“I didn’t create T.H.U.G L.I.F.E., I diagnosed it.”
– Tupac Shakur
Dr. Mutulu Shakur is the most valuable acupuncturist who should be released from prison to date. He has a rich history and intriguing tale of passion, ambition, innovation, healing and mystery. Dr. Shakur was wrongfully incarcerated February 12th, 1986, scheduled for release in 2016 (which did not happen) during the nefarious era of United States politics from the 1950s until the 1970s./
According to the FBI data vault, “CONINTELPRO — short for Counterintelligence Program—in 1956 to disrupt the activities of the Communist Party of the United States. In the 1960s, it was expanded to include a number of other domestic groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Black Panther Party. All COINTELPRO operations were ended in 1971. Although limited in scope (about two-tenths of one percent of the FBI’s workload over a 15-year period), COINTELPRO was later rightfully criticized by Congress and the American people for abridging first amendment rights and for other reasons.”
Dr. Shakur became certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in the State of California in 1976. Dr. Shakur managed a detox program recognized as the largest and most effective of its kind by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Acupuncture Research Society (NARS) and the World Academic Society of Acupuncture (WASA).
In March 1982, Dr. Shakur and 10 others were indicted by a federal grand jury under a set of U.S. conspiracy laws called “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization” (RICO) laws… Dr. Shakur was charged with conspiracy and participation in a paramilitary unit that carried out actual and attempted to ‘Robin Hood’ funds from several banks. In addition he was charged with participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur who is now in exile in Cuba. After five years underground, Dr. Shakur was arrested on February 12, 1986 and was scheduled to be released on February 10, 2016 — 30 years later. Dr. Shakur is the father of six children. His nephew, Tupac Shakur, was assassinated in 1996. Before his death, they had extensive conversations despite Dr. Shakur being incarcerated.
Tupac’s “T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.” is very popular amongst rap fans across the globe. He came from education and an iron-clad support group who guided him thru his career and personal life. One of his greatest mentors was Mutulu Shakur. They devised alongside other Original Gangsters a Code of T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E, an instrumental tool to bond rival gangs in Los Angeles, California. In 1992, members of the Crips and Bloods signed the 26-item manifesto at the ‘Truce Picnic’ hosted by Tupac Shakur, creating unity on the Los Angeles streets for a time between the two most prevalent gangs at that time.
Their power to unify the Crips and Bloods demonstrated how devising a street code has undertones alluding to Mutulu Shakur’s wisdom with Chinese Medicine and the ability to diagnose sickness and execute an effective treatment plan. Tupac brought a voice to the people who protect the streets, to those witnesses and victims of brutality and cruelty. Tupac and Mutulu created a foundation that could support the gangs of America to safely protect their hoods in the efforts to become independent of the powers that exercise oppression tactics and deliberately hurt People of Color.
Although our current society does not respect or even echo the phrases of their manifesto, it is still available and only needs some support from those who can respect what it can achieve. We could create a Nation of Color. A place of safety to respectfully be different and reinvent our experiences as Mealinated People of America.
I am leaving you with a Dr. Shakur quote from a telephone interview from Lompoc Federal Prison with Tyehimba Jess of WHBK Radio in Chicago (October 1992)
“…in order for us to understand what it is that we were fighting for, we must label what we’re for … that develops a culture that deals with our experience and a culture that will allow the exercise, creativity, the potential of every man, woman and child that enters our nation.”
– Mutulu Shakur
Read the full article about Mutulu Shakur here
Orcanit 