Real Talk: The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Troy Davis

Just in case you forgot, there is still prejudice and inconsistency that has been allowed to perpetuate in our penal system; remember it is run by old, stubborn, conservative white men groomed during segregation. Troy Davis, the Georgia man convicted of shooting a white (yes, it matters sadly) police officer in 1989, has been executed by legal injection today. This comes after his execution date has been moved 4 times due to the ridiculous circumstance around his case. Essentially, there was no DNA evidence or murder weapon ever linking him to the murder. He was convicted largely because there were 9 different witnesses who identified him as the killer. I can understand completely how a jury would see this as sufficient evidence to convict him at that point in time. However, over the past 22 years, 7 of the 9 witnesses have completely recanted their testimony saying that either he was not the shooter or they can not conclusively say that he was the shooter. So the question becomes: what would make these people lie on the stand for a case with death penalty at risk? Police coercion. I admit upfront that I am biased because I personally have a problem (or twenty) with several things about what the average street level American policeman has become. But this is one of the many reasons why. Police don’t like seeing other cops go down obviously, which once again is understandable. However, the lengths they will go to in a search for vengeance are unreasonable at times. In this vengeful conquest, it seems to matter more to the institution that ‘someone’ goes down for the murder, rather than focus being on ‘the right guy’ going down for it. So do I think policemen are capable of intimidating or threatening 7 people into saying that this man was the culprit even if they weren’t sure? Yes I do. Hell, I’m not sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if me or my family were at the point of a standard police-issued .22 caliber handgun. Furthermore, there have been several cases in the past where witnesses (often someone who is not commonly exposed to Black people) identify the wrong person. Hell, I still go places where a non-Black person says they can’t tell the difference between me and one of my homeboys when we look nothing alike. So if I’m someone in the legal system, this adds enough doubt that I should at least look into the validity of the witnesses’ claims. I’m not saying let him out today since the media is covering every minute. But take the time to make sure he’s the right guy; he’s been on death row 22 years, he can wait another 10 months to follow up with the witnesses and evidence (or lack thereof); after the supposed standard for conviction in general, much less execution, is supposed to be “beyond a reasonable doubt.” And it seemed like someone may have listened to this logic today as his hour was coming, but then a call from the Supreme Court – the highest court in the land – came in and denied this request for stay, likely just wanting an end to the ‘drama.’ So in the end, an innocent life may have been lost because the possibility of searching for justice was veto’d by the ‘big dicks of the court’ in the 11^th hour. The whole ‘reasonable doubt’ jargin got put on pause I guess. It was more important to end the media circus, leave a closed case closed and not have to admit mistakes or the possibility of police coercion in our legal system. I’m not even mad anymore, I’m just numb and introspective. Lesson learned: Live your life right, stay on the right side of the law and out of the legal system; you’re not guaranteed a fair shake once you’re in there. Value your life because it’s not a given that the establishment will. I have a close homeboy from high school - serving 5 times as long for armed robbery (with a bebe gun) as someone I ran track with served for homicide – who can attest (keep your head up Josh). Just like with those 22 years served, your life is gone once it’s gone, no getting it back. So if nothing else, Troy sounded like he was at peace with God, and I hope his life helps this message spread and save future people from the same fate. But guess what, before you go anti-America, remember that this is still amongst the best legal systems in the world. In China, he would have been shot in the head a couple weeks after trial and they would ignore all scrutiny from anyone. What a world we live in, right. On a sad day, here’s a little Real Talk.

Real Talk: the Drug Game and our Community

No cheaps laughs today, some more Real Talk. I'm addressing another problem that is killing the Black Community on so many different levels: Drugs, Usage and the Temptation to Sell. It's causing young Black men to abandon their attempt to get educations, it's created a war on the streets, the addiction has broken apart countless homes and communities, and consequently jails and morgues are filling up with Black faces. It's imperative that we as a community convey the message that our youth need to go to college, get good jobs and get outta the hood. I went to high school in the hood, and I'll admit it right now, I was jealous of the dope boys in high school. As broke as I was, they were making hella money dealing in the bathrooms during lunch. Then they'd gamble it away playing craps, like that money didn't mean shit to them. For those who lived in the hood, I wouldn't b surprised if the dope boys were the only ones with money that people see on a regular basis on their streets. The Thundercats, as I call em, had money and pull and I can see how youngsters in poor homes can see that and admire them (Like the movie 'Paid In Full'). Unless u got a future in music or sports (which still take time and commitment), the dope game looks like the most direct route to the money. But u gotta resist and overcome, cuz that game ain't forever. Most dudes deep in the game will tell you, they trying to live it up and ball out the hardest while they got it, cuz they don't expect it to last. As u move up the ladder, try to do what u gotta do to get more money in the game, u start gettin more attention from everybody, including the haters and law enforcement. Dudes get killed over jealousy, turf, and other bullshit. All of a sudden ur homeboys, ur inner circle may start seein things a little different than before and they could change up on u too. U already know how the cops and legal system will do. Most of the people in jail are in there on drug charges. That's the easiest way for cops to get their numbers up, cuz dope boys r easy to find; they're on every corner in every hood. Don't let them start squeezin info outta somebody and find out ur other dirt, then Johnny Law could have u on somethin serious. We gotta help our own kind to make it past the game. We have some problems we have to overcome to help things out:

