"I can't forget da southsideCan't forget riverdale
I can't forget the hit squad
1017 brick squad
Lebron flocka james
I go hard in da muhfuckin paint nigga...
I go hard in da muhfuckin paint nigga...
What the fuck you thinkin nigga
I wont die for this shit or what the fuck i say (Brick Squad)
Front yard broad day wit da SK (ba ba ba ba ba ba bow)
See Gucci, thats my mothafuckin nigga
I hang in the Dale wit dem hit squad killers
Waka Flocka Flame one hood ass nigga
Ridin real slow bendin corners my nigga...
....Where you at? Where your trap? You aint hood, niggaI wont die for this shit or what the fuck i say (Brick Squad)
Front yard broad day wit da SK (ba ba ba ba ba ba bow)
See Gucci, thats my mothafuckin nigga
I hang in the Dale wit dem hit squad killers
Waka Flocka Flame one hood ass nigga
Ridin real slow bendin corners my nigga...
Keep this shit 300, put that shit on my hood
Crips fuckin wit me, G's and the Vice Lords (Brrrrrrrret)
Eses in the Meeko freestyle off da dome
Brick Sqaud Waka Flocka Flame its fuckin on!"
Too many young black men out here listen to rappers like Waka Flocka Flame and take his lyrics literally. It would be nice if they had parents at home who would take the time to teach them how to put things in its proper perspective and understand that in the real world, repping the "Southside" and hanging in a trap house with paid killers and drug dealers is not how you make a life for yourself or your family.
A sad example of what I am referring to is this young child out of Memphis. His story is heartbreaking but all too familiar:
"A baby-faced Memphis teen posted shocking snaps of his wannabe thug lifestyle online just hours before being shot dead by his best pal as they played with a gun, police said.
Cartrail Robertson, 13, uploaded the gangster-style gallery - where he's seen holding a revolver he describes as a .357 Magnum, smoking pot and fanning wads of $100 bills - to Facebook on Monday.But, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, he was allegedly gunned down by his 15-year-old friend Darrin Wilson.
Cops think the duo were playing with the weapon, at around 3 a.m. in another as yet unnamed friend's house, when it accidentally went off.
Officers are also analysing [sic] other images, uploaded by the duo and their other friends, where they throw out apparent gang signs and wave semi-automatic weapons." {Source}
Folks, if you don't raise your kids the streets will raise them for you. And, sadly, it looks like the streets got a hold of Cartrail Robertson in just 13 quick years.
This story also had me thinking about the President's latest initiative to try and save young black men, or at least make the rest of us realize that some of them are out here and need saving.
This little thug wannabe was living the thug life complete with loaded pistols, drugs, liquor and money. (Look at the images with the link.)
Tragically, his own friend split his dome and his young life has sadly come to an end.
Yes, I am my "brother's keeper", but I also want the people who brought him here to get down with me and try to save him as well.
President Obama should not have to launch any kind of initiative to save young men like Cartrail Robertson. Where are his parents?
They are the ones we should be blaming for this tragedy. Not the streets. Not the president. And not Wacka Floka Flame.
3am on a school night. Where are the parents? I can make an educated guess, the dad, they have no idea, and the mom, looking for her next, or trying to keep her current 'boy'friend.
ReplyDelete"Where are his parents?"
ReplyDeleteWho cares? They're not fit parents after naming their kid CAR TRAIL.
They wanted a Jeep instead of a child.
Field, "President Obama should not have to launch any kind of initiative to save young men like Cartrail Robertson. Where are his parents?
ReplyDeleteThey are the ones we should be blaming for this tragedy. Not the streets. Not the president. And not Wacka Floka Flame."
Field, I think we aren't quite ready to admit the painful truth which is: Black parents don't know, and cannot, and are incapable of parenting their OOW kids in a healthy way. Why? Because they weren't parented well either.
