As inner city women, it is important for us to get a firm understanding of what happens in our communities vs. what happens in other communities. We have gotten so used to hearing about the mayhem that plagues our communities that we have become almost desensitized to the sheer madness of our predicament. We fail to piece together the reality that these things are ONLY happening in our communities; that our community is literally “imploding” from ignorance. It is so expected in our community that we are only outraged when an innocent person gets struck dead by a stray bullet. The rest of the time, we shake our heads and keep it moving.We live in fear of walking out of our front door because our children and our neighbor’s children have taken over our streets. They are delinquents, they are drop-outs, and they are dangerous. We would be more concerned if we didn’t see the crack heads or “the walking dead” sitting slumped over on the curb or stumbling obliviously down the block. There are liquor stores on what seems like every corner and a dope dealer on every other block. We begin to think that what is happening around us is “normal;” that it happens everywhere. NEWFLASH: Nothing is further from the truth. Is there crime everywhere? Absolutely. Can people get killed anywhere? Absolutely. Is it an expected (daily, weekly, monthly) occurrence? Absolutely NOT! THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!
We are trained by mass media- by what we see on television, what we hear on the radio, what we hear on the news and even by the video games we play. Mass media, an industry selling sex, criminality, violence, delinquency, disrespect, stereotypes and fear is causing MASS DESTRUCTION in the inner city. Children are learning younger and younger wrong over right; street smarts rather than book smarts. They see and hear much too much and while they don’t pay much attention in school, they are paying rapt attention to what is going on around them. I know because they tell me. If you think that all of this is not having an effect on the youth, trust me, you are sadly mistaken. We are sending the message loud and clear to our children who are exposed to the hopelessness and lack of opportunity that exists in the hood every day. Folks, THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!
And as a final FYI~ Look around your community. We don’t own anything in our communities; not the restaurants, the corner stores, gas stations, NOTHING- except maybe barber shops and hair salons. Yet we are the biggest consumers! We’ve been here all of our lives yet we have the highest rates of unemployment, lowest levels of education (they’ve been trying to close the achievement gap all of my life I think), highest levels of incarceration, the highest rates of infant mortality and violent deaths. In nearly every negative statistical category, we lead the pack. We aren’t taught anything about finances or career development or networking or social skills in school. Most of our schools are failing schools or ‘drop-out factories’ anyway so many of us never even learn to read or write at high levels. And then we have idiots, black men, like Herman Cain saying idiot stuff like: if we’re not rich, it’s our fault! And rich men like Magic Johnson pushing Rent-a-Center? And leaders like Montell Williams endorsing short term cash advances? WTF? People- THIS IS NOT NORMAL!! I would be ROTFLMAO but I can’t even laugh to keep from crying- it’s too sad.
Other nationalities don’t live like this. Other townships and cities don’t fear like this. Other people’s children don’t have to deal with this! Having said that, if children learn what they live, is it any wonder that the cycle continues?
Pray with me and then let’s get busy! Until next time….
Peace. Two fingers, one love!
