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Most Obies already knew that

Tupac had thick base eyebrows and chances are, most Obies already knew that. The lover of thug life was a battling, thugging, gangsta partying, multi-million dollar making, walking contradiction. From underground revolution oriented 2POCALYPSE NOW to the commercialized gansterism of All Eyes on Me, Tupac possessed two intangibles that folk in our generation, especially those of us waddling across seemingly surreal college campuses, seem to lack: a venomous passion for telling and showing the world his ephemeral truth and a viable visible outlet for nihilism. Like all of us, he also had the uncanny ability to grow out, carrying parts of his childlike essence with him, not up, by halfheartedly leaving it fluttering behind. But Oberlin ranked ninth nationally in academic reputation in US News and World Report, so chances are that Obies were able to deduce that.

Tupac turned himself inside out for himself, young black men, and hip-hop primarily and in doing so, seemed to become inseperable from 2PAC, the entertainer... but, he also attempted to make animate and real that cornered part of Americanness too use to cardboarding its complex humanity. This, ironically, was often done lyrically and materially at the expense of black women and black men. Nonetheless, at essence, all of us, like Shakur are tightly wound, malleable balls of complexity and contradiction. But Oberlin was one of the first schools to admit black folk and white women, and the college has a history of humanitarian speak outs, so chances are that most Obies already understood that.

The jagged meshing of this passion and adolescence created 2PAC and might have lead to his abrupt and unclear death at 25 years of age. Now in his death, all we have are his lyrics and what his rippled death and life reflect in our being. Like Eazy E's death from AIDS, Tupac's death reflects another tragic concrete reality in black urban American life; bullets. Murder and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome are the leading causes of death for black men between 17 and 32. But people here say "phat" and "wack", so chances are that Obies already knew that.

Last Friday the 13th, Tupac Shakur died. The night after his death, 27 other black men were killed in the United States...and chances are that not too many Obies really care.


Editorials in this box are the responsibility of the editor-in-chief, managing editor and commentary editor, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.
Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 3; September 20, 1996

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