
T.I. shows racism from a flipped, majority to minority, perspective in the music video of his new song Warzone. This video takes recent police brutality cases and racial prejudges but turns them in a different direction. Warzone features the cases of Tamir Rice, Philando Castle, and Eric Garner, but uses black police officers and white victims. This video is used to put the majority into the situation that happened, which may not have been relevant when it occurred. These cases have created a huge upraise in the black community against the white police population. T.I. uses the visual of violence in this music video to bring back the horrific memories of these cases and to make a long lasting impact on the watcher. Scenes showing death and discrimination cause the watcher to rethink the situation, which is exactly what T.I.’s goal of this video is. The target audience of this video is people who don't see the true racial profiling that happened in these cases. This video is directed at the majority population and puts them in the position that the minority is in. In this video, T.I. uses graphic scenes of death and footage of firearms to show violence which creates a lasting impact on the viewer. As the viewer the violence shown is memorable because the events are recognizable but the flipped perspective catches one by surprise. The use of violence in this video, specifically in the cases of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Philando Castle, demands the majority population to rethink and take a new stance on racism and racial profiling.  

The main point if T.I.’s argument is stated in his chorus, he says “Boy we livin' in a war zone, guess you don't notice when you livin' in it, like every weekend it's a man down, Ain’t got no pity for the innocent so I'ma represent it” (T.I.). This quote shows how he feels about the racial prejudges that have been going on. For example, the case of Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy, occurred in Cleveland on November 22, 2014. He was shot and killed by two police officers because he had a fake gun in the park. In this music video a young white male plays the part of Tamir Rice. The innocence of the boy was emphasized by making it obvious that the gun was fake and how the boy left his house happy and his mother was cooking dinner like it was a normal day. This being the first scene in the video, the violence shown is abrupt and takes the watcher by surprise. The use of a close-up shot is used to show the shock on the young boys face as he is shot without warning. He says that black people live in a racist world where even the people sworn to protect the citizens are killing innocent people. The use of the word war zone in this video relates to the motif of violence throughout as T.I. talks about how the struggles between the black community and the white police is like a war and they live it every day.  

The scene representing the case of Eric Garner takes police violence to a level which many viewers have not experienced before. An overweight white man is shown explaining himself to two strong black police officers, but the scene goes quickly in a bad direction. The man is put into a choke hold and taken down by the two police officers. He is clearly unarmed and was doing nothing but talking to the officers. The violence used in this scene is powerful as you see the man saying “I cant breath” multiple times. At this point in the video the watcher starts to realized the horrific nature of these scenes. T.I.’s sings during this scene “The war on drugs was just a war on us” (T.I.). This quote shows how T.I. and the black community feels about the violence and brutality that constantly happens against the minority population. The violence in this scene is less abrupt which almost makes it even worse. It shows the violation of the mans right to speak freely without being profiled and abused for no reason. 

Another scene where T.I. uses violence to make his point is his representation of the Philando Castle case where he was shot in his own car with his girlfriend and daughter in the car. This scene is also portrayed by a white family. The camera angle of the view shows how the man behind the driver seat did not pull out a gun but the officer shot him anyway. The close-up view of the daughter in the back screaming and crying is used to show how horrific this really was. The girlfriend records the situation on her phone to be able to show the unfair treatment of the police. The violence used in this scene is to get rid of any preconceptions that the white population may have had about this situation and show the innocence of the victims. Using the innocence of the victims to help convey T.I.’s message is effective to the viewers because it creates a view of the situation that one would not see before. T.I. uses his lyrics to explain how careful the minority has to be when being pulled over by the police: “They pull you over, ask where your license at, Be careful reachin’ for it, you know you can die for that” (T.I.). This quote explains what happened in the Philando Castle case and countless other times, racist police assume that a black person is reaching for a gun and act irrationally. This is significant because the message that he conveys through this video, is completely true. The minority population has to be extra careful when getting pulled over or having a confrontation with the police.  

T.I.’s Warzone uses violence to put white people in a different point of view the they might have not seen when they heard about these racist acts on the news. His ultimate purpose is to spread awareness of police brutality in rap music to make a statement and hopefully help the situation. The final scene in the music video is a quote saying “The new racism, is to deny that racism exists.” This video explains to people that racism is not history and is still prominent, even though white people sometimes deny it. Also a quote by Jane Elliot is played over the song in the final seconds that talks about how white people know what’s going on and obviously don't want it to happen to them, but they accept it and allow it to happen to others (Jane Elliot). Violence is used in the video warzone to create a long lasting impact on the watchers and calls for social change amongst the white police population. T.I. hopes to create leverage on the situation by showing the violence in a new perspective and have more people from the majority on the side of the black community. 