Let's face it. If Obama and others 'outside' of these severely dysfunctional homes don't make the effort to save the children, then nobody else will... because there are NO Black parents with capability raise children.....If there were responsible parents with capabilities of raising kids, they would have been done it by now.
The truth is, this has to be an outside job. I hope Obama follows through with his plan because if he doesn't we are finished.
Please take look at what our black brothers had to say in defense of rap music. It was embarrassing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html
More on "My Brother's Keeper" discussion. I really hope O'Reilly will stay engaged on this subject because Rev Al, CBC and others haven't done anything to help our kids:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/3271682258001
Dear BIB, Yesterday, a little before the market closed, I plopped down more money on VAPE, FSPM, and ERBB, thinking that today would be my day to get my money back. Today, however, all THREE did a nose dive.
ReplyDeleteBIB, I can't take this shit much longer....and I just started. Do you think the stock market is a little racist.
I mean, it has been extremely unfair and discriminatory towards me.
"President Obama should not have to launch any kind of initiative to save young men like Cartrail Robertson. Where are his parents?
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
Some people shouldn't be parents. Like unemployed high school students/dropouts with no means of supporting themselves or a child.
We can't tell people if they can or can't have children, but we can insist people live up to the responsibilities that come with their choices.
And I know you get tired of hearing conservative talking points, but government programs to help the poor in many ways make things worse.
You get more of what you pay for, and we pay for unmarried women (and girls) to have babies. We pay for their healthcare, we pay for their daycare, when they go to school we feed them and cover all their fees. Their fathers aren't needed so mom doesn't want him around. The mothers never take full responsibility, so their kids are running around some mean streets at 3:00 am.
We make it all possible, because without external support and artificial conditions, people could not live this way. The government has funded this whole effed up situation, which could not exist without the destructive incentives and long-term dependency our policies engender.
These are complex issues, but step one would be to stop rewarding and subsidizing dysfunction, don't you think?
If we are going to decide that we have to support everyone who won't support themselves, at least can't we do it in way that encourages positive outcomes? Graduate high school. Get married before you have children. Take care of your kids.
So now Obama is "his brother's Keeper?" Well, I'll just sit back and wait for him to lead from the front on this one here.
ReplyDeleteHow'z the thing working out with his destitute half-brother George in Kenya? Obama "keeping" him real good?
Yessir, think I'll wait till Obama leads with something more than rhetoric.
Wait a minute.
ReplyDeleteteh Won launched yet another meaningless "initiative" blah blah blah blah in an effort to distract from his pathetic uselessness as an actual, you know, credible leader of a country, and Field writes about it, and .....
doesn't find an angle to "blame white people" for endemic black dysfunction?
I need to check my internet connection, because clearly it's sent me to a spoof site.
Anon @ 11:32
ReplyDeleteHow about we insist that anyone on any government assistance be required to be on mandatory birth control until they can prove they can (a) not only support themselves but (b) have the means to support another mouth. It also has the side benefit of reducing the numbers of Obamasons abandoned to wander in feral packs, creating mischief and mayhem.
That's a good start.
I heard our POTUS say, among other things: "Personal responsibility"; "No excuses"; "Good enough is never good enough"... Black Americans do not, cannot stand to hear those words. And, if a crackuh said the same words, we would call him/her a racist.
ReplyDeleteThat (too) many generations of African-Americans have embraced and glamorized "gangsta/thug/penitentiary" culture says much about the psychosis of that same group of people. I think it was James Baldwin who once said, "To be black in America is akin to 'playing chicken' with madness". What's real scary is that this propensity (to embrace and glamorize the worst in any civilization) is heritable; no light at the end of a long and very dark tunnel.
And, ain't we some prayin' folks!?? A majority of Black American Protestants share the same homophobic ideology of West Virginia's; Kentucky's; the deep South's white evangelicals - the descendants of lynch mobs. Again, I think it was James Baldwin who once said:
"If...God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more LOVING! If that God cannot do this (and s/he has had plenty of time, AND, failed miserably), then it is time we got rid of her/him". Amen to that, brutha, amen to that.
