How Young Black Males Set Themselves Up To Fail
I'm 9 years old. I just got in from Haiti with my mother and father who have worked hard to get us here to America. My father told me so much about this place and how much freedom we have here. My parents found a modest apartment in Boston with 3 bedrooms, so me and my brother share a room, my two sisters share a room and my parents share a room. We walk a long way to the bus stop for school, and the children laugh at us because of the way we talk and dress. My father is working days and going to school nights to be an engineer. He says within four years, kids won't laugh at us anymore.
FAST FORWARD 4 years.
My father is about to get his degree in three weeks. he says he's ashamed of me because of the crowd I hang out with, and he told me to straighten up, or he will sign me up for a military school. But he don't understand that I need protection in this hood and I gotta do what it do. He's old and dumb, anyway. He's really angry that I have to go to court next week and the DA said I'll get three years in Youth Detention and probation
FAST FORWARD 3 YEARS...
Now I'm 16 years old, and the law says I can drop out of school. They;re not teaching me anything anyways. And it dont matter, because I just did 3 years in juvenile. I cant get a summer job, so I gotta hustle a little. My dad doesnt speak to me anymore now that he has this new house, car and good money. He gives my siblings whatever they want because they go to the white man school and gets good grades. Who cares? I got bigger beefs with kids from other hoods to worry about ---
FAST FORWARD 2 years... I'm now 18 years old. I caught a gun charge and was busted for selling in a school zone. My past record tells the court I'm a danger to the community. I am now facing deportation. My father has never been so embarrassed and my family is torn apart. WHO in America will see that I'm only ONE of MANY deportees who were set up to fail from the beginning?
~Unknown Haitian, Cape Verdean, Mexican, Jamaican, Afrikan child from the hood. WAKE UP!
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