Good morning, family!
Well...I had a thought on my way to work today. And it's actually a very serious matter. It's about our two decade long fight with crack cocaine.
As I was listening to one of my favorite rap groups, for some reason today, I was deeply disturbed by their references of "hustling crack", "chopping o's", "getting that work", "buying that cook up to flood the streets". And all of those references was in just one song!! I don't know... maybe I am having one of my "old man on the corner" moments, but I sat and thought to myself, "Damn, it's 2009 and we are still hustling and bragging about crack? WTF?"
I know I have been picking on Young Jeezy as of late, but I keep thinking about that Monie Love interview that he had some years ago when Monie asked him why he couldn't get a real job versus selling crack. He gave an extremely lackluster answer, something to the effect that not everyone wants to flip burgers.... Wow.
Can we all agree finally that there is nothing cool about smoking crack, selling crack, making crack or anything associated with crack? Please? I think for too long our community as a whole has almost made crack a humorous joke.
For those who do not know what crack is, allow me to give you a brief description:
Crack (Crack Cocaine)
Crack cocaine, crack or rock is a solid, smokable form of cocaine. It is a freebase form of cocaine that can be made using baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or sodium hydroxide,[1] in a process to convert cocaine hydrochloride (powder cocaine) into methylbenzoylecgonine (freebase cocaine)
Translation? It's a cheaper and more accessible way to destroy your life.
Selling Crack is made "cool"
Around the mid to late 80's, the crack epidemic had decimated the black communities. Similar to the heroin epidemic of the late 60's, the crack phenomenon swept through the urban centers of America like a leviathan. Family structures were destroyed, children were left homeless, violence levels erupted to unprecedented levels and the fast life of crack sales became alluring to our youth. As a result, many of our young men were incarcerated.
Today, there is no shortage of emcees that have to discuss their struggles which involved selling crack to further destroy their/our communities. Of course, none of these emcees say nothing about how they are in essence, part of the overall problem. The rationale that is typically used is "Well, if I don't sell it, someone else will"...or "I might as well make this money because someone else will get it." Wow! is it really like that???
I truly understand that there is a vast portion of our young people who did not have the best environments, positive role models in the home or examples to look up to. I get that. But that is also an excuse. We have had family members and ancestors who dealt with MUCH MORE ADVERSITY than what we are going through and they still remained positive!!! They still made strides in a positive fashion.
About a year ago, I ran across the following youtube video. Needless to say I was extremely appalled. (The fact that this video is still up is disturbing) I immediately sent this to all of my friends to show them that our babies could get access to this type of information...with just the mere click of a mouse. What's even scarier is that there are some major store chains that actually carry the following DVD.
THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS NOT TO CONDONE THE MAKING OF CRACK COCAINE. IT IS MERELY AN EXAMPLE OF HOW COMMON PLACE AND DISGUSTINGLY EASY FOR OUR CHILDREN TO GAIN ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION!!!
Think your kids are safe?? Crazy, isn't it???
Crack is made "loveable" and "funny"
Even today, we have made crack and it's fallout loveable and humorous. Allow me to give you an example...
We all love Dave Chappelle and his very witty and humorous comedic skits. One of his many characters is a crackhead named Tyrone Biggums. Throughout his short run television series, Tyrone Biggums was seen doing hilarious feats in variety of different settings lampooning the average crackhead. I will be the first to admit that I thought the character was funny as hell, but today, I wondered how did the portrayal of Tyrone Biggums affect those who have been scarred by crack??? Would it still be funny if we knew that Tyrone Biggums used to be a good, family guy, but after losing his job and succumbing to the stresses of life, he began using and abusing? What if we went a step further and said that Tyrone neglected his family, disappeared months on end, stole from relatives and friends to support his habit? Would it still be funny?? I know that the answer would be a resounding no. And that's the problem...crack has become so commonplace and entrenched in our community and families that we are almost immune to it's effects.
Of course I am not blaming Dave Chappelle for his comedic insight, but I just wanted to make a point that we have become so benign to such representations that it's has become laudable.
I apologize for being all over the place with this...but that's what a blog is for... Feel free to chime in.
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