The Danger Of Living In Your Own Corner Of The World

Well as many of you already know I share a home with two roommates. One of my roommates (let’s call her Suze) is originally from Jackson Hole, WY and the other one ( lets call her Diane) was born and raised in Ventura, CA. I have accomplished many wonderful things my job and education has afforded me the ability to live in wonderful neighborhoods and mingle with people from different cultures and high economic standing. But please don’t get it twisted…. I from the hood.. born and raised in the ghetto, many of my family still live in the ghetto and when I go back to St. Louis I spend a majority of my time in areas known as urban ghettos.


Both of my roommates are white and occasionally we clash on social issue and political forums. Saturday was one of those days. I love to watch The Wire and I was watching back to back episodes in the living room when the roomies came in. Both Suze and Diane sat down and began to watch the show; during this part of the show a mother had sold all the food in the home to feed her crack habit. Her son asked her what happened to the food? She told him that since he confiscated the food stamp card she had to do what she had to do. Suze asks Diane, “What are food stamps? “…. Diane says, “I think they are a governmental supplement used to purchase food….. right Black Doll?” Oh how the hell am I supposed to know….. do it look like I received food stamps or sumpthing? I look over at Suze and say you’re 40 years old and have never heard of food stamps…. yeah right. So we keep on watching the show, and the show discusses the broken Baltimore School District, dope boys, crack heads, killing ya know your basic things you encounter in the hood. So Suze starts chuckling to her partna Diane and says “ Does anything happy ever happen to these people?” Okay, now I’m hot and pissed off too! I say to both of them, “this show is the reality of many people in America, this show represents the plight of millions of people and you should thank God that you can not relate. You should shout for joy that you never heard of the word food stamps and that you never had to use them, you should do cart wheels in the street if you never had to attend a school that is dilapidated and teachers don’t give a damn, if you never encountered a crack head you should be grateful. But this is the reality of America not many of us can say we lived a life full of blessing and joy and that happiness followed us around like an annoying gnat!!!!!” I got up and left both of them broads setting there looking like…. what happened.


Excuse my French.. but how in the hell could you live 40 years on this earth and not know about food stamps and be so blind to the sufferings of people living in the “urban” areas. Surely people like Donald Trump with all of his billions of dollars do not think poverty does not exist. How can people live in the box of their own reality and not know what is going on in the rest of the world. This kinda reminds me of what went down in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. All of the sudden people were saying they did not realize people were that poor in New Orleans and they did not know that the living conditions were so dire. And I say to that….. yeah right. We lead people to believe that America is so rich and her streets are paved with gold, opportunities are waiting for her occupants at each turn….. and that is not the SOLID truth. We turn our backs on our poor while we help other countries build up their nations. We offer substandard education and health care to the underprivileged, we use capitalism as a way to pay meager wages, we ignore or indigent and destitute people. Many of the upper middle class and wealthy folks have distanced themselves from the reality of those that are not in their economic circle. I understand we live in a… you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back society and if you don’t have anything to give get away because this nation is built on give and take. I just wish people would be more conscience of the plight of others, sometimes it is better to give than to receive, sometimes it’s better to make a sacrifice for the sake of someone else. I urge you to look outside your little circle and see the reality of others and see what small difference you can make, just don’t pretend that it doesn’t exist, cause in that way you are making yourself part of the problem and not part of the solution.