Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Bloods 4 Obama Leave No Nigga Behind


Thought I'd share this little gem with you:


I call it Bloods 4 Obama.

It's a pic of my kid, Xavier, who every now and then likes to dress 'hood and re-visit his more exciting days of niggadom when he banged with the local crew of juveniles.

I ran across it tonight, and although I haven't seen the tell-tale red eyes or smelled weed on him, it worries me a tad. Is it a dress rehearsal for sliding back into the street life?

At the same time, I've seen him laboriously filling out a job applications several times a week and dressing up to turn them in. He's even learned how to tie a tie, compliments of YouTube.
So far, he's only had two interviews, and nothing came of them. He's getting discouraged; I can smell that.

Or are his new photos, as he claims, his way of connecting with his homeboyz who are still left behind and don't know the significance of November 4th?

"Election Day should be like Christmas for us," I told him the other day, "but a lot of us are unaware that all they have to do is register to vote and then show the fuck up on November 4th to get our presents."

Xavier explained tonight that he thought about this, and on a whim took some shots and posted them on his MySpace page. His old crew that ain't locked up will see the pics and maybe get a clue.

How altruistic.

Maybe.

I wish the Obama folks would target this audience with ads like this, but it would scare white folks silly. Even the NAACP folks would choke on their bourgeois-ness and call it racist.

They're still pretending on their homepage that they don't know Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was their keynote speaker at the well-publicized Annual Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner back on April 27th, thanks to the media fiending for a quote they could use to lynch Barack with.




Cowards. They never even posted the video of Wright's speech; you have to find it on YouTube. The NAACP and their 'fund' dinners can go fuck themselves you-know-where without vaseline.

The NAACP is a bigger sham than Bush's
Leave No Child Behind, because they can't even implement an honest platform of Leave No Nigga Behind.

They left us all behind by sitting silent when the haters promoted the outrageous lie that anyone who
complains about racism is a racist.

The NAACP allowed the media to get away with this twisted re-definition of racism. So did a lot of our people, print journalists and others who made guest appearances in the media. They didn't want be branded as racists either, and caved in and gave credibility to the one of the most destructive, confusing whoppers in our lifetime.

Wonder what Jeremiah's been doing lately. He's been dissed, marginalized, and hated by the larger society, so much so that a huge segment of Middle Black America acts like they're scared to publicly speak up and validate at least most of what he said about genocide, slavery, nuking, oppression, etc., up to the gd part.

Wright is also retired, but that's just another way of saying he's unemployed. I betcha he's full of rage too, just like my kid used to be (and to some degree, still is) less than two years ago:


Hmmm. Wright and Xavier gotta lot in common.

If my kid can stay strong and resist the pull of returning to the one place he can get respect from a group that welcomes disenfranchised black youth and has no problem calling racism what it is, Jeremiah sounds like a perfect candidate to slide into his old spot with the Bloods.

They leave no niggas behind.

Well, at least not counting the grave or the prisons.

Obama lovers, are you listening?

Good. Reach out next.


Put a pen in the scarred-knuckled hand of that 18 or 22 year old in your family or block.

Tell him, "You'll like Obama's crew. They don't play."

Wait for him fill out and sign the voter registration application you have in your purse or pocket. Have a stamp and envelop with you and watch him mail it. Youths with the live and party hard like there's no tomorrow creed need to be baby-stepped through this process, otherwise the paper works ends up collecting dust on their dresser or floor. I've seen it in my own home.

I've also seen the Yes We Can smile after the form is in the mailbox.

"Ma," Xavier said awhile back after I walked him through it, "I can really vote now."

"Yep," I agreed, "if yo' azz don't get racial-profiled and locked up again."

The last time was on a petty weed misdemeanor charge. He spent a weekend in jail but almost lost his freedom for not showing up for probation; he was pissed at the injustice that his now former white girlfriend got two months probation yet the judge gave him a year for the exact same charge. For those of you new to my blog, you can read about it in my post, I Wept In The Courtroom.

The summer's just begun, and I hope I don't cry again over the kind of systemic racist bullshit that heavily targets and disenfranchises so many of us from being able to vote or live free. A job for Xavier and the millions of black youths would go a long way in keeping the long hot summer from burning them.

I hope Obama remembers them if or when he gets in the White House.


Maybe that's why so many poor black youths procrastinate. It's as though they're scared to register to vote. I understand the reasons: they're tired of being left behind, and it would hurt too much if a brotha who could really help them did it to them too.

Barack, you listening?

~~~~~~~



6 comments:

  1. Wow! I'm feeling your writing. Thanks for coming to check me out.
    I been busting my man's but about volunteering for voter registration activities of his "Live and Die" city of Newark, NJ. I think I finally got him. I know I will be at a venue near me doing the same for these folks around here in 'bawduhmore'. And will be representing hard at the Annual African Heritage Festival.

    As for the NAACP, they make me angrier than angry. I'm so over their high-minded foolishness. You have to talk to folks where they are at and use the little i (personal influence) to hopefully make wave in the big I (societal influence) And they seem to believe everybody black should be like them. If that means unwilling to change, adapt, or address pressing issues in a culturally and generationally relavant way, then forget that.

    And I a madder than a hungry crocodile about this Dr. Wright mess. (I had to give Obama a pass on this one, though I think he threw the man damn near under the bus during his race speech)
    (P.S. I have a community development blog, too)

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  2. Great blog. As a youth counselor and as a director of a black community center, I worked with many Xaviers. Loved it. Some kids just need some time to figure things out. It helps for him to have a male adult around that he can talk to. Be well.

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  3. The crisis in this country of black youth is like the two ton elephant sitting in the room. "What elephant?" a large portion of our [white] population wants to say.
    Hopefully, MR. Obama will not ignore this problem. How could he considering his background and experience? And hopefully, with his background and experience, he will see that EDUCATION is the key to most of our problems.

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  4. Thanks for the comments, and apologies to just responding. I got into writing other stuff and it slipped my mind.

    Anyway, I agree with all of you, and soon will be expanding on the Rev. Wright issue.

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  5. Good Gawd!
    I have not heard anyone articulate miiiiiiiy rage in such a fashion in such a long time.
    Thank you!
    I need a cigarette now. I just wont light it!
    Jaycee

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  6. I'm glad this touched you, Mista Jaycee. I'm still mad about the same things because nothing has changed except Wright, the sacrificial lamb of America, has gone quietly into the night.

    ReplyDelete

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