"If there is no struggle, there is no progress." -Frederick Douglass

Where Did We Go Wrong

As I think about the mind state of our generation, I wonder who is to blame for our laziness? Our parents and their parents struggled so much and great minds came out of this struggle, and barriers were broken. The main goal during that time was advancement and awareness of being black. To me this made their generation more compelled to become educated and successful. For us eighties babies we were born into the culture of drugs and Reaganomics, in which blacks were pushed back even more. Those who were still continuing to become educated became about the almighty dollar, and the Movement was lost. Our parents had Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Angela Davis and so many others. Kids now look up to rap stars that glamorize drugs and sex, the leading cause of our demise, and the reason why AIDS runs rapid in our communities. Who are our role models Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Ha! All the barriers are being broken in entertainment and sports, rather than education. Oprah may be the biggest role model we have but we are unsure if she is on our side sometimes. We need to come together, our way of thinking has changed, and we rather assimilate than dominate. I know we can do it, and you should too.

The Two Things I Hate

Hate is such a strong word and there not many things I can say I hate, but drugs(except for marijuana because it is not a drug, it is grown from earth which was created by God, and is nothing more than a plant) and black crime I strongly despise. Every generation has it's struggles with drugs, in the black community our struggle with these problems have directly affected our rise in society. The greatest revolution was during the twenties through the sixties. The Harlem Renaissance's explosion of black awareness, through literature and the arts, gave way for the next generations to follow suit, and continue the progression. Along the way we lost countless greats to drugs. THEY get the idea to destroy our entire communities, families, lives, and progress with drugs. The process was slow, but started with the distribution of heroin, soon drug dealers from dirt poor communities were getting rich quick off of selling their Brother or Sister a dime bag and instantly drug dealing and taking drugs became glamorized. Children now look up to uneducated, ruthless, dishonest people. And a civil war has erupted, we now fight over drugs money, territory, shit that doesn't really matter. Although drugs are very prevalent between the twenties and seventies, the eighties is what has set us back a hundred more years. Reagan the biggest drug dealer that has ever lived introduced our neighborhoods to crack. Crack was cheap and highly addictive and even profitable for the poor man. The prison system's population of blacks tripled. Now our generation's look up to ex-drug dealer rap stars who still don't know that life is about helping our fellow man and knowing ourselves. Which is exactly what THEY want. If drugs were legal our economy would not be in a recession. We actually waste more money trying to fight drugs, how ironic. I believe drugs are illegal for some good reasons, they do ruin lives. But I also believe that people make a conscious choice to do drugs. Why not let them determine their fate and put a fat ass tax on it in the process? The main reason drugs are illegal is that more drugs would be imported than exported, not enough money for THEM, so THEY make their money from the streets. Oh, you thought it was Ray from down the street, who has an Impala with 26's, or the Russian dude that sells to him. NO! As Head of State, George W. Bush is the biggest drug dealer of all. Our people are the majority in the prison system because of THEM. Do not let drugs be our demise. Do not let THEM profit form our weaknesses and habits that THEY instilled in us.