a butterfly

when a special someone blossoms and flies,
they will  not look like the caterpillar you once remembered.
there will still be traces of who they were, seen on their wings
so when they fly high you will be able to see them barely under the sun-
light shining through, similar to the memories you had of them before they grew
to be a beautiful butterfly.

quickie

If you nit pick,
you will eventually find something wrong,
which without a doubt, will become, everything is wrong.

Bla*% America

Black America

WE THE PEOPLE are not really we the people. Some of the people are having a difficult time being integrated into the American way of life. A few Black Americans have been allowed to live with and work with established White America, however there is still a far too large number of Black Americans, especially young Black men, who have not and will not be invited to the party. These young men will continue to struggle to live as and a part of the Large American society without record (anything negative), unless major changes are made to the way we conduct and the way we construct American society. A large majority of Blacks are unfairly being targeted as criminals and as dangers to society. 

I say unfairly being targeted because crime is not subject to race--the two have no causal relationship with one another. The researchers and past criminologists who argued that criminal behavior is biological (race included) have been criticized by scholars such as Frances Kellor (born in my hometown, go bucks ^.~ !) and W E B Du Bois  have stated that a person's economic, social and environmental conditions are the leading motivators for crime.

Crime does not depend on race for it to occur and-- any person and every person from every race in America has committed some type of crime. So why have Black Americans (and other Colored Race Groups) been targeted and labeled the stereotype for crime, and why are Black Americans more subject to police patrol more than any other race, and why are Black Americans disgustingly disproportionately represented in the prison population, higher than any other race group ?! 0_o

Because if race classification matters so greatly that we have to disclose it to our:

Education systems

Work places

Social programs

Athletic programs

And pretty much all other parts of society,

Why then should we allow a distorted image of our race group to be portrayed in society where it affects out potential job prospects, which in the end is our way of life.

I do not want this to turn into a crime piece because crime can be dissected on so many levels -- but I do want this to be a race awareness piece.

Race awareness is nothing more than understanding that you belong to and are automatically “enrolled” in a certain category of people because of biological factors.

Side Bar: So we are here, as White, Black, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Spanish, Latino/a, Indian, Native American, Asian, Occidental, Oriental, whatever it may be, we are here and we have to live together integrated even with cultural difference. I am a black woman, as a black woman, there are just some things i know and have known about life that I would not have known, or experienced if I was in any other race group; and i am sure i am not unique to these type of experiences—just as some white men have certain experiences that I will never experience just because I am not a White Man. We must learn to use these experience to help build better quality of life now and for our future generations. i want my babies to have a better environment in life, especially in forms of relationships with other people, than I had.. (i must add that i do love life and the beauty and all the art that is life, but it could be better ^.^)

All that to say, when and why have Black men become the poster child for anything negative and everything criminal in America? Why has one generation of black men been taken away from their families and locked into penitentiary systems? (inhumane, EXPENSIVE (it cost more to hold a person in prison every year than to educate them for that same year), poorly constructed and structured prison systems at that) !

They are being negatively changed by their prison experience and hurt as well.

 ^^in 1978, roughly 250,000 people were in prison ..but in 2010 2.2 million people were locked up. Thats an increase of 274%. Effn Terrible. To go from 250 thou to 2.2 mil is ridiculous.

                        -SAD TO SAY :( 40 % (that’s almost HALF) were blacks. Non Hispanic at that, so 

                                       factor in the Blacks who are also Hispanic, the number grows. Smh.

The image that somehow your race makes you more likely to be a criminal must be reflected in the prison numbers. But I already said that the two have no causal relationship—they are not at all affected by one another, not e’en second cousins on they daddy side; so why must this illusion of black men are somehow more likely to be criminals exist ?

 

For example, Former Los Angeles police Chief Parker said that Black men are:

by the age of 14-15 black teens were "hard criminals", and that White kids of the same age committing the same crimes, were "misguided juveniles ” and therefore the Black men were targeted by the LA police department.

I also have some theories of my own, including the fact that America does not have adequate type of work, nor employment for All of America. Any economist will tell you that if every able bodied adult person in America wanted a job, there would not be enough jobs for everyone. So the system of building prisons (a system that has been booming since the late 80’s, I'm talking $billions), has taken the place of adequate employment. Just lock 'em all up and throw away the key. Smh.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. We can change it all.

After all, isn't the saying: ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’? well, not to be all racial and redundant and cliché, (ha ha ha *hopes for you all to catch my joke*), but look-- Black people built America. It’s a fact that slavery existed for hundreds of years in this country. And what type of work do you think these Black Families were doing for the Founders of this Great Nation? They were building the fck -excuse my French ;) out of this nation. So with all that work Blacks put into this nation, why aren’t we eating like we should be?

Why are we being thrown into prisons where one entire generation of Black people is negatively impacted due to this disparity? That’s the opposite of reaping what you sew. I know laws are fact, so why isn’t this law holding up for Black America?

 **Cooked Food For Thought**

If at any time you’ve ever had to fill out an application and check a box of race classification you belong to (I know I’ve filled out at least hundreds, maybe more) and you check the box that says Black (or African American or whatever term is used), why aren’t you outraged with the misrepresentation of your black race/culture?

I think its time for change.

(Think Im makin this stuff up? READ this ARTICLE in the The New Yorker):

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik

LOVE (quickie)

"you cant follow your heart all the time,
your heart can be deceived.
you have to learn to lead your heart."