In class, we watched a music video by T.I. called “Warzone”.  The video focuses on police brutality, but in a sense of “reversed roles”. The idea is that white people are being targeted as victims of racism. Reenactments of the deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Philando Castile are shown, but with white actors in their places and black police officers. The message sent by the music video is a very powerful one. Over the past several years, the Black Lives Matter movement has widely grown throughout the United States, as more cases of police brutality have been brought to light. By looking at the reenacted deaths of three well-known instances of black men being killed by white officers in T.I.’s music video, “Warzone”, we see that the reversal of roles, lyrics, and the camera techniques are aimed in an attempt to provoke thought among Americans as to how they would react if the officers involved were black and the victims were white.

In T.I.’s music video, the first instance of role reversal that is shown to the viewer is that of Tamir Rice. The opening clip shows a nice home in a relatively nice neighborhood, as a young white boy jumps off the front porch to go play outside. At around one minute and thirty-five seconds into the music video, the boy is shown playing around with a bb gun in a park. This clip is meant to portray the death of Tamir Rice, as he was approached by police officers regarding a robbery call. He pulled a “gun” out of his waistband and then was shot by a white policeman. In the case of Tamir Rice, it was later found out that the so-called “gun” was actually a bb gun. While no criminal charges were filed against the officers involved and the Chicago Police Department admitted no wrong-doing, the Rice family received a six-million-dollar settlement from the city and incited protests against police violence targeting black people. This scene in the music video is designed to reverse the roles of the races of the people involved in controversial issues that have been brought to the attention of the public through the rise of technology. At this point in the video, we see an extreme close up of the young boy before he is shot, focusing all of our attention on the seemingly innocent child. This shot makes this point in the video more intense, as he fills up the whole panel and is the only thing we can see. The close-up of the boy is meant to evoke feelings of sadness and empathy, making the viewer feel as though he or she had a close relationship with the boy. After the boy’s death, an over-the-shoulder shot is shown, with T.I. as the main focus, and the dead body of the white child in the background. This shot is meant to focus in on T.I., as he is the one trying to send the bold and powerful message. At this point in the video, his lyrics are aiding the imagery, and the dead boy is shown in the background to emphasize T.I.’s message. 

The next controversial scene introduces the viewer to the reenacted death of Eric Garner. Eric Garner was choked to death by a white New York police officer. Garner was approached by police officers and was accused of selling untaxed cigarettes, which lead to an argument that went on as the officers attempted to arrest him. Garner was then put in a chokehold and brought to the ground, and when he was released, he was still unconscious. When the EMT’s arrived, they did not attempt to resuscitate him. Garner then was proclaimed dead, his death linked to the chokehold and the way he had been restrained on the ground. The scene where this is shown in T.I.’s video is at about two minutes and twenty seconds into the music video.  At this part of the music video, a white male was again the target of police brutality by black officers, in a way that is similar to the real-life death of Eric Garner. In this particular scene of the video, a long shot is used. We see the whole body of the male being strangled, along with the black police officer who is doing the strangling. There are also several other black policemen shown. This shot is used to demonstrate how the white man is being singled out amongst several black police officers. The longshot shown is used to distance the viewer from the scene, similar to the real-life video of Garner’s arrest, in which the police officers attempted to keep bystanders at a distance. 

Lyrics also play a huge role in “Warzone”. Without the strong lyrics, the music video alone would still be moving and intense, but the words along with the extreme graphics aid in making the message trying to be sent not only more clear, but more moving. In some music videos, the graphic imagery does not match up with the lyrics of the song. However, in T.I.’s “Warzone”, the video itself and the words of the song correspond well in order to better portray the message being sent. 

The chorus of T.I.’s “Warzone” is repeated several times throughout the song. It contains a Black Lives Matter inspired saying, “hands up, can’t breathe”. The “hands up” aspect comes from the death of Michael Brown, in which a young black male was said to have put his hands up before he was shot to death by a white police officer. Brown’s death began the “hands up, don’t shoot” movement. While the “hands up, don’t shoot” movement was based off of a false testimony from an unreliable witness that Michael Brown had surrendered and put his hands up before being shot by the officer, his death was still a tragedy and sparked community outrage in Ferguson when the officer was acquitted. The white officer’s acquittal inspired large protests and outcries for justice throughout the community. 

The second part of the saying, “can’t breathe”, is in reference to the above mentioned death of Eric Garner. His last words were literally “I can’t breathe”, as he was being strangled to death. This incident was very unsettling to many people in the United States, as it was caught on camera and there have yet to be any criminal charges against the officer who put Garner in the chokehold. The only disciplinary charge was against an officer who was standing by, but failed to stop the other officer from choking him. This lack of justice for Garner’s murder caused outrage amongst not only the African American community, but also the rest of the nation, as many wondered what other evidence was necessary to get an indictment against the officer who put Garner in the chokehold that caused his death.  

At the end of the music video, we are left with a long list of names that contain African Americans whom of which have been killed by white police officers. The video then ends with a final quote that reads “the new racism, is to deny that racism exists.” This leaves the viewer with a powerful message in that racism cannot be removed from society until we as American people, of all races, ethnicities, and origins, acknowledge that it is still prevalent in today’s society. 
