I’m beginning to think that staying on the straight and narrow fundamentally hindered my life. You're raised believing that being a thug or knucklehead is going to mess your life up. That if you keep fucking up you’ll end up in jail or dead. We drank, we smoked and sold drugs. We were content with doing that for the rest of our lives. Nothing our folks said was going to change our minds. We all heard, what if your friends jump off a bridge? Shit, we were down for whatever. Loyal to each other until today. We eventually were pressured into believing that being upstanding citizens was going to make our lives that much better. I call bullshit.
When we were hustling we hand nice things, money and respect. Nobody fucked with us. Now we work day jobs, pay taxes, and get no respect. We stay broke and still get seen as thugs. The preppy private school crowd went to college and became politicians and businessmen. They’re dirtier than we ever were, They reach right into your pockets and take your shit. They steal from the poor and give to the rich, and they call us criminals. They created the Prison Industrial Complex to keep people of color incarcerated for the same crimes that rich white boys are getting probation for and on top of that they profit to keep us incarcerated. How fucked up is that? Back in the day when we used to flip dime bags for sneaker money, we could’ve gotten 25 years. Now it’s basically legal, yet some people are still doing extended sentences for a pot case from the 80’s.
The even greater injustice is that now white business men are making billions selling legal marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in several states. Now being a drug dealer is reputable and respected. Not just cannabis, legal drugs when it comes to pharmaceuticals. The big pharma companies are shaking down the terminally ill for much needed cancer medicine and treatment. Parents should not be subjected to paying $700 for an EpiPen in order to keep their child from dying if they get stung by a bee or accidentally eat an allergen.
Black or Brown with a gun = criminal. White man with a gun = law abiding citizen. White man with a gun and a badge = Judge, Jury and Executioner. The police is just another gang along with the Bloods and the Crips. Except unlike the street gangs, the police have no honor or rules. They think that a badge means they can do and get away with anything including murder. For a long time it has seemed that way. They have all the power but none of the consequences. I do however know that they're not all bad. It’s the “bad apples”. The problem is the good apples don’t speak up or hold others accountable. The problem is that there’s a system in place that chastises them if they try to speak up. The Blue Wall of Silence. The unspoken oath police officers take to never talk about what they’ve seen, especially if it incriminates a crooked cop. The Mafia has a code of silence, but guess what, they also hold each other accountable when certain rules aren’t being upheld.
America used to be the land of opportunity for immigrants from all over the world. Now they want to paint us as drug dealers, rapists and thugs. Still immigrants make this a great place to live. With their culture and their cuisines. Immigrants make America beautiful. China Town, Little Italy, Little Mexico, Koreatown, Little Odessa. Major cities are made better with these small pockets for culture and tradition. Everybody’s favorite food came from somewhere else. Pizza, hamburgers, French fries, even fried chicken originated in far away lands. The food of the south was brought over by slaves. Don’t get me started on music. If your jam has a drum or a horn, it has origins in Africa and the Middle East. The banjo ironically originated in West Africa. All popular music was originated by Black musicians. Everything trickled down from the Blues to Rock and Roll to Jazz to Disco, to R&B to Hip Hop. Even Salsa, Merengue, Soca, Samba and many other rhythms around the Caribbean and Latin America had it's origins in Africa
If you are an immigrant or the child of immigrants please do not hide that fact. Speak your language, wear your traditional outfits, make your home town dishes. Tell stories of where you come from. Do not forget who you are because that’s how identities vanish. As immigrants it is our duty to keep our ancestors alive through tradition. No matter who it makes uncomfortable. It’s not your fault their heritage is so bland.
Racism is not a black or white thing. It’s not even exclusive to race. It compasses prejudices that include country of origin, ethnicity, religion, language, class and other factors that we don’t even understand. There are people from Spanish speaking countries who can’t stand people from other Spanish speaking countries. Dominicans and Haitians share an island and traditionally do not get along. Some Africans do not socialize with other Africans because of the tribe they belong to. There are so many reasons to hate each other. On top of that you put us all in a country where the “master race” controls industry, finance, law enforcement, and politics. Then some geniuses decided to also hate people based on gender, age, if they are disabled, sexual orientation and preference. It doesn’t make sense to live in a world where people are more focused on what everybody else is doing than focusing on their own shit. Let’s work on making everyone feel included and important. It would make the world a better place.
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