The “war in the Middle East” is an allusion to The Gulf War. As the song progresses to the third verse, Tupac states, “It’s war on the streets and a war in the Middle East”. Also, Tupac shows how heroic a black person can be because he or she is a threat to achieving equality. This disrupts the values of ethnic norms because it shows that white people are actually the societal criminals, and that they should be the ones with that label attached to them. He wants to show how white people are exploiting their power by killing powerful black people in hopes of defending their supremacy. Newton, founder of the Black Panthers, to accentuate the problem with ethnic norms. A clear example would be in the first verse when he states “‘It’s time to fight back’ that’s what Huey said/ Two shots in the dark, now Huey’s dead”. Tupac uses allusions to highlight the flaws of ethnic norms and systemic racism. This use of a rhyme scheme between the words “white” and “tonight” disrupts the belief of ethnic norms because it shows that this black stereotype of doing drugs intertwines with white people. Tupac is bringing attention to the listener that white people should be considered criminals as well if they do the same actions as blacks. He states this to demonstrate to the reader that black and white people both do drugs, but only black people get the derogatory image of being a criminal. Furthermore into the next verse, Tupac states “‘Cause both black and white are smokin’ crack tonight”. He’s disrupting the belief of systemic racism by implying that if people of all colors work together, they can create equality. As the verse progresses, Tupac also states, “I got love for my brother/ But we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.” By using this rhyme scheme, Tupac is emphasizing that progress can’t be made if society doesn’t work together and accept to appreciate each other’s differences. He erases the negative stereotype of black criminals and replaces it with a positive compliment. Tupac is demonstrating to the listener that black people are seen as heroes because they take gunshots in order to bring society a step closer to equality and justice against systemic racism by taking the gunshots, blacks are helping to end racism. In the first verse he says, “Cops give a damn about a negro/Pull the trigger, kill a n*gga, he’s a hero.” Tupac rhymes the words “negro” and “hero” to show how when a cop kills a black man, he’s seen as a hero he does this to disrupt the ethnic norm of black people being recognized as criminals. Tupac uses rhyme schemes to disrupt the values of system racism and ethnic norms.
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