The Hood
yesterday i drove through one of my favorite ghettos. i don't go there much anymore, but i figured out it was a good way to avoid traffic. the first time i ever went there, it was by accident. i was out for a very long walk. i took the bike path down to the city and took a couple paths off the path and suddenly i was standing in a park, looking at a sign with the name of the park on it and i said to myself "oh my god. this is the park where 3 kids were shot yesterday!" i had heard it on the news the previous night. i had no idea where the park was located and it was seemingly totally random that i would end up there the next day. and i looked around the park. you would think that at a park where there had just been a shooting, that there would be no one at the park, but it was filled. kids playing on the swings, playing wiffleball, tag, etc. older kids drinking sodas and flirting with eachother, mother's nursing their babies and grown men playing basketball. forget the fact that there was a shooting there the day before, no parks where i live ever have more than a few kids playing. usually just toddlers with their nanny's. you never see anyone outside anymore in the suburbs. no one ever leaves the house. when i was a kid we ruled the streets. it was fun.
i remember when i arrived at the park that day, the sky was getting cloudy like it was going to rain. i asked a woman what was the best way to Mass Ave. she told me it was 2 miles down the road. i looked confused, as i thought i was walking parallel to mass ave for the whole walk. the woman called a man over who gave me details on how to get back to mass ave. the people there were totally nice to me when they could have easily taken advantage, and that surprisingly has often been my experience with people in the ghetto. there is always evil stuff going on, but there are always people there who will try to protect you from the evil, because they have been part of it and understand a bit about how it works.
anyway, the hood is a magical place in many ways. it is a real community. i sometimes think i'd be better off living there than among these stuck up assholes. i don't fit in here.
did you guys hear about the private club where all the white parents pulled their kids out of the pool when a group of black kids got in and made statements that they felt unsafe having their kids swim with black kids? here is a link to an article on it....
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Pool-Boots-Kids-Who-Might-Change-the-Complexion.html
i live right down a street from a town that is known for not allowing black people in their private club... but luckily i also live near cambridge, somerville and medford, where things are a lot more diverse.
here's a song about the hood by the dead prez, my favorite rap group.
The Hood- by Dead Prez
and here's Tupac with Nas and Akon- My Block
this is the song that got me into tupac, although not this exact version.
i remember when i arrived at the park that day, the sky was getting cloudy like it was going to rain. i asked a woman what was the best way to Mass Ave. she told me it was 2 miles down the road. i looked confused, as i thought i was walking parallel to mass ave for the whole walk. the woman called a man over who gave me details on how to get back to mass ave. the people there were totally nice to me when they could have easily taken advantage, and that surprisingly has often been my experience with people in the ghetto. there is always evil stuff going on, but there are always people there who will try to protect you from the evil, because they have been part of it and understand a bit about how it works.
anyway, the hood is a magical place in many ways. it is a real community. i sometimes think i'd be better off living there than among these stuck up assholes. i don't fit in here.
did you guys hear about the private club where all the white parents pulled their kids out of the pool when a group of black kids got in and made statements that they felt unsafe having their kids swim with black kids? here is a link to an article on it....
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Pool-Boots-Kids-Who-Might-Change-the-Complexion.html
i live right down a street from a town that is known for not allowing black people in their private club... but luckily i also live near cambridge, somerville and medford, where things are a lot more diverse.
here's a song about the hood by the dead prez, my favorite rap group.
The Hood- by Dead Prez
Click to viewand here's Tupac with Nas and Akon- My Block
this is the song that got me into tupac, although not this exact version.