FN said...
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if they had parents at home
Hey FN, maybe now might be a good time for you to call and thank your parents.
Field,
ReplyDeleteI do not often agree with you. However, you are right on the point of this story and bring a level of humanity to the story that it sorely needs.
This illustrates a problem, however, that will be difficult to solve. I cannot be there for these kids, I have my own not small family to work with. I have a life, in suburbia. No one pays me to go minister to these kids and I recognize that they would eventually kill me anyhow.
Young kids like this are now what white suburban America imagines when they see any black man. Fair or not, it is only a matter of personal survival. White people cannot reasonably chance that any black males are benign, when this sort of thing is prevalent. It is unavoidable to see similar pretty much everywhere.
The music is weaponized, not just the actual firearms. This is not about gun control, whites now think "thug control". Whites have now armed themselves to the teeth over the past 5 years, and these kids are the latest installment of why.
How does this get solved? Ministering to the individual won't answer the mail. at some point, the industry that plies the young minds with weaponized culture will have to be held legally liable as a contributing factor.
Much as a car manufacturer who makes a defective product will pay damages, the "rap" industry and others should be held to scrutiny on this.
To fix, go to the source. The parents have shown themselves to be generationally useless. You will waste your time with them.
Good luck, you are going to need it.
Liberal whites pursue policies that make them feel good about themselves, no matter what the harm they cause. They think black acceptance of Liberal policies validates their positions.
ReplyDeleteWhat liberal whites never seem to understand is that Blacks vote liberal for conservative reasons. i.e., they vote Liberal because it benefits them in a material way, not because of some kind of Kantian commitment to abstract notions of justice. To them, it is purely who/whom.
To continue from an earlier post:
ReplyDeleteSpike Lee, once again, making incendiary statements in a grasping effort to stay relevant, has once again caused real harm to innocent people.
Vandals have damaged and spray painted graffiti on the homes in the Ft Greene Brooklyn block Lee mentioned in his racist rant. The spray painted message states, "Do the Right Thing", in what is assumed to be a reference to his movie of the same name.
Lee's father and stepmother are fed up, and his half brother would just like him to STFU.
>>“And I think Spike needs to stop with whatever situation he was talking about over here ’cause he doesn’t live here and he’s not involved in it, you know,” half brother Arnold Lee told CBS 2′s Jessica Schneider.<<
Lee has, according to reports, spent the last few days attempting to mend fences with the neighbors and his own family.
Owners of the vandalized homes state it will cost "thousands" to repair the damage. No word yet on whether Lee is offering restitution - or, perhaps, reparations would be a better word? to the victims of his churlish behavior.
Well, we are forced to warehouse these jackals one way or another, usually long term in your friendly local lock-up, so I look at it this way: these wayward yutes who are only going to end up forever on the backs of the productive, do us all a favor by smoking themselves early on before too much more is flushed down the toilet supporting them.
ReplyDeleteLet's stop importing poor people.
ReplyDeleteWe import over a million poor people every year, and have been doing so for almost 50 years.
This is the source of growing "income inequality". More poor people competing for jobs drives down wages.
We have enough poor people. We don't need our wages to go down even more.
Brother Field, someone ask you to call and thank your parents. I honestly think if one speaks to us daily, surely there is time for your parents. My mom is 85 and people like us -"the caring" needs not an invitation. I hope the commenters was reassuring us to stay in contact with the parents that made the sacrifiices for us. Thank God for my parents..... I obeyed them.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really sad story there Field.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that parents must take responsibility, but there are youngsters who were raised well by both mother and father, yet still end up in similar situations. Sadly. I think that governments/law makers should also take some responsibility because the policies that they impose have an impact on the lives of citizens. Social policies, that make life harder for those at the bottom, and easier for those at the top. Initiatives that work to help to give those who need it most a chance to improve their lives/futures, are always a good thing. Fail the parent - fail the child. poverty and dysfunction can be cyclical. but doesn't have to be. The glorification of the thug life needs to stop.