Impatience with Schools and the School Route
It may seem hard to stay in school as long as it takes to get to where u wanna be. There's 4 years of high school, at 4 expensive ass yrs of college, then gotta get a job and move up the ladder some before you make that real bread; u can make money out on the streets immediately. It may seem even harder if ur surrounded by people who don't expect to get outta the hood or graduate so they don't even try. It's hard to force urself to do ur homework when ur friends r out running the streets and not even thinking about theirs. Plus, schools in the hood aren't the ideal environment anyway. A lot of them are so bad that the teachers are trying to keep the behavior under control more than actually teaching; they're gonna socially promote most of the kids anyway cuz they wanna get them outta there. There's fights and disruptions all over the place which makes it hard for those who actually are trying to learn something. Black men are now statistically more likely to go to jail than graduate college, that's tragic.

Inherent Problem With Authority
I'm not sure where it came from, but in the hood I ran into so many people who have this tremendous distrust and overall disdain for any figures of authority. I believe it's a combination of the too common broken family structure in the Black Community (something like 70% of Black homes now don't have fathers as an everyday presence), distrust through bad interaction with law enforcement and the legal system, and the overall hard attitude it takes to survive in a cut throat, hood environment. I can understand rebelling against bad or corrupt leadership and I'm by no means saying that all authority figures are worthy of your respect. However, I'm talking about people who had a problem with leadership for no real reason at all. Principals, teachers, coaches, anybody who asked them to do ANYTHING. Rebels without a cause. It's like the natural reflex is "You Ain't My Daddy. I Ain't listening to you." This attitude is particularly detrimental because in schools becuz refusing to listen to teachers is going to do u more harm (by causing ur own grades to nosedive) than proving anything to anyone. So those with this attitude toward authority of any and all kind are the type that would avoid a place like a school as it is filled with supposed authority. They may be more comfortable in the anarchy of the streets.

Lack of Productive Activity and Family Support
Sports and other such activities did a lot for me in my younger years which is why I've come to swear by them. They gave me something to focus my energy on, helping me build up a work ethic. Seeing that hard work result in improvement and success helped to boost my confidence. That confidence helped me resist peer pressure and bad decisions becuz I didn't want to mess up what I had made for myself. Furthermore, I didn't want to let down my family and mentors, all those that had supported me for so long; all those people who helped me develop as a student, an athlete, and a person. I understand that I have a much better family structure than so many in the hood, which is why it becomes important to develop a relationship with a role model or mentor to help young people who don't have one in the household. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, I was at practice during those hours between when school ends and the parents come home from work, the perfect hours to be getting into trouble. I believe that constructive activity/hobbies are crucial to keeping young people on the right track as far as development. It may help our communities save so many more young people from using or selling drugs.

"Ready to Die" mentality
I used to believe that drug dealers ignored the threat of getting hurt, killed, or locked up becuz they thought they were invincible and it could never happen to them. There's some truth to that and that is how it appears on the surface; however the truth is much sadder. It's become a badge of honor to killed or 'pinched' on the streets. They consider themselves street soldiers and therefore death or doing time from the struggle is considered honorable like a soldier being killed at war. That's part of why things escalate so quickly when people get mad. It factors into these people getting killed for nothing. Life isn't as valuable as honor or reputation for many. We have to instill the value of life and maximization of the precious time we spend on Earth to our youth. They seem to have been getting the wrong messages from everyone else.

Lack of Exposure
One thing other cultures have done a lot more of than Black Americans is exposing their youth (and themselves) to the world. It's easier to convince urself that everything is possibly when u can think outside of ur current situation and community. There are so many in the hood who have never left their city limits or state, much less the country. That can cause a level of close-mindedness and a very small scope of thought. Traveling not only offers a refreshing break to the tenseness and pressure of life in the hood, but it can open eyes to so much that we never would have imagined.

