Community Affair

It was a quiet Tuesday at work, nothing out of the ordinary going on. In a workaholic trance, I almost missed my very routine lunch with some co-workers. When I got downstairs to have lunch I found my co-workers in a serious question. “OK, this is different,” I thought to myself. Happy and looking forward to change I sat in my usual seat and listened in so I could join the conversation. I should have stayed my ass upstairs.

“We just have to accept that crime will happen and learn to adapt to it,” was I hearing this? With a very serious look on her face, my 22 year old, female Hispanic co-worker sat defending her position. I didn’t respond because I didn’t know if this was really a serious conversation or what they were talking about, so she continued. “What happened to those people in Newark was a tragedy but its Newark, it’s expected. Murder is going to happen there and there is nothing anyone can do.” WOW!!! I looked around the table and realized the other members of the lunchtime roundtable were in agreement with her. They shook their heads in agreement.

“And Booker is making things worse. This is his entire fault. Look at him, when he was running for mayor he said he was going to come down hard on the gangs and get rid of crime. Now the bloods said they will kill more people this year than last unless he is out of office,” my 26 year old African-American co-worker chimed in. As a resident of Newark, someone that grew up in the city, I should have been shocked by the words coming out of his mouth, but I wasn’t. When he speaks of his time in Newark, his connection with the city, he paints a destructive picture for the listeners of his tales. Stick up kids, stolen cars, drugs, gangs and enough money to buy a not guilty verdict. I know he is all talk, but the imaginary is enough to scare any non-resident away. By this point of the conversation I put my sandwich done in disgust, I was hot with rage. Is this the state of minority affairs (the table was made up of 2 Hispanics and 4 African-Americans), have we just given up on our community?

“It’s not Bookers fault, it’s the fault of people like you! People that will just accept that crime has to happen and there is nothing that can be done. People who blame someone that is willing to speak out against the violence and express a desire for action and not try to help in the process,” I was heated and I have a reputation at work that I’m going to say what I want, so I did. “People want Booker out of office but aren’t saying shit about the bloods who are actually doing the killings, simply say gangs are apart of life.”

“Murders weren’t like this when Sharp James was in office.”

“No, Sharp just ignored the problem as long as his pockets got fatter.”

“Booker is flashy. Always taking credit for Sharp’s accomplishments, cutting ribbons at building Sharp James put into motion to have created. Saying he is going to rid the community of crime but didn’t have a plan. But I bet you if this was a white person they would have had a suspect in hours,” why do we have to make everything a race issue?

“As mayor he has to be seen at the opening of a city building, it’s his job. And what do you think he is going to do, sit back, watch Newark continue to spiral out of control until the entire town is run by the criminals? Not finding a suspect is due to this bullshit ass street code of not snitching {a chorus of “yup yup, snitches will get stitches” was song by three members of the table}, we want the cops to help us but we don’t want to help them help us.” I wanted to continue the argument but lunch was over and I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with these people.

There was a book written in the late 60s early 70s by a sociologist named, Edward Banfield entitled The UnHeavenly City. In his book, he predicted that urban cities would begin to develop into a separate society within the larger society it belonged to. This sub-culture would have their own set of rules or laws and survival would be the only thing that mattered. Banfield believed that what was socially thought to be right and wrong would not apply to the members of this society, immediate gratification was key for these people. If they needed or wanted something, they got it then without consequence to future needs and if they didn’t have the money for these things, they simply got it by any means necessary. Poverty and a lack of respect for education helped to create this sub-culture, but a willingness to accept the conditions around themselves was the key to sustain this sub-culture and keep these people from climbing out of the “ghetto” in which they found themselves.

Let’s reflect on this for a minute: He believed that cities or small parts of cities would be filled with crime, violence, not because the people wanted to break the law, but simply because the laws of the society did not apply to them. Immediate gratification meant more than longtime investment. Robbery and hustling are more practicable means to support oneself than working a “legal” job, because legal jobs require you to wait for a paycheck. Sounds like Newark to anyone else?

What’s the remedy for our growing problem of violence in our community? We have to start raising the next generation to embrace, value education. We have to become examples for those younger than us. We can’t just preach change, try to beat right and wrong in their heads and go out and do us just because we are older. We have to be enraged at every act of violence, crime and injustice and stop accepting these acts as just a way of life. But, education is key. We have to educate our people on our history, on our struggles in this country, on the accomplishments we have made, the advancements he have helped to make. We have to teach our youngsters to value our people, our sisters, themselves. We have to teach our boys that a man is not someone that can fuck everything that is willing, but someone that is willing to wait for the one they love. To build our community we have to start with recreating what we see as acceptable, destroy the old notions of what is cool and what we consider to be a man, woman, hoe and a success.