I am conflicted each time President Obama speaks to us as a people. Once again he goes to the Blacks that appear to be functional. Like the Morehouse College, those young men appeared ready for cooperate America. I want the strongest man in the Whole World to take his crew and go into Badlands, America. I know, I am asking too damn much. But... He took his crew to Iraq. I want a president at this stage of my living in America to come out the box. Be Bold, show the colors: red, white, and blue. Thanks for listening to my alter-ego.
ReplyDeleteThis posting was right on time because it offers me a forum to ask other males that are generationally superior to the Black males that are in their spheres. One commenter suggested that I, being aged, should do my part in the solution... Or at least-talk is cheap.
Raising two sons, coaching Pop Warner (before football turned "non gratis), playing B-ball, and talking to Black males, I feel that now when some male need it the most; would I be willing to provide.
Now allow me to give you the telescope to my insight about what I see as an impediment to communicating with young Black males.
A. Too many have never been in an environment where they are nurtured to listen to an older and wiser male. Got called "Pops" and "Dog" too many time. Really I am getting used to it when I hear the sound of respect.
B. Many Black males get their social cues from kids their own age that made money in America. Example would be million dollar athletes and rappers. I am not saying rap corrupt, but glorifying gangster activities has to have an impact when comparing my one truck, one house and one dog. We do live in the land of "I gotta have it".
C. Instructive communication needs emotional lability. This may require one to be able to not see communication as an affront or threatening. This has gotten me in trouble during my instructive period. My sons used to tell me; "Dad, we are not in the Army ". Needless to say, I feel many males may not want any discipline that require meeting expectations.
I know I have rambled on but it might be helpful if I could get input to how to be "A Brother's Keeper".
Dawna, you make some interesting points, but the govt. can only do so much. I am for gun control and investing in better urban education and after school programs as much as the next progressive. But, at the end of the day, it's all about proper parenting and making good choices.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough enough out here just taking care of yourself, are u really ready to bring a child (or two or three) into this environment without the proper foundation?
BTW, I agree with u that solid parents can have bad kids. We all know someone like that. But the odds are just against you if you are not equipped or ready to be a good parent when u pop out that child or plant your sperm.
Still A Panther, you never ramble. I always love hearing from you.
Field, the greatest thing president Obama did is to raise the issue of neglected African-American (AA) male youths again! In my 4 score years of participating in the STRUGGLE I have witnessed calls to action and money flowing to save young AA men. Don't get me wrong when ever programs such as "My Brothers Keeper" are created SOMEBODY is sure to BENEFIT. However the results are in most cases always disappointing as the success is always minimal. The right wing racists will do their elementary math and divide the total amount of money spent on said program by the number of young AA males who went on to become successful in life, and publish the obvious astronomical sum of money spent per successful outcome. Then they will trumpet that the program was a huge failure as it cost $3.6 million (as an example figure) per AA candidate actually helped by the program.
ReplyDeleteThis cycle goes all the way back to L.B.J's Great Society plan for American minorities.
I need to get the public's attention because I REALLY know HOW to FIX THE SITUATION!!
To fix a societal problem created by 300 years of institutional slavery is no easy task, but here is a brief outline of the critical positive steps necessary to get the ball rolling.
#1. GIVE AA male youth REAL RESPONSIBILITY for with RESPONSIBILITY automatically comes RESPECT. Very few people, black and white, actually entrust AA males with any task of consequence; whereas young white males are given real tasks which they are EXPECTED to perform in a normal fashion. AA male youth suffer from low self esteem simply because they rightly sense that no one will entrust them with a task and expect that they RESPONSIBLE enough to get the job done. This is low self esteem festers and becomes self hatred of themselves and anyone who physically looks like them. This accounts for the high murder rate among AA male youth.
