PROLOGUE
When certain unnameable ‘incidents’ (fights, domestic violence, arguments over petty matters, generalized “ratchetness,” as some of us like to say, et al) happen in Somewhere USA in the Black community, many of us try hard not to be grossly reminded of some of the “stuff” that is said about us; the stereotypes about “black people” in general.
The reason we try to stay away from all such stereotypes is because we are not a monolithic people; however, we become highly monolithic, like it or not, in the hands of big time showboat racists who are very blatant and outspoken about grouping all black people based on the actions of a few.
There are times when those monolithic stereotypes come into full view inside the Black community, particularly with and among some Black folk who simply do not seem to have a sane grip on their own (what’s the word) “ratchet” behavior patterns. These patterns fall ideally and comfortably into those overall stereotypes about who is “ghetto” and who is not, and so on and so forth, and they come vividly to life when we see Black people actually act out the worst that is said about “us,” monolithically-speaking.
When all this overt noise and chit hits the fan for whatever the underlying reason was, the outcome of all of it -particularly when the authorities are called in to handle something tee-totally justifiably lame and ignorant that got out of hand which should have been handled better- is that:
(1) We wasted another moment in time in a very short life when we could have been doing something worthwhile and meaningful. Just one more short breath of life got tossed away, like the insufferable ingrates some of us can be, on something so circumstantially meaningless to our lives that it didn’t even move the needle on the Fart Chart.
(2) We, once again, turned our lives and the lives of our children and families, over to a legal injustice system that has told us [in no uncertain terms] that #blacklives never mattered (do they, to us?) in this country. In the long haul, the monolithic “they” don’t care who did what to whom, they were just sitting around looking at the clock counting the seconds until some other dumbnut “ratchet” Black person or persons find themselves locked up and turning over time and money for another idiotic ‘incident’ that could have been avoided; and righteously avoided, had someone in the household decided to be an ADULT and think of their own futures and the safety of their children ahead of their own selfish and petty desires and emotions.
(3) And speaking of finances, the bailment and/or fines that we get hit with for acting a superb supreme ass, just went into the pockets of some folks who needed it less than we did.
Some folks, mostly rich whites, whose children are all “nestled and snug in their beds” while our own children are turned over to an unfair and unjust legal system that could care less and really wishes they/we were all dead, and then proves it by the actions they have to take once we turn ourselves, our families, and our money over to their jurisdiction.
(4) And while we become more and more poverty-stricken and less able to control our lives and futures because we apparently love THEIR lives and homes and families and children MORE than we do our OWN, …
(5) the drain on our economic resources shows up in the most unexpected, but should have been coldly calculated, ways that we didn’t bother to think about before we wasted so much time and energy giving “the rich” who own the jail cells, and their low-wage employees, a year-round Christmas bonus. As if the millions of dollars that they get out of us for housing and shelter, clothing, groceries, gasoline, and utilities isn’t quite enough, let’s just give them some more money out of our household that they didn’t need to have.
If you don’t get that, get this: None of the stuff that we do is without ultimate consequence. Nothing we go through in this world operates in a vacuum, or off on an island all to itself.
It is cyclical — and this goes for bad-behaving Black men as well as bad-behaving Black women, the ones who make unscrupulous choices without thinking ahead. Yes, even the ones who do these impervious “stereotypical ghetto” (ratchet) things and actions and do not understand nor relate to nor value the nature of the ultimate payment that comes in the form of a ‘revolving door f’ing’ -without letup.
EPILOGUE
White American capitalism and profiteering rackets already has you corralled and close enough to living in an economic ditch as it is.
Why take the time out of your SHORT life to give it even ONE INCH MORE than they have already entitled themselves to by causing meaningless incidents to come about in your life, with your time and on your dime, that give them right and title to more?
This includes your personal freedoms, your homes, your families, your children, time that can be spent living productively and making a positive impact; and even giving them all the leverage they need to cause more loss and damage to your only means of income than they already have by half-@ paying you in the first place. Now, on top of EVERYTHING ELSE, you have to go pay money to excuse yourself from something –whatever it was– that you should not have done in the first place? Give it a rest already.
Yah, this is “preachy and judgmental” because it needs to be.
The revolving cycle?
Now you have to figure out other ways to survive and make it, and more often than not, since the doors are substantively “closed” to what little bit you had before, it means infringing on someone else’s life and income in order to subsidize your bad choices, whatever that means to you.
Some people choose to become a burden on their own families, their own parents even, when they have to fill in those gaps for those incidents and mistakes; others choose to commit crimes against the larger society that start the inevitable revolutionary cycle all over again, AND, at the very least, add more credence to the “monolithic stereotypes” that ALL TOO OFTEN, turn out to be true.
If you so much as make the long range choice to take someone’s life over something totally ignorant and malevolent, you may as well take your own, too. You are pretty much done (as in ‘stick a fork in me, I’m done’) at that point, anyway.
Why?
Do some of us Black folk just love being broke and keeping white supremacy in the court systems nourished and empowered through our bad choices?
Or do we just like putting our hands in our pockets and pulling out lint while watching other people’s children have a good time and sleep in their own warm beds at night at our expense, off the money we no longer have in our pockets, because it was more important to fight and act out in a stereotypical “ghetto trash” ass manner than it was to take care of our own homes and families and just keep the peace, no matter what?
I do not believe enough is said about how on purpose and terrible the prison system is here. We should point this, and the fact that they are run for profit out more regularly I lifted a statement from an article that speaks to this comparing german prisons to american prisons.
“Emphasis is placed on humanizing the inmates. This differs greatly from America’s prison strategies which allow denigrating prisoners–actions that push them further into a criminal abyss from which it is difficult for them to extricate themselves, a place in which no viable future is foreseen and a repetition of criminal acts is expected.
The German goal is to help prisoners understand the environment into which they were born, the consequent anger and resentments that grew out of those formidable years; how different life choices could have been made and how future choices can be positive, constructive ones; how training for occupations and professions (with degrees) is encouraged. Inmates are urged to pursue vocational jobs while in prison and must save a percentage of their earnings to help them make the post-incarceration transition.”
On the other hand the american system is based on revenge on a people you have written off, not correcting people.