Psycho-analyze away!
*laugh*
I didn't watch the video. Maybe...3 seconds of it. Skipping around at various points. Not sure that qualifies as 'watching'.
I saw 'Crip Compton' in the title and that was enough.
****************************
How do we deal with this reality?
'I' don't. I don't live in such an area.
If 'you' do? Well, if you can't move? I'm sure that Destee.com's resident 'Prayer Warriors' are all over it, by now....
*laugh*
...and you're probably not going to like what I have to say on the matter. No one will.
**UNPOPULAR OPINION**
I don't give a d*mn about gang-members.
My friends and I were almost killed by gangmembers as teens and on MLK day, no less.
Why? I was wearing 'blue' (my favorite)...and our car had blue on the windshield (our school colors).
We were at a park trying to get in. Bumper-to-bumper.
All of sudden - this freakin' lunatic just starts screaming. We were looking about us like, "Who is he screaming at?"
US.
Ranting and calling us 'crab b/tches' (whatever THAT is). No one actually said much to him besides, "Huh...? You're talking to us? ...uh, we're not in any gangs...."
So, then he leaves. Few minutes later? Someone starts 'popping rounds'.
This f'in' idiot... was shooting... at US! Thank god (or some other deity) that he was a poor shot. *laugh*
Everyone -- and I do mean everyone - got the hell up out of there! People were running. Whipping those cars around....
...and it's funny. Until that day -- I didn't even know that the city had a 'gang problem'. *laugh*
Anyway -- I never really thought much of gang-members before then. After that, I really didn't.
This incident occured at a park. 'After-MLK march festivities'. There were teens, like us, there. There were families. Children.
...and I want you to know that every time we gather in my city to march in MLK's honor?
The 'black trash' crawls out the ghetto in their 'colors' to wreak havoc, mayhem and chaos. Every year, there is a shooting. I see it on the news...and, if I'm working, attempting to stabilize/save the life of these 'members' and their victims when they hit the emergency dept.
Drive-by's, beatings and everything else.
So, when I say that I don't a d*mn about gang-members? You'll see that it comes from a real place.
So...I don't care. I don't care what they did in the 60's and 70's, either.
If they had purpose then.
Well - it's not what they're all about, TODAY, in 2012. So, I see no sense in referring to the past. It doesn't apply.
They sold their communities out for some green-backs. It's not even respectable.
'Get them jobs' that'll solve the problem?
Pfft.
There ARE jobs...but they don't want
those jobs. They never have. They don't want to go to school, either...or they'd be enrolled in someone's junior college, at least!
They want that 'fast money'.
Let's not even act 'brand new' about the situation.
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No one wants to hold the self/destructive idiots within this community accountable for anything. There's always an excuse.
That's why they're such f--k ups, to begin with: Their life circumstance is always the fault of 'everyone else'.
Well - everyone's free to enable their bleeding little hearts out. You go right ahead and chase that 'white phantom'.
Meanwhile, it's these black folks whom you defend...that terrorize and sell drugs and kill innocents and practically destroy their own communities from the inside out w/o the white man's help.
These idiots don't value life. They sure as hell don't value the lives of 'their own'.
...may as well have been hatched from 'pods' or something.
But I'm supposed to feel sorry for them, huh?
I'm s'posed to call them... 'brother'...huh?
*smirk*
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>>Mimi opens the floor and waits for the screams of 'sellout' and 'undercover white person' to pass<<
I'm well aware that what I'm saying doesn't seem 'black'...or like anything that a 'black' person would say....
...but I am black.We're not a monolith (or are we? *laugh* I don't know, but I really wish that some black folks would make up their minds).
What's more? Hell - plenty (black folks) would agree with me. PLENTY.
I'm just in the wrong company. The wrong crowd.
Believe me, I get that. *laugh*
Doesn't mean that I'm going to pretend to see things differently.
We're all just going to have to get used to different perspectives and life philosophies.
It's 'either you do or you don't' in my world. 'Anything else is an excuse'. You suck it up and improve.
That's how I am. That's how I was raised. *shrug*
I have a hard time dealing with individuals who cannot understand life's cause/effect theme. The people who can't seem to 'get' how their choices affects everythings that happens to them.
So...any thread discussing such dilemmas? Well - don't be surprised by my response. *laugh*
I literally cannot wrap my head around it.
Though I probably could draft a few reasonable solutions for these idiots?
