There are two things that go on nowadays that totally disturb me about the streets: “snitching” and “keeping it real.”
I grew up in the ’80s, when the jargon used was far different than the terms used today. We used words like fresh, dope, word and psych. We also used the word snitch.
A snitch back in the day was synonymous with being a tattletale. When I was younger, a tattletale was a person who ran to their mother or someone who had authority and told what someone was doing wrong, so in turn they could benefit from what they told. When we look at the word snitch, it is really a mafia term for an inside informant. Snitches are people who are cohorts of the people they are telling on. Snitches benefit from being part of the team they are telling on. Snitches are people who have been caught, and now to avoid facing the penalty of being caught, they tell on the rest of the people to lighten their punishment.
Telling who killed someone is not snitching. It is the RIGHT thing to do. Why in the world would you want to have someone’s blood on your hands? You are being the cohort to the killer. That’s not how it is supposed to be. How wild is it to know there are people showing up at these funerals crying their eyes out as if they loved this person, yet they know who killed them and haven’t shared that information? That’s not love. What’s even sicker about this is that they go into hiding and silence until death knocks at their door. If you want a better word to describe the people who are not talking about the killings in these streets, I will give you one: cowards. The only way we can change the way that things are now is by not being cowardly.
Which leads me to my next point…
What is wrong with being a young adult who likes to read, enjoys poetry, likes the arts and cares for their people? Why must they use vulgar language, dress poorly and act like the hardest thing since concrete was invented? The sad thing about this is the young adult who is not being him or herself is the one people say is “keeping it real.”
One of the worst statements I have ever heard is that one’s perception is their reality. Perception has become the new prejudice. Perception is lazy talk, because people are not taking the next step to find out what’s real. The only reality is reality. Reality TV is thriving because it blocks the viewer from finding out what is truly real. It’s truly perception TV, because what you see is created to entertain the mind as if it were truly reality. Do you remember the character Lauren London played in the movie ATL, named Nu-Nu? In the movie she was the most ghetto girl around, but truthfully her father was a multimillionaire businessman. She wanted to fit in with the other children, so she created a persona she thought the people would believe, and, for the most part they did, until her father showed up at the skating rink and drug her out of there.
We need to teach these young people that what’s real is real, and anything else is simply fake. Life is not a movie or a TV show. Some of these parents are not lying when they are standing over their child’s dead body saying, “He was a good child.” The unfortunate part is that they only knew their child at home, and not their street persona. There are some children who will live to become adults and get the chance to shake off that street persona. Then there are those who will lose their lives trying to be someone or something they’re not. Young people, you need to do yourselves a favor and shake off the Nu-Nu and become the true you. Your lives depend on it.
