losing faith

[oma09]

I have noticed an increasingly ruthless energy permeating the streets in the Bay Area.

People shot,beat down,maimed,killed,pemanently disabled etc over a few dollars, a wrong look, basically over B.S. Even if you turn over your money, people are shooting you any way, beating you down anyway. The neagative energy seems to get thicker everyday with non stop Black-on-Black violence and a total lack of respect for one another's humanity.

I am sick of so called hip hop artist glamorizing the destruction of Black life, the dehumanization of Black wome. We are becoming caricatures.

I am sick of hearing black women being called b's and h's in these songs.
I am sick of the excuses. And believe that the insanity of the negativity in so much of today's hip hop is having an influence. Multimillion dollar ad campaigns compete with the attention of parents and guardians. Calling each other n***a has become noramlized.

Believe the following:
If your in the "wrong" neigberhood at the "wrong" time, your have a greater chance of getting victimized by your own folks befor the police.
On the streets here, I see no other women from any other group that are disrepected to the level of Black women by their own brothers. Aw f**k it, these men/boys disrespecting Black women like that are not brothers.
We are living in a time of anything, and I mean anything goes.
Almost every Black event in Oakland gets turned out by a handfull of knucklheads and I hate to say it but you know what it becoming more than a handfull.
White supremacy is a very real and threatining entity. However, we could solve a whole bunch of our problems by just respecting each other.
You get judged because of your gear, because your not thuggin,because your not "hard". It's all B.S.
I know people that complain about their struggle but waste a ridiculous amount of money on sneakers....the cost of those sneakers might be what your counterpart in many areas of Africa would earn in several months.
We have to be practical and we have to return back to respecting one another. Black-on-Black on crime takes way more lives every year than cops. It bring way more heart-ache and much more tears of Mom,grandmas,Dad's,cousins, the children of those victims.

Check the video at the following link, it will bring you to a very corny looking website but just download the video and check it. It's US at our very worse. Be warned though it made me sick and it made me want to reach out on this board and express my feelings.

http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1124360487

[OsunkoyaIfayomi]

Used to live in the Bay Area, it's the same all over I feel you what can we do to stop it? What can we as a concious people do to break down this system of brainwashing. As we talk about what's keeping us from doing what they're doing in the middle east maybe we should cripple the multi miilion dollar industry of the media that is crippling and mass brainwashing our youth
Ifayomi

[BlckFreeDom]

When you have a bastard culture that glorifies this type of activity, it influences the way you act. We have to deal with our problems realistically, you can't blame all of it on white people cause like i said before, the generations before this were impoverished as well but the crime rate was no where near the rate that it is today. Look up black on black crime statistics in the 50s and 60s and compare it to today if you don't don't believe me. To be black in America means to be a gangster or a pimp, drugdealer or anything that relates to being ghetto so alot of kids feel like it's okay to act like that so the cycle just repeats its self. I don't have all of the answers but if we really want to change this, we first have to redefine what it means to be black.

[Nesayem]

Peace,
I truly understand what you are saying. I've been in the Bay Area basically my whole life (I'm from Richmond). Over these summer months we have had an increasing number of homicides, which have been glorified on the "turf"(as us young people say).Everybody wants to be the biggest and baddest person in their neighborhood. That energy is breeding a lot of competition and confusion between individuals. I just feel that young people are dealing with some self-esteem and self-respect issues wich is causing this kind of energy to manifest. Even I have had guns pulled on me walking to the bus stop at night, all because some teenager wants to prove a point to his friends.

What the video showed is a street corner culture. People have found themselves in a postion where they thrive in violence and respect people that are willing "beat somebody down" or "go after someone". I felt sincerly compassionate to that woman, but I see this a lot on the streets.

To solve this, I feel that we as a community need to work with our young people more ( elementry school & high school aged) to find out why they are so angry. Things like "conflict mediation" and "conflict resolution" in local schools I feel would help a lot. Even if the city sets up more recreation centers and libary's, they wont go. All of the children I see at recreation centers are very young and they act crazy in their too. So I believe that the school system should work alongside parents and counselors to get to the botom of this problem.

[Brother Tarikh]

Alafia,

As long as our people follow this beast and his ways, we will become more and more like him. Instead of us lashing out at others (like he does around the world), we implode onto ourselves.

Soular-NRG.

[beliefofyouth]

While I'm as sick of this needless waste of the blood of our warriors, I see no end to it. As long as our warriors have no knowledge of who their true enemy is, and more importantly no knowledge of self, they will not be able to turn the guns around. These brothers are our warriors, the defenders of our people, so while I'm of ashamed of who they are taking action against, I understand their NEED to take some type of action.

