"Furious Styles:Why is it that there is a gun shop on almost every corner in this community?
The Old Man:Why?
Furious Styles:I'll tell you why. For the same reason that there is a liquor store on almost every corner in the Black community. Why? They want us to kill ourselves."
- Boyz N The Hood
This quote from Boyz in the Hood speaks on a well known phenomena which is that in lower income communitys, their isn't very much opportunity. Many times their is not even food; "food desserts" are a well known phenomena in financially poor but spiritually richcommunity's to this day. In certain neighborhoods there is a lot of crime and not much else. This is the environment, the background many drug dealers and killers come from.
The album title Dope Guns and Religion kept coming to my mind when I wrote the article Beautiful Women: The Middle East, specifically the part "Other people who probably aren't lucky enough to know someone from this area very often
demonize the Middle East as an "Arab" War Zone with oil, Dubai, opium, the dessert, and Islam." The way these seemingly unrelated topics converge is very interesting to say the least.
How does something so holy and pure like religion relate to things so evil and vile like drugs and guns? How could a pimp attain repentance? Can stick up kids ever go to heaven? Even if you leave the dope game is your spirit permanently
cursed? Why would the good Lord ever forgive a murderer someone who committed quite possible the worse sin in existence?What if it was self defense will the Lord still hold a killing or multiple killings against someone? Does an abortion count as taking a life or worse does it count as taking the life of your very own seed in the eyes of the Lord?
Many times in the hood you don't get to decide when "it's on" or not you just know shootings and robbing'shappen anywhere and everywhere at any moment. Broad day light, in the middle of a crowded area, or if you are with family; danger is never too far away in certain places. It feels like as if someone decides to take your life then your life gets taken in the hood.
As Black and Latino men you don't feel comfortable calling the police
under any circumstances. Even if you're
in danger because many times the law will shoot you just as fast if not faster than the robbers and gang members will (ironic isn't it) . Mostly because a few bad apples get on a power trip and honestly believe that they have the right too indiscriminately
take civilian life. Believing that they can get away with killing innocent people because of their job. God is always watching though and in the court of the universe do we ever truly get "Away" with anything that evil? Probably not. Besides the police being their own can of worms who wants to live life knowing deep down inside they're a rat a coward or a traitor if you tell on people you know.
In the military desertion and espionage where capitaloffenses. Any fear or not following orders used to mean death. These values if you can call them that still live in the hearts of street guys. Under no circumstances are you to ever be a coward, a rat, or a traitor. Theirs a code of morals, honor, and ethics you would rather die before breaking for some of us at least. Due to this many people in the face of violence walk with their head high and fill their hearts with faith in God not fear of evil.
What if someone takes a life but they also save a life does that mean that in terms of karma your debts are forgiven? What if you commit homicide but then you are released from prison and you devote your life to pacifism and violence
prevention?
If you are a good mentor and use your "street cred" to prevent a youth from killing someone did you not just save 2 lives, the life that was going to be taken and the life of the perpetrator? " What if you do this for a lifetime after your mistakes as a youth? If you took a life but you helped save 2 lives does that count for anything? What if you save 10 lives or 100 lives even if you took one?
In reality we can never truly have definitive answers to these questions which is a characteristic of philosophy. Many times we have no way to prove something but nonetheless sometimes asking a good question is just as important as finding a good answer. Some people are psychopaths they can ruin your life and not care at all that they're airing the flames of your misery and misfortune. Other people make terrible choices during adolescence, see the error in their ways, and whole heartedly repent turning their life around.
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