I'm always severely annoyed that I even have to. That's the truth, plain and simple.
Also... irritated that, even when I try to help, none can hold the behavior of these people to scrutiny -- which helps me pinpont the real problem, because - hello, you can't create a solution if you can't figure out the freakin' problem <- Problem-Solving 101 -- without the 'Don't Judge Me' crowd spreading their large mothering wings over them.
Protecting them from all inquiry.
Don't say 'this' and you can't say 'that'.
...and it's like, "Y'know what? *bleep* off! 'Who are you to jud'-- please! I'm 2 of 3 people in this discussion who isn't walking about with their head up their a--s...and I'll ask what I please. I'm the one whose being practically begged for assistance...remember? I'll have you know that I can just as well take my so-called 'bougie wannabe white' a--s back home. If you think you can do a better job...why aren't you? Why's the idiot still making idiot choices?"
I've had this conversation with a black man in my old local community. Not these exact words, but the gist is there. It began with everyone in high-spirits and ended with a pissing contest. This occured at a restaurant, mind you.
We were going over some plans for the community center and he just got to talking about 'black issues'...then got all forceful and bullying when I told him what I thought about it.
Intellectual elitists, smug a-holes and know-it-alls. They always know more than you.
They're just so 'evolved'...<-- Y'know how they tend to be, OP -- unless, of course, you are one... *laugh*
Then...I guess that you don't.
*laugh*
He still drove me home. Cut the radio down, assuming that I was going to 'talk about what just happened'.
Nope. He could go to hell after that! I faced the window in icy silence.
I ALWAYS butt heads with 'conscious' types. *laugh* The men, I should say.
I have yet to meet one who didn't end up annoying the hell out of me before long. *laugh*
Anyway - after that, I just sort of pulled away and did my own thing. It's better that way, I think.
***************************
For other people?
I expect much of myself. So, I expect the same from everyone else. I'm really not big on 'spoonfeeding' ...and coddling? Well - I leave that to those who do it best.
*laugh*
I can't look at people like this and think, 'oh, poor them'.
In some ways, I see no point in drafting solutions to 'fix' these people. They're broken, yes...but they actually chose (and continue to choose) to be that way....
In some ways, I just don't want to. Plain and simple, truth.
Why? I dunno. I guess -- I used to deal with people struggling for their lives every day... fighting off various illnesses... trying to beat various mental disorders to reclaim their lives... trying to beat their addictions and cease the self-medicating.... trying to survive, with tubes and IV's up the wazoo, the effects of life-threatening injuries.
...and still do a few hrs out of the week.
*shrug*
I will grip tightly and propel forward any who honestly wants to be helped. I've done it before. I will do it many times over before this life ends. I'm sure of it.
I will never give 'pity', but I can sympathize. Empathize. I will offer understanding...and a helping hand, perhaps... to TRUE victims.
...not those who prefer to live in dysfunction. Not those whose main problem lies in their inability to get out of their own way. Not those who'd throw their lives away (while taking a few with them, for good measure) of their own volition.
Until you move to change your condition? There's nothing to be done for you.
That's right -- we're triagin', honey. *laugh*
I will help those who fight for every inch of their existence.
I don't waste energy with the rest. Leave 'em where they lay.... *shrug*
Does it matter?
They're already dead. I'm in the business of helping the living.
*shrug*
********************
Y'know --
If we were talking about the mexican mafias butchering up innocents (americans and mescans) along the border...
If we were talking about these crazy white biker gangs....
If we were talking about these murderous italian mobsters....
The opinions would be wayyyyy different.
...but no - we're talking about 'BLACK' criminals.
Well - that changes everything! *laugh*
Apparently, there's a difference and they're owed my sympathy.
There isn't and none is forthcoming. A criminal is a criminal...and some within this community test the very limits of these 'cultural ties', I'll tell you that!
These males are no 'brothers' of mine, sorry.
I don't have to 'walk a mile' in anyone shoes. Please.
I SEE what these people do. I SEE how they carry on.
I came 'thisclose' to being one of their victims.
These males are not victims of anything but 'self-inflicted' wounds. Their issues are largely self-created.
Save you sympathy for those who deserve it. The TRUE victims in this situation: Those who have no choice BUT to live in the zoo among these animals.
My concern...is reserved for
them, as well it should be.
Not the degenerates who murder, beat, rape and terrorize them.
...and, as usual, folks are free to dis/agree. *laugh*
It's fine. It's...whatever.