I could go on for ages about things we could do to help ourselves with this situation. But at this point, more than the actual action of selling and using drugs, there is a drastic change of mindset needed to make it out of the hood. We have to build up a sense of confidence in the youth that they can overcome everything going on and become whatever they aspire to be as long as they're willing to do it the right way. We also need to eliminate the hopelessness that leads to people ruining their productive lives by becoming strung out on drugs.WE ARE SELLING DRUGS TO OURSELVES KILLING OUR COMMUNITIES. If u consider it a war in the streets, we're on both sides, meaning we're the only ones getting killed. We're dealing to ourselves, meaning our households are the ones suffering. Every dealer u see killed or junkie u see strung out is someone's son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, or whatever; In close knit communities, they could be kin to someone u kno. So as hard as it may seem at times, as tempting as the prospect of instant money and power is, it's simply not worth it. The rewards that come from education and legit business are worth the wait for delayed gratification. It will last and you can be proud of not having to sacrifice the lives of others in your community to get it. We gotta take better care of ourselves and our communities, or we won't have to much left. No games, that's Real Talk...

Real Talk: We're Losing Too Many of Ours

This blog will not be filled with the usual level of humor, bufoonery, or catch phrases you may be looking for, just a somber level of reflection actually; If this upsets you, please look at one of the other posts because this one is not for you, this is some Real Talk. This blog comes on the wheels of me finding out that yet another high school classmate of mine was killed in Charlotte earlier this week. Unfortunately, I haven't shed any tears. I say unfortunately because this is far from the first situation of this nature I have had to deal with since I came to school. Then, after discussing the issue with my older brother, I realized something that I had never explicitly thought about before; these people who are having their lives taken were people who could have had futures and went on to lead productive lives. I mean, going to school in the middle of the hood the way I did, you run into people who you feel like are destined for either prison or an early grave. When the public hears about Black people in the hood, men in particular, being killed at an early age it's comforting to think "He was probably into things he shouldn't be into. He was probably a bad kid who had it coming eventually." That gives the listener just enough sense of fate about the situation that it's no longer as tragic to them. The general public isn't sad when a perceived "menace" or "delinquent" is killed. But these aren't the people I've had to see buried and see their families mourned. I'm not saying these were honor students like the honor student killed by student in Chicago, because that isn't the case. They were from the hood, so they may have a little more attitude than average; but these were people who could make it out of the hood, make it to school somewhere, led out a decent life with some family. The most recent victim was just a chill dude who liked dancing and cracking jokes who was killed over a petty argument, my high school football teammate got killed waiting at a bus stop after getting his hair rebraided, my homeboy's running mate got killed for nothing at a party, another classmate's cousin got killed at a party in Hidden Valley, another homeboy's football teammate got killed over a silly argument. Furthermore, my old AAU and high school track coach (in his 30's) committed suicide shortly after his nephew, who I grew up running track with and who is an NFL hopeful standout scholarship athlete at Louisville, survived gunshots in the back after an argument defending his girl in a club. I was involved in a group fight in which my homeboy got stabbed 4 places and had to be rushed to the hospital with a collapsing lung. And quite frankly, the fight was over nothing but guys bumping gums back and forth. It's dangerous just to be young and Black these days. I mean, even average Black people with no criminal ties or true enemies are just ridiculously close to death or danger all the time. I don't think you can find anyone who would consider me a thug or delinquent and I know this many people who been killed, shot or stabbed short of 25, in most cases short of 20 years old. I don't feel like the white person has people they actually know (like if they saw them they would dap them up and spend a second or two exchanging pleasantries or more) who are doing prison time or have been victims of violent crime. I'M SICK OF THIS BULLSHIT. I know Charlotte ain't Chicago or New Orleans but something has to be done to stop these young Black men getting killed for nothing. I miss the days when arguments were settled with fists. But even more important, I feel like people just have to realize how much there is to life. Then they may not be so ready to take away another life and risk/ruin their own lives. So for anyone reading this, spread the word to every person, especially Black person, you know to take care of themselves and be smart about how they deal with people. There are issues that mean enough to stand for, even in the face of death, but they are few and far between. Most of the people we are losing are being lost for little or nothing. If we don't stop them, no one else will. So I'll leave you with a song that has brought me comfort in the face of all of the aforementioned deaths and convictions. I call this Real Talk becuz this is some of the realest shit I ever wrote; it almost brought tears writing it. Rest in peace Travis, Daniel, Terrence, Bit Trent, Stowe and Moon...