s mind on their reception on marvel movies? Change something about them, and people will start to reanalyze what they think about the movies. Say marvel started to focus less on visual effects and actually spent time developing characters properly. Then some of the die-hard fans would start to analyze why they enjoyed the past incarnations of their hero’s in cinema. This probably isn’t the best analogy, but this is what sorta happens to us with a lot of controversies. For instance, you probably developed your view on police brutality years ago, and since then have applied you view to all of the other brutally cases since, with the acceptation of a few incidents perhaps. Warzone has that ability to make people re-think which is extremely valuable in our day and age. Visualizing new points of view to sympathize with.

  Please know I don’t mean to offend anyone with this post. I’m not saying if you don’t agree that police brutality or racism are issues in this society, that you should. I’m simply trying to show another side, and my only hope is that you will take the time to self-analyze where you are at on this and many other controversies. There is a link to the video below you should really check it out.