Asalaam Alaikum

[Elisa Keisha]

Young people are simply "jailed" in their own little envioroments. That is what it is for them coz nobody showed them any further. They dont even have to look for the drama, u either live in it or run from it. I believe if these kids could simply read one book, they will understand so much.

And this hiphop/thug culture must stop. MUST STOP. But we talkin about many economic (millions) and political (yes) interests involved so u know it aint easy.

[HBC]

Dont Never Ever Lose Faith/ Not Only Because Your A Queen / Even When The Hours Seem Long And Dark / Please Hope And Believe / Dont Never Give Up Cuz We Can Reach For What We See/ Dont Give Those " Bad-Ass Rappers " A Ear To Preach/ They Only Plant Evil Seeds / Pac Died For Unity /
Before He Could Launch His " 1 Nation Project " / Like I Said These Fakes Turned It Back Or " They Put It On The Shelf "/ Talkin' Bout Violence And Diamonds They Dont Know They Only Destroying Theirselves../ Raising Materialistic Greed, Gang Violence And Degrading Female Deeds/

We Can Make It Stop .. /
We Just Gonna Have To Let The Conscious Rappers Get Up/

Right??

[Goddess IsIs Akkebala]

Brother Tarikh writes: As long as our people follow this beast and his ways, we will become more and more like him. Instead of us lashing out at others (like he does around the world), we implode onto ourselves.


I agree Beloved Mighty Warrior.

Goddess isIs

[rebelAfrika]

Originally Posted by oma09

I have noticed an increasingly ruthless energy permeating the streets in the Bay Area.

People shot,beat down,maimed,killed,pemanently disabled etc over a few dollars, a wrong look, basically over B.S. Even if you turn over your money, people are shooting you any way, beating you down anyway. The neagative energy seems to get thicker everyday with non stop Black-on-Black violence and a total lack of respect for one another's humanity.

I am sick of so called hip hop artist glamorizing the destruction of Black life, the dehumanization of Black wome. We are becoming caricatures.

I am sick of hearing black women being called b's and h's in these songs.
I am sick of the excuses. And believe that the insanity of the negativity in so much of today's hip hop is having an influence. Multimillion dollar ad campaigns compete with the attention of parents and guardians. Calling each other n***a has become noramlized.

Believe the following:
If your in the "wrong" neigberhood at the "wrong" time, your have a greater chance of getting victimized by your own folks befor the police.
On the streets here, I see no other women from any other group that are disrepected to the level of Black women by their own brothers. Aw f**k it, these men/boys disrespecting Black women like that are not brothers.
We are living in a time of anything, and I mean anything goes.
Almost every Black event in Oakland gets turned out by a handfull of knucklheads and I hate to say it but you know what it becoming more than a handfull.
White supremacy is a very real and threatining entity. However, we could solve a whole bunch of our problems by just respecting each other.
You get judged because of your gear, because your not thuggin,because your not "hard". It's all B.S.
I know people that complain about their struggle but waste a ridiculous amount of money on sneakers....the cost of those sneakers might be what your counterpart in many areas of Africa would earn in several months.
We have to be practical and we have to return back to respecting one another. Black-on-Black on crime takes way more lives every year than cops. It bring way more heart-ache and much more tears of Mom,grandmas,Dad's,cousins, the children of those victims.

Check the video at the following link, it will bring you to a very corny looking website but just download the video and check it. It's US at our very worse. Be warned though it made me sick and it made me want to reach out on this board and express my feelings.

http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1124360487

So what are we supposed to do...give up?

[oma09]

I am sick of the exuses and lack of outrage regarding the type of behaviour displayed in that video.

I think we have really lowered the bar for what we will execpt from OURSELVES.

If that were two white cops pulling that sister from the car and beating her down ruthlessly while a another cop taped it with a crude and nonchalant commnetary and then yelled "let me get it on tape!" WE WOULD BE HAVING A FIT.

What happened on that tape is absolutely deplorabale, period. It is connected to a
lowering of our own standards. There are no excuses for this period. That is somones daughter on that video, someones grand-daughter, she could be somones mother. If that were your loved one would you be making any excuses.

Between Richmond, Oakland, parts of SF and in a few other spots we are doing the worse things imaginable to each other. Perhaps a year and half-ago in SF some you Black men drove past a house and filled it with bullets. A baby was killed on the inside. A baby! If cops had opened fire on that house killing that precious black baby then we might still be rioting in the city.