#2 Recruit college and university undergrads to be KICK-OFF MENTORS to young AA males. Many young AA males are very cynical regarding local and federal programs designed to boost their achievements in life, but would bond much more quickly to slightly older college educated peers. This would be the delicatessen phase of any program which would be designed to offer young AA males a look at the world of possible future aspiration as guided by the under grad MENTORS. The academic community would have to help design such a mentoring program as well as assigning credit for those undergrads volunteering to participate.
#3 Get the guns out of AA neighborhoods. Cities need to set up civilian inquiry groups who are tasked with certifying that all confiscated guns are COMPLETELY DESTROYED and not somehow get re-sold and wind up back onto the streets. This includes guns obtained by the police during a "gun buy back program". Most of the guns in the hands of young AA males are recycled weapons which at one time were under lock and key by the police. In conjunction with this effort there should be an investigation as to how these young AA males with no visible source of income are able to obtain hand guns that sell around $300 to $600 at most gun shows or gun shops.
I have many more suggestions but I will stop with these three. I sincerely would like to get my suggestions before those foundations and other groups interested in doing something about the current tragic situation facing AA male youth.
Anonymous Bill said...
ReplyDeleteFN said...
It would be nice if they had parents at home
Hey FN, maybe now might be a good time for you to call and thank your parents.
12:31 AM
---------------------
Yes, Bill you have a very good point. However, I have a feeling Field can't do that because of family 'stuff' that no one knows how to resolve.
Bill, you know about family systems, don't you? They run deep into the heart.
The heart can't be freed if there is no forgiveness. Very few people KNOW HOW to forgive with an open heart.
Parvenu, you made some great suggestions.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Yes Parvenu made some very good points, but point #1 contradicts point #3.
ReplyDeleteTelling black men they aren't to be trusted as being responsible gun owners undermines the idea of convincing them they are fully vested in society.
And responsibility doesn't automatically earn respect; achievement does.
Your sentiments echo George Bush's "soft bigotry of low expectations" quote. Do you think the black community is ready to give up their crutches to show they can walk?
"Do you think the black community is ready to give up their crutches to show they can walk?"
ReplyDeleteIf there are "crutches" they are there because our legs were broken many years ago.
The majority population should be grateful that they never had that type of obstacle.
Still, we will take them off and do our best to teach our young brothers what it takes to "achieve" in society.
I believe in personal responsibility, but let's not go acting like institutional racism does not exist.
Wesley said... "I can make an educated guess, the dad, they have no idea, and the mom, looking for her next, or trying to keep her current 'boy'friend."
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't sound too educated to me. She could be out working her second or third job, which is more common due to the typical abandonment and economical circumstances.
This Wesley fella as usual, still trying to find a way to blame and focus on black women/mothers. That's why other men do not respect black men. Get a clue and hurry rid yourself from that stupid-chosis ideology.
And just to make it clear....
ReplyDelete"the typical black father abandonment and economical circumstances"
Thank you.
Trollonymous has left the building.
"The majority population should be grateful that they never had that type of obstacle."
ReplyDelete---
True, but everyone faces obstacles, admittedly some more extreme than others.
But broken legs aren't the issue anymore. They are as strong as anyone else's.
Yet we still tell these young guys they need crutches, that they'll never really make it. And that it's somebody else's fault. That makes them hate themselves and everybody else.
We should be telling them the world is theirs for the taking, but its on them to do the work that gets them there. That nobody owes them anything, and they don't want it anyway because everything comes with a price, and the price they are paying is killing them.
As a culture, black and white, we don't honor the good man like we used to. The guy who gets up and goes to work every day, who takes care of his family, who plays by the rules and who holds up his corner of the neighborhood. Instead we honor success and wealth, no matter how it is obtained.
Maybe we can change back, maybe not, but that doesn't stop individuals making their own choice to live by the values that make for an honest life.
