Will the Real Men Please Stand Up?
My last shout-out of the evening in honor of MLK comes from the son of a civil rights radical, who ironically suffered a similar fate as Dr. King (although for apparently different reasons). The late Tupac Shakur, son of Afeni Shakur of the Black Panther Party, grew up never knowing his father. According to his mother's website 2PacLegacy, "the issue of his father tormented him," causing Tupac to feel "unmanly." This torment helped inspire one of Tupac's most enduring singles, Keep Ya Head Up, which includes an unwavering challenge to men to be more than sires.
I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don't we'll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies, that make the babies And since a man can't make one He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one So will the real men get up I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up - From Keep Ya Head Up. Read full lyrics here.In order for Dr. King's dream to become reality in our inner cities, more men must "get up" and do right by their kids and the women who birth them. And more men who may not be birth fathers yet exert influence over fatherless children, should embrace the privilege honorably. For more on this subject, check out Fight of the Fatherless.
posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 1/17/2005 12:36:00 AM
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