Remember years ago where this big cat in Detroit chased a woman off a bridge and she was killed.

In the bay I have seen everything, folks to go to church and then "thug" it up the rest of the time. They disrepect women they are ready to kill a brother over the wrong look, yet in still they would not want that to happen to any of their folk. No one is making them stay in the streets.

I know the difference from somone who comes from a truly destitute background and is entrenched in poverty and exposed to negative lifestyle from those who are trying to live up to some code of being "down" , "real" or "hard". Talking about how hard they have it and they grown and living with a grandma in her home and she is cooking and cleaning for them. And yet they want to walk around with they draws showing and mean mugging about some BS. We need to get over this dumb crap and get rid of the excuses.

I remember when cats were selling the African medalions back in the day in high-school and could preach Afrocentricity quite eloquently but also were on the grind selling dope to their own people.

I have seen young brothers who come from middle to quite upper middle class backgrounds who have went from having decentcy to becoming a silly a** triflin caricature of a man. No peckerwood redneck made them do that.

These rediculous side shows in ESO with folks talking about I don't have anything else to do. Come on now, you have a car and money to put gas in it . There are other things you could do.

If you have any familiarity with the bay then I know you all know about Yusef
Bay. He straight up molested kids and there is DNA evidence that this man fathered children by 13 year olds. But you know what a whole gang of people from the "community" came to his defense and made excuses for him. This game is tired. We need to raise our bar back up, otherwise we are dehumanizing ourselves.

[Elisa Keisha]

There's no need to describe how low and deplorable the situation is again. its time for us to think positive and come up with little or huge solutions. Its time for us to talk to/with the people and stop preachin to them. its time for us to UnderStand this people and its situation coz is ours. nobody from which background they come from they are obbiously Lost.

We cant turn our backs to HipHop just because it has become a bad infleunce. We should understand its Power and we def need More conscious rappers to spread the word and give this youngsters the influence and the role model they are yellin for. what u think?

[Little95]

Originally Posted by Elisa_Keisha

We cant turn our backs to HipHop just because it has become a bad infleunce. We should understand its Power and we def need More conscious rappers to spread the word and give this youngsters the influence and the role model they are yellin for. what u think?

can't do nuffin w/ no power. we own no sattelites!!! we own no air waves!!! we get funded by the enemy to become our enemy!!!!
the ideas sound real good, but if we ain't taken YT hatered in account then we lost off the back!!

[Elisa Keisha]

I know there's probably White Supremacy's interests behind this new corrupted hiphop. Crakkkas love to see black people degradating themselves, fightin themselves and spendin their last dollar on some bling bling.

True they owe the airwaves and tv. But i wouldnt think Nonthing is in our hands to do. Its been proved Music has a lot of power over teenagers. Its a matter of direction. Same way Hiphop influenced most of these middle class "thugs" to act that way. Many conscious ppl will tell u how they becaome conscious by listenin to Public Enemy or Dead Prez.

We cant do nothing with no power? to me music is power and organizated action is power too. I wouldnt give everything up for lost. I have SEEN the thuggest rapper becomin a conscious activist or a spiritual brother just by listening to a pair of songs or a pair of speeches or readin one single book. If we could just find more ways to get this young people to know whats up much will be achieved.

Thank u for allowin me to share and excuse me if I had not been too clear. Im a bit thick today...

[HBC]

Same way Hiphop influenced most of these middle class "thugs" to act that way. Many conscious ppl will tell u how they becaome conscious by listenin to Public Enemy or Dead Prez. I have SEEN the thuggest rapper becomin a conscious activist or a spiritual brother just by listening to a pair of songs or a pair of speeches or readin one single book. If we could just find more ways to get this young people to know whats up much will be achieved..

Too True My Queen/ And Thats What We Supposed To Do/
Just Because We Havent Got Air Waves Or A Place On Tv/
Doesnt Mean We Cant Reach The People On The Streetz.. True??/
We Only Need Collabo's Of The Conscious Rappers Make 1 Big Crew/
You Have The Knowledge Time To Put In Work All 4 " The Hood " /
Ya'll Know Just Like Pac When He Wanted To Let His 1 Nation Rise/
We Came So Close But The United States Saw The " Thread " And Arranged
Its Demise/ Still We Cant Stop To Try.. Right??/
Keep It Movin' Bet Yo Ass That Imma Ride/ Screaming Uhuru Till I Die/

No Doubt !!

The Struggle Continues, With Hope 4 The Future We Can Change This Crooked Route ..

Much Love For The Revolution And Its Souljahz, Kings And Queens....