Words That Can Never Be Said

The other day, my brother referred me to a song he liked called "Words I Never Said" by Lupe Fiasco. I immediately typed it into Youtube for a listen, and upon watching the music video, I was captivated by the message. If you want to watch the video, click here.

In the beginning of the video, a woman is being dragged away by officers and pulled into a room. Over the course of the video, she is shown strapped into a chair with a set of glasses and a mask, being forced to watch a video showing typical American values. It shows picket fences and perfect houses, fries, and the word "America" embedded into a fence. I took this to mean that the government is constantly feeding us images to make us want and need what we call the "American Dream". This woman is almost being forced to agree with what is important to a majority of Americans, and is being punished for not doing so. It almost seems as though the people that took her away are trying to fix her, in a way, as if it's wrong and bad to have different feelings about what you want.

The chorus begins by saying, "It's so loud inside my head with words that I should have said. As I drown in my regrets, I can't take back the words I never said." As these words are being sung by Skylar Grey, Lupe Fiasco is getting onto a public bus, looking at the people, who have masks over their mouths, obstructing any chance of speaking. They are all silent and look at him with confusion, as he is the only one without a mask. Lupe is trying to use this as a metaphor for people today. Although we do not literally have an mask over our mouths so that we cannot speak, we do have many thoughts that we simply cannot share with others around us. These thoughts and ideas often surround the government and how it operates. 

His rap begins as he grabs the microphone on the bus and he starts sharing his ideas of the government. Everyone looks at him in surprise, stunned that he is regarding these touchy issues. One line that truly stood out to me was when he says "I'm locked inside a cell in me, I know that there's a jail in you". He is talking about how we all have pent up feelings that we would like to share but cannot because it would be against the government. As he said this, he is in a cell locked up, so he is also using a play on words, that people are being unfairly jailed because of these things that they do that the government states that it does not tolerate. Another interesting point to consider is that Lupe Fiasco is black, and throughout the video he is jailed for his actions in the beginning. This reflects his feelings towards the treatments of African Americans and how they are often jailed for such innocent offenses.

In the end of the video, he escapes from his cell and finds the woman being held captive, who is also black, and lets her go. I feel as though this is him urging us viewers that sometimes it's okay to stray from what's expected and fight back, because this unfair treatment should be stopped.

This reminded me of the Prison Industrial Complex. Just as Lupe Fiasco is claiming the injustice from the government, the PIC had this same injustice when putting people into jail for minor wrongdoings. It's simply unfair that people were given life sentences for non-violent crimes, just as it is unfair that the government ultimately controls the things we can say and do, and the things we are forbidden from.

Another large parallel I made to this video was to the Perilous Times groups that have presented. Throughout history, it is obvious that the government has set forth laws, for example the Espionage and Sedition Acts, that truly show how even a word against the government could have you put on trial. Take the Sedition Act, for example. This says that "any person who shall write, print, utter, or publish, or cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered, or published, any false, scandalous, malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, with intent to defame the said government of the United States... is to be tried by jury, and may give in evidence the truth of the matter contained in the libel." The word "utter" is especially surprising, even if one merely says a word against the government they can be tried for it, which is truly an unthinkable notion. This connects to the video in that people are so scared of expressing their true opinions that they have masks over their faces, and the police in the video have become this force that is compelling the people to keep their mouths shut about the entire system.

This video is representing our society in a dystopian way, but in a way is being quite honest and truthful, as evidenced by past laws and regulations set by the government that people are forced to abide by, although they may not agree.

Can you guys think of other instances in history in which the government has done this?