Anon@7:43PM, those are good points about honoring the hard working guy who plays by the rules and honors his community.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree that we have a problem with glorifying the wrong things. But we can't just tell them that the world is theirs. We have to show them that the world is fair and if they play by the rules they will get a fair shot.
These kids aren't stupid. They know when we are being hypocrites or when there are different standards being created for different people.
"They know when we are being hypocrites or when there are different standards being created for different people."
ReplyDeleteYes they do.
That's the whole problem.
parvenu, I respect your opinion but i also disagree with it.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the other races and groups of people; Jews, Arabs, Asians, Whites, Hispanics, they all are above black people both economical and political. They all share one thing and that is they have strong communities. They back each other, they fully support one another, they open economic and political doors for each other.they build businesses in their communities, they build strong communities and keep it their culture. Blacks don’t practice this, that’s why we are at the bottom of the totem pole. Until we come together as a fist we will always lag behind everyone else and accomplish nothing for our race.
We start off strong but we are so thirsty to integrate with other races that we fall victim to the lies and deceit and we end up no longer owning what we created.
Hip-Hop is what we made. It is ours yet we let another race control it. Hip-Hop is part of our culture, but yet we sell our soul for individual riches, that is why Hip-Hop has such a negative stigma attached to it. Since we don’t have control over hip-hop, we have to resort to making records that are “acceptable.” Records that will “sell.” Instead of being able to spit real shit and not having to resort to “Why i’m so gangsta,” “Fuck niggas and bitches get money” songs. Watering down our voice because real records, empowering records like Public Enemy’s and so many other great artists, goes against the agenda of keeping blacks at the bottom.
RuBix Q, your points about Hip-Hop is money.
ReplyDeletePlease home back.
Blacks sure seem to support each other politically.
ReplyDeleteAnd jews are the ones who profit from hip hop. just sayin.
It's not about money. It's about who has the last say. Other ethnic groups are strategically placed within Hip-Hop music to have the last say. And if you have the last say you have the most power.
ReplyDelete“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Mayer Asmschel quote was from a strategically placement. He understand and knew that as long as he was in a position to have the last say he has the most power.
In this analogy blacks are the law writers and other ethnic groups are the Mayer Asmschel's.
Other ethnic groups? Like the Irish and Koreans who control hip hop?
ReplyDeleteLMAO
I hate to break it to some of y'all white folks but this gun thing is not a black problem or a white problem.
ReplyDeleteIt's an American sickness and all our children are going to keep killing each other and shooting up the population in general until we get a handle on gun control.
White people: Stop making crime a black pathology. How quickly you forget your own school shooters and accidental home shootings and 'roid raging wrestlers who put a bullet in their family members before killing themselves.
This is not only a black problem. And it's certainly not only a white problem. Our attitudes and lenience towards gun culture are killing ALL our kids.
But like most problems in America, it stems from, in general, a willingness from all of us to bury our heads in the sand and particularly, white folks refusal to see, recognize and address their own dysfunction in their own communities before being so quick to point a finger elsewhere.
This is one are where we really are going to be forced to work together and it's sad because we have so little practice at it and we do a very bad job at coming together.
But the same dysfunction that drives gun culture in white communities is the same dysfunction in black communities. We must all learn to recognize the dysfunction regardless of what color it comes in, what clothes its wearing and what music it's spouting.
And we have to support over-burdened and over-workeed families- families who are working so hard to feed kids or provide the trappings of a middle class lifestyle- that they don't even notice that a kid in their home owns semi-automatic weapons.
Parents can be blamed but only so far especially when most avenues of discipline open to them, even physical punishment are met with charges of child abuse. Even verbally chastising a child or a parental argument can end up with a parent in jail or dead. No wonder children don't really think their parents are in charge.
We're going to have to make some hard choices in the future: about guns, about supporting families and about allowing parents to discipline their children in ways they see fit short of true abuse.