Attention all Ganstas, Hustlas and Bad Motha........Shut Yo Mouth and Listen! This One's for my N*ggas

No one has to tell you that life is a privilege. Every moment we spend is on borrowed time. Understand it, there are absolutely no guarantees when it comes to how long we have to reside on this earth. That much is a given regardless of what you decide to do with your life.  However, many of us take this precious time for granted. We fail to make the most of our opportunity to leave something good behind. More still would rather knock at Death's door, hastening the inevitable by involving ourselves in unhealthy practices.

No one is perfect or will make right decisions every time around, but with yet another death close to home, I feel compelled to run my mouth for a good reason.There are a couple of things I want to speak on.

First and foremost, I understand life has given quite a few of us lemons. Black males in particular face a myriad of challenges as they attempt to navigate the paths to American success. Black men are vilified, patronized and otherwise antagonized every step of the way. It is a documented fact that the prospects of African American males between 18 and 25 are in no way pleasant. According to the numbers, Black men are six and a half times more likely to be imprisoned than our Caucasian counterparts. According to the Sentencing Project, "1 out of every 8 Black men in their 20's is in jail, and 1 out 3 Black males is expected to go to prison". Must I even go into detail concerning our probability of even graduating high school? Attending college? Caring for our children? In short,  we are EXPECTED to kill, steal and destroy....sound familiar. It seems this propaganda is fed to the masses and before we even take a shot (no pun intended) we are behind the proverbial eight-ball.

Oh me, oh my--what are we ever to do?

I'm not here to give the answers to life. I won't even pretend that this is the type of problem that can be solved from the bottom up. Indeed, there are institutions in this land,great powers that operate upon the premise the Black man will fall. However, I realized a long time ago the best way to change something is to start with yourself. It's simple in words, but to do it will take some serious soul searching and self evaluation: What can the Black man do to shun these horrible fortunes?

"You need to GET UP, GET OUT AND GET SOMETHING!"
--OUTKAST  Git Up, Get Out

How can we expect to be taken seriously if we still insist on living the life of a vagrant. Sure, the situations we have in life can put us in dire straits, but we must believe in our strength. We have to exercise the common sense God gave us and know the consequences of living certain lifestyles....
Many will call me judgmental...... You damn right I am. I'm trying to judge you before the Judge does, ya dig?? And I'm not talking about the one in court, but I hear he's a bad mutha too.

I've seen too many good Black men, with the potential and talent to change this world, use their intelligence and boldness the wrong way. There is no retiring from gang life, no pension for selling a lifetime's worth of drugs, and you had better believe it only takes ONE rather ratchet individual to screw the whole thing up. Who's really in control every time you make a serve or  deal with some shady characters you THOUGHT your homeboy knew? Are you playing the game or is the game playing you? On second thought, do you even know what game you're playing? Well....Newsflash..."the negras are losing."

We will never achieve anything so long as we are preoccupied with killing each other. We are too busy risking our lives on the street caught up in BS to understand the best way to help yourself and your family is to do without the baggage. Without the beef, without the law, without the drugs, without the mentality that the dirty way is the only way. Believe in yourself, in God enough to keep trying to get that job. Keep trying to go to school and educate yourself. Pay your child support, stop beating up your women and come out your mouth with good things-- words of encouragement and love, not curses from the devil. WE can do better. YOU can do better. I can't speak for every situation, but the God I serve works miracles. I thank Him every day that he blessed me with a mind to think with, the sense to seek positive ways to live.

Each and every one of us, as Black men, has a responsibility to our people. Even though we are aptly criticized and charged, we are also cut from a special mold. We are cut from kings and rulers, supreme difference makers, movers, shakers and fighters. We are Black, beautiful to the core and more, we have held the reigns to the Black family since the dawn of Africa. Many attempt to strip of us our power, feed to us that we are inadequate and incapable. But we are more. We are intellects and scholars, revolutionaries, dignitaries with class. We thereby carry ourselves not as helpless victims, but as men with purpose. We see trials and we overcome them. We prepare ourselves to deal shrewdly with those who challenge our worth as individuals. But more essential than the affirmation is the exorcising of our right to live freely.

So I'm asking Black men to LIVE and do it freely. A mental prison is every bit as bad as a real one. A spiritual death is in some cases more damning than the earthly type. Seize control of your life and commit to making some positive strides. It will take more than a night, perhaps a lifetime. But in the end, you can rest easy knowing you are not propagating the negativity that is currently ripping our communities apart, one life at a time.


GET WITH THE PROGRAM

Decide whether you want to be a part of the problem or the solution. For us or against us. Will we continue to solve our problems with the trigger. Will we continue to shatter the dreams of  innocents with stray bullets, sentence each other to death, effectively ending the prospect of redemption, of renewal? Will we end the chaos or add to it? Will we choose to uplift our communities or ravage them.

The choice is most certainly yours to make.

Do The Right Thing