Liberty Needs Glasses

The Statue of Liberty needs glasses, and Lady Justice at her side sees no better: both stumble blind as bats through the system. With this caricature, Tupac created the most political and at the same time funniest poem of his collection. Liberty Needs Glasses also lends its name to the fourth and final part of the book The Rose That Grew from Concrete.

Lady Justice Bumps into Mutulu and Trips over Geronimo Pratt

In the poem, Tupac lists whom the two ladies encounter on their path. Lady Justice bumps into Mutulu and trips over Geronimo Pratt, two men from his inner circle. His stepfather Mutulu Shakur had been arrested in 1986 and sentenced in 1988 to 60 years for the 1981 Brink’s robbery. His godfather Geronimo Pratt had been in prison since 1972. His conviction was not overturned until 1997, because the prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence.

Others, by contrast, Lady Justice simply steps right over: an Oliver and his partner Ronnie. The obvious interpretation, though not explained by the book, points to Oliver North and Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s. Mandela, Native Americans, and the never-sentenced slavery also appear, as do the endangered Black men against whom justice comes down hard.

Whoever Respects the Masses Takes Both to the Optician

In the end, Tupac stays with the image: whoever truly respects life and the masses should take the two to an optician. Mockery here replaces the anger of other poems such as How Can We Be Free.

When the poem was written is not documented. According to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems date from the years 1989 to 1991. On the album The Rose That Grew from Concrete (2000), Malcolm-Jamal Warner reads the text under the title Lady Liberty Needs Glasses.

More on the book in the introduction.