Dream and Hustle

A Gold Fish Lecturing From a Fish Bowl

I recently watched “The Interrupters” which is about a street conflict intervention group in Chicago. What I saw was really upsetting because I did not see any real solutions and saw mostly ego-casting and was turned off by that. Here is the full video with all the cuss words and stuff and I will pretty much give my take on what I saw.

Watch The Interrupters on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

For me, I couldn’t watch the whole video because I became upset at what I saw. What I saw was cats promoting their own ego and trying to shock us with the problem instead of real applied solutions. That is a major problem in the Black community with these so-called community activists where they act like you supposed to know or care who they are. Then I saw what made me move the hell out of Chicago was cats always bragging on their own self talking about they used to bang here, deal there and done dirt and trying to impress you more than address the issues with a solution.

I turned off this video at the part where there were two brothers who act like they don’t get along with each other and their mother is in the room. This whole family was clearly dysfunctional and it was about as obvious as it gets. But what I started hearing is these ego-casting cats start talking about everybody have problems with their parents? Man, f*ck everybody else problem with their parents – address these cats one-on-one who are sitting in the room with you!

Then these cats are going to say hug their mom and that’s when I was like this is some bullsh*t I’m looking at. Anybody from the hood and see that scene should be smart enough to see it was the likely the mother herself who torn her own kids apart from each other. One of the brothers basically blurted it out himself that his mom is no peaches and cream cobbler and that should have been a clue instead of talking about why they ain’t hugging their mother.

Sorry but they should have changed the name of this show from the Interrupters to the Exploiters because you see pretty much cats pushing their own image. See, I know how they operate because I’m from the hood and they ain’t going to pull that on me, maybe you cats but not me or any real cats from the hood. They basically trying to shock you cats about Chicago, subtly brag how hard they are and they have street credibility and maybe you give them some attention and recognition or donate money to their cause.

But it’s not fair to fault or attack these Interrupters and you just have to realize what they are. They are goldfish lecturing to you from their fishbowl. See, you don’t give a damn about what’s going on in their fishbowl because you don’t live in the fishbowl. The Interrupters whole frame of reference is from that fishbowl and these people really haven’t been nowhere or done much or had much external exposure to see the bigger picture. That’s the reality of all of these so-called community activists but it’s not their fault.

You want to know who fault it is? First, it’s not the middle class Blacks who don’t live in the hood. Yall don’t know anything about what these cats are going through and who is shooting who and why. It ain’t the White people fault because there are no White supremacist doctrines ordering these cats in the hood to beef with each other and shoot at each other. But it is somebody fault in all of this and I know who fault it is – it’s my fault.

Yeah, it’s my fault and everybody else from the hood who left but ain’t looked back. As much as I’m doing for the hood, I will say it’s my fault so the rest of these other cats can’t pretend it ain’t their fault also. See, I’m the one that came up in that environment and know what my people going through because I went through that ish. And I’m going to have to be honest and don’t care if cats got personal opinions and discomfort with what I’m about to say. I have multiple fold time more positive influence when I go back to the hood and help change cats around more than any of these cats talking how they use to do dirt back in the day. Cats be calling me “sir” and standing at attention and I be like damn, it don’t have to be like that but I appreciate the respect and realize they see me in them and at the same time, I also see them in me.

Those kids don’t want to hear someone try to be at their level talking sh*t about how they used to get down back in the day. These cats are living in the right now surviving day by day and can careless about who was who back in the day. The only thing these cats in the hood respect is money and power – f*ck everything else these cats are talking about. You ain’t bringing the money and the power then you ain’t got nothing these cats want to hear. The drug dealers are bringing money and power and unless we can bring just as big of money and power as the drug dealers, then we straight losing.

This is another blog article I have in the future but I noticed something when I talk and deal with my brothas and sistas who are now living overseas. I noticed they are actually way more African-American being overseas than they would be if they are still living here. This is another article but that same point applies here. You got to get out there in that world and get a perspective and from what you learn, realize why things are they were they are back home and you are the enlightened one.

You are not going to understand what’s going on in Chicago until you grow up in Chicago and step out of Chicago and see what your own people are doing from a different angle. This applies no matter what hood you are from, you have to step outside and look at what’s going on. It ain’t going to be these cats who are still in the community calling themselves community activists. Even with good intentions, they cannot do much because they don’t see the big picture because they too immersed in it. That’s why I said it’s on cats like me and those who are like me who came from these communities.

We are going to be honest on what’s going on in Chicago and this is my take based on the fact I’m from there, know how the city works and how other hoods around the world works and how the game is run. This is what I’m pretty sure is the reason for all the out of control in Chicago.

Not a Drug Hub City. Chicago is an extremely hard state to push real weight to and because of the limited intake of drugs, there is more fierce competition for the limited supply. That is the number one cause of crime and violence in Chicago. Cats ain’t beefin where they pushing mad weight up I-95 and the 101 Freeway, they popping bottles, putting rappers on major record labels and opening up clubs and driving caravans of luxury cars and ish. To get to Chicago you going to have to get through Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana from Texas or fly in one of those small airports and that’s a hell of a mission. They ain’t pushing coke, they are pushing heroin that comes from the European cats who make them fight each other for the connect.

Food and Water Supply. If you want to know why cats are acting like fools, check the food and water supply. If you look at what cats are eating, just ask these Chicago cats what they eat. These Chicago cats start smiling and showing all their teeth talking about eating at fried chicken shacks, eating highly processed polish sausages made from byproducts, fried catfish and those hot submarine sandwich is even worse processed byproduct meat. There are hardly any places like a New York City bodega where people can at least get some good healthy food.

Communicaton. The Black community is attacked and demonized by the 10pm news, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune and there is a bougie elitist Black culture that talks about themselves instead of working with these kids. See, the sad part is you see Cease Fire out there when there are well-off Black people in Chicago with enough money and resources to do something but they ain’t doing a damn thing but trying to make themselves look important to others, like President Barack Obama. So the kids are feeling ignored and isolated and believe no one gives a sh*t about them and they on their own.

No Available Pursuit of Happiness. Can any of these young brothas and sistas in Chicago honestly believe they can open their own business when they grow up? Hell, the Chicago cats can’t even imagine being a big time dealer so they really have no big dreams out there. They don’t want to be some sap working for these bigots who they know don’t like them – only you college grads do that kind of ish. So they got nothing to look forward to moving to bigger and better and what happens is they get stuck in a perpetual trap game that span generations.

All of what was mentioned above is all going on at the same time causing the violence and the apathy in Chicago. And the only real solution is to have one of us who can get the money and the power do something. The real problem is cats are not creating the money and power to make our hoods better and most of them run away and abandon where they came from.

Many of you who read Dream and Hustle and as you see with me, you got cats out there extremely resistant to me getting anything because they know what I’m going to do with my money and power. And that’s why I’m training and crewing up and ready to deal hard with any cat who dare want to step in my way to do for my people, my community and our future generation. So with all that said, let me be honest about this Interrupters series – this is just a goldfish in a fishbowl and that’s how you got to see this.

If we are going to improve the hood, improve our people, better our communities then it’s going to be on us who made it out of these communities to start stepping up. Those people in the hood, that’s our background and they see us in them and you and me see us in them and we cannot deny that anymore. That’s why it’s important for me to stay on this blog and focus on the hood, focus on creating business models for the hood and put in real work that going to matter. I’m tired of cats who leave these communities and don’t want to help their own and I swear to God that I’m not going to be one of them.