Alcohol and Drug Addiction in the Family

In the film 30 Days: Binge Drinking Mom and the article Holler of you Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur there were many questions raised in comparing each family and their situation. This first and most important to me was the issue of respect from the child. In the film Jessica’s mom is trying to prove a point to her daughter the one who is actually abusing alcohol but in the article Afena is the addict and is highly respected by her son Tupac. I question is this a fact of race and economic status? I believe so, in today’s society I see wealthy children very disrespectful while in poor black families regardless if the mother abandon them, is dug addicted or what have you the children still hold a type of respect for their mom. I think it is safe to say that there is a more socially acceptable depiction between the two families and that would be that alcohol is more socially acceptable because most of our society engage in drinking and that is doesn’t have the same dramatic affects that crack or drugs have. I am guilty of placing a little mother blame on Afena while I was reading her article. I do believe her lifestyle and life choices had a lot to do with Tupac and his response to his mom. I remember reading the quotes Jada Pickett wrote and she said that Tupac couldn’t trust anyone because of his mother and that everyone that came in his life paid for her downfalls. In the film I think there could be a bit of mother (or parent) blame put on Jesssica’s parents. Her mom admits not have conversations about binge drinking with Jessica when she was younger and this indeed could have something to do with why Jessica over indulged into alcohol when she went off to college. Overall I think these two pieces did a good job showing two different types of families that share some of the same issues.