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| Ghetto Black Folk Pt 1 (Harlem Nights)
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Okay so let me start out sayin this...
Black people as a whole are holdin themselves back. Lookin back on history we have done so much and grown so much as a people. Yet we havent really gone anywhere.
I spent a night in harlem on friday... now i use to go to school in harlem so im use to the area and my brother lives there, so thats where i was waitin on my brother. We were suppose to be drivin upstate to visit family and i was meetin him at his house in the projects on 115 and Lenox. Now my whole visit was an experience:
As i come off the train i call him and he's like well im not home go eat and i'll meet you in a few. Already im not happy because its like 8o clock and there is nothin open for me to lounge in except Popeyes, im not really hungry so i just go anyway so i wont be hungry later. Walk into popeyes and iswear it was as if people were at a casual restaurant or something only "hoodstlye". So i wait on line looking around because thats what i do, and i see there is nowhere to sit because "it must be family night the way people done trooped to popeyes sittin down like its sunday dinner". So i'm like okay i can do for some strips beause popeyes chicken is just to greasy for me to consume. I order and pay and when she asked me for sauce there is none that i like, how great. But back to the point. There is nowhere for me to sit, so i take a walk. I know there are benches in front of my cousins building so im thinkin okay i can sit there. I walk through the African Flea Market in the middle of the block and notice the benches are completey full. Okay there is a park right there where i can sit and eat, lets try i mean he wont be that long anyway right?
As i walk into the park right away i mean immediatly the stinch of dumpster is just polluting the limited air. Looking around i see a family having a "picnic bbq" (of course right i mean what are black folk without bbq). But you know what there is nothin wrong with having a bbq in your neighborhood park, except that the park was filthy, therer were kids of all ages running around the entire projects without any supervision and it was like 8:30-9:00 at night. WHY ARE THESE KIDS STILL OUTSIDE? WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS. anyway, i cant even eat my food because it is way 2 greasy, no sauce, drink is watered down, and the smell and filth in the park is killing me. So im just sittin here, moved my seat to the other side but didnt make much of a difference, reading my paper. A randomn women walks up to me askin me some question mind you she is not speakin english but i figured out she asked me if i was sittin here. (wtf, i mean yea i am sittin here why do you ask) She wants me to watch her kids while she runs to the store. Now i am an honest person, i wont steal her kids, but i look over after she left and realized there is a grown ass women with her (okkaaayyy), but whatever. She comes back n takes her family tells me thank you im like okay no problem. As im watchin her move away, a man and a manish lookin women are walkin, obviously no real place to go, and the girl just breaks out and starts dancin. Excuse me "gettin lite", which is the hottest? dance in harlem and its all thanks to Ms Chicken Noodle Soup herself. I cant believe it. I have seen videos on youtube of kids on the street that are dancin in the middle of the road and in random places, but to actually see it is freakin unbelievable. Dancin is fine but randomly in the street doing pure foolishness is just sad. Not to mention this big ass girl must have been late 20's.
Which brings me to the next event. As im readin my paper a man is ecstatically yellin to his "partner". Now i look at this man and he mustv'e been 40 plus. Yet he is still dressing like he is 14. Pants saggin down 2 sizes too big, big old shiny belt buckle with his $2 white tank tucked behind the buckle. Do these grown men think that shit is cute because it really isnt. When are you going to grow up and better yourself?
Im fed up now its like 9:30 and my brother still hasnt come to meet me. I decide to wait in front of his building because the park seen is totally wack, and isnt a park suppose to close at dusk anywany? hmmm, just asking. As i exit the projects and re-enter by his building i realize the entire projects stinks of dumpster. I look at the floor and you can't even tell that they have garbage cans because the stuff is all over the floor. Now i dont live thte projects, never have, but i kno a few people, some family mostly friends, who live there. If you yourself cannot take pride in where you live how is a visiter suppose to respect you and where you live?
Public Housing was designed for people who are financially unable to support themselves in a higher living cost neighborhood. Not ment for people who are lazy, restrict themselves, and limit there mindstate so that they are handicapped in normal society. I see that people feel, "damn i live in the projects, what am i gonna do now. Guess i gotta give up and start acting like a incapable person with nothing to live for but to hang out in my projects. But wait because i got to look flyer than the other people roaming the project. Forget about pushing myself and wanting more in life. Actually trying to do better, no that wont work. I got it good here i pay as low as $150 a month for rent, and thats great becuase i can get all the latest sneakers and clothes that come out. Oh man im pregnant now, so is she and her, and my daughter too, damn well at least we got somewhere to stay. Lets stuff 4ppl in each bedroom of a 2bedroom apt. They will never know"
What the hell is wrong with Ghetto black folk, do you not want more from life? or are you scared? Stop limited yourself, there are other ways to remove yourself from the projects rather than a music deal, baskerball contract, or in a bodybag. We have done great things before, lets not stop!!
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Posted by MissCammy on 2008-07-23 17:53:52 | Rating: | Views: 67
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I agree, even though I am not black my husband and kids are. He comes from a weathly family because his mom opened a daycare. She came from a family of 13 and were dirt poor but each child individually wanted better and so did their parents. All my husbands aunts are weathly, his uncles decided to go a bad route. His grandma always told his mother and her siblings to "go to school get and education, you can do that now. The blacks and whites from slavery have given up so much for us as blacks to stay in America and have the same rights as everyone else. Take advantage of it." Well my husband works his ass off while we are in college and taking care of our children. We pay a lot of money where we live because he doesn't want his children to see the ghetto ever. Well he has this friend who is also black and his friend (we'll call him pepsi, because he works for pepsi) anyways, pepsi and my husband are always talking about why there doesn't seem to be very many weathly black people. My husband says "we have more of a chance being black getting financial aid for college because we're black than whites, why don't we take advantage?" Pepsi says "black people have been through a lot we deserve to be lazy and get money from the American government" My husband says "you were never a slave or never had to use a seperate bathroom from a white man, why should you deserve to get money and not work?" My husband again "yes your ancestors went through it, but they are not here to get any money, all they would like to see is you act like an every day AMERICAN, not a black man who is in remorse over something that never happend to YOU. Do you really think our ancestors that went through slavery, had their children taken from them, some killed, would like to see YOU sitting on your ass getting money? No they would like to see us as blacks succeed just like the white people." and Pepsi just stop talking and left out the store. He was angry with my husband for being "white" he called it. But I dont think it's every black person that chooses to live that way. Take my husband's family and yourself for one, you seem to be an every day American.
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Posted by analyst04
on 2008-07-25 02:36:03
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Im not Black so I dont know the extent of the situation. From what ive read here, it sounds like you have pretty strong feelings. Ive never been to a Ghetto harlem before so I dont have an opinion yet. However I have to confess that I have broken out dancing randomly on the street :P
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Posted by smileforthecamera
on 2008-07-29 21:35:42
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