On April fifth I was born only to find myself suddenly in a world in which people do evil; a world in which I was summoned into battle; a world in which it was a question of annihilation or triumph. I’m part of a class of people whose lives are most defined by conditions of unfreedom and by ongoing struggles to extricate themselves from those conditions.
Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner of the nonpartisan prison policy initiative reported in 2020 that 23 million Americans were incarcerated at the local, state, or federal level, and one in five was locked up for a nonviolent drug offense. Having matured in age I’ve learned how in the 70’s the United States government attacked the communities that I live in called the ghettos by flooding the areas with dope and crack cocaine. And within this process of narcotization our communities fell completely under control and influence of drugs. The illegal drug business and drug traffickers began a deadly epidemic of addiction. They dupped us into slinging these drugs in our neighborhoods using us as pawns then unleashed the police upon us after declaring a war on these same drugs and the distributors. The war on drugs was escalated by Ronald Reagan with the beginning of the crack epidemic, started after the CIA flooded the ghettos with the drugs from Central America to fund dirty wars against Nicaragua. This led to increased militarization of the people, tougher drug laws, and the greatest prison build up in history. Cause for Latino and Black communities, drugs represented a deceiving allure for youth. Power, status, authority, advancement, the almighty dollar, the “American Dream”. In reality drugs are just another trap to maintain our communities in an oppressed state unable to progress.
In 1985, cocaine-related hospital emergencies in the U.S. rose by 12 percent from 23,500 to 26,300 in 1986. That figure then increased 210 percent from 26,300 to 55,200.
For us, drugs generally lead to a ruined life, prison, or death. It must become clear that chasing the American Dream – a piece of the capitalist pie – isn’t to our benefit. Our people are oppressed and gaining part of the pie does nothing to bring us closer to equality. Us selling drugs is preferable to you fighting the systems oppression. Whether you sell or do drugs, you remove yourself from the necessary revolution and only contribute to the oppression visited upon our communities.
Having to chase the American Dream through illicit methods or escaping our harrowing reality by using drugs is far more conducive to continuing a capitalistic state than providing viable means of community improvement. After having witnessed the negative effects that drugs have had on family members and the community, I am choosing to sacrifice the financial promise and have a positive effect on the lives of those in my community by way of growth, education, development and expression.
But the drug epidemic isn’t the only thing plaguing our communities and children. There’s also gang and police violence.
It is the police who are the main perpetrators of violence against Black people. They are the official agents of a white racist society which enforces the will of that society upon the Black and other national minority communities. They are not from these communities, cannot understand their problems, and do not identify with them. Their ignorance of these communities causes them to deal with it through violence and gives an official stamp of approval to the needs and demands of the Black community. This can be presently realized by the murders of unarmed individuals like Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony Modade, Breanna Taylor, Michael Brown, Tayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Dontre Hamilton, John Crawford III, Ezell Ford, Dante Parker, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Rumain Brisbon, Jerome Reid, Tony Robinson, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland. Coupled with police violence the youth are straying more and more into lives of crime, joining gangs for security and friendship. But these gangs are directing the youth to commit acts of violence and fight amongst each other, but they seem to be fighting just because they are angry at their living situation and don’t know how to change it. These youth need to be taught that they have a right to be angry and that they should fight and fight hard against their true enemy, the system, not against each other. Recently these fight have become greater in intensity and numbers, with many injuries, some serious ones, resulting from these fight.
It’s time to take a revolutionary approach to these issues that are plaguing our communities and driving our youth into prisons, detention centers, and cemeteries. It is by going beyond the historical instrumental hypothesis that we will initiate the cycle of freedom. Understand that in order to be free, we must hold ourselves accountable to those we care about and those our actions might impede upon in our communities, families and friends. Recognize that the universal freedom is an ideal best represented not by those who are already at the pinnacle of racial, gender and class hierarchies but rather by those whose lives are most defined by conditions of freedom and by ongoing struggles to extricate themselves from those conditions. Because one thing stands clear: whatever the consequences, we must build a growing body of Black people determined to “T.C.B.”, Take Care of Business. They will not be stopped in their drive to achieve dignity, to achieve their share of power. Indeed, to become their own men and women in this time and in this land by whatever means necessary. Black people in America must get themselves together. This is about Black people taking care of business – the business of and for Black people. The stakes are really very simple: if we fail to do this, we face continued subjugation to a white society that has no intention of giving up willingly or easily its position of priority and authority. If we succeed, we will exercise control over our lives, politically, economically and psychically. We will also contribute to the development of a viable larger society in terms of ultimate social benefit. There is nothing unilateral about the movement of free Black people and one must not allow themselves to be fooled by this illusion of freedom that we now live according to…
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