Dear Young Hustla,
Normally my letters are written to the young hustlas out there putting in work, trying to make good out of a bad situation and simply provide for their family, but today’s letter is to for all of the successful black Americans out there. So let me introduce myself, my name is Garphil “Geechie Dan” Bowles, and I am the product of what America has forgotten all about- its ghettos. America has either forgotten or turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to those who are born into the poverty-stricken environments of America’s ghettos, but still expect and demand these individuals to be positive contributing members of society.
The ridiculousness of America’s expectation for young people to somehow independently attain success after growing up in a poverty-stricken environment and being subjected every day to violence, crime, and plain ignorance at a time critical to their development and maturity is a nearly impossible expectation to meet. And if it were easily met individuals like Oprah, Tyler Perry, and Cardi B. would not be held in the esteem that they are today. In the hood there are no doctors, no lawyers, and hardly anyone of any positive influence to take part in these young people’s lives. However, they do see hustlers, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, players, gang members and other people that run amuck in the hood living lavishly receiving respect and notoriety.
It can take full control of a young person’s mind. At that young an age, when you’re 10 or 11 years old, and your sole role models are gangsters, pimps, hustlers, and gang members you are easily influenced by the simple fact that they are the only people you in your environment getting money and having things. “Go to school.” “Get an education.” “Go to college.” Without being exposed to it’s like talking about pie in the sky. You can see it but you can never reach it. We are losing so many young Americans to violence, prison, and drug addiction. America needs to work harder! We need to put in place role models that represent and embody and lead the lifestyles and character we want to see in our communities.
We deal with the underprivileged mainly by waiting for them to grow up and fail. The system is designed to intervene only after they’ve broken the law and sent to prison where they will not become rehabilitated, but become more educated about committing other crimes. Following their release, they will either commit more crimes or struggle to reintegrate back into society because now they have the emblazoned scarlet F, for felon, on their record. Why wait until you are influenced and indoctrinated into a criminal mentality that the only bandwagon to the land of milk and honey is to break the law? We need to act before more of our young people end up in jail, prison, or an early grave.
My personal opinion on the best way to intervene, as someone who’s grown up poor here, been incarcerated and imprisoned over 8 times in my life, and spent just about 30 years of my life in jail houses and prisons, my inclination is that in order to stop a problem you have to eradicate the problem from the root. Until America starts to eradicate the problem from the root we will continue to be faced with the dilemma of having a portion of our population underutilized and unable to contribute to their potential.
I have to admit this here, I’m not a big fan of Lebron James, but one cannot deny the fact that this man has done an amazing thing. Lebron spent 41 million dollars of his own hard-earned money to build a school for the less fortunate so that they will have a chance at a better life. I feel as though every black American in America who has money and or influence should attempt to do something like this. If they did we would be on track to gettin’ rid of ignorance, poverty, and violence.
Focus on our youth and empowering them to do good. It is a disservice to wait until after the person has become a full-fledged criminal and convict to act. The old cliche goes, “A child needs to be raised from the womb to the tomb.” So we as black Americans need to reach back and provide an opportunity to those who are less fortunate to become successful, and we do that by first being visible to them, secondly dedicating our time, and lastly receiving them with compassion we will be on our way to steering young folk down that path.
I will leave it at that, but I hope the things I’ve written will help someone lift someone else up and bring them along. A young mind is so full of potential and your beginnings should not dictate your ending.
Until next time. Thank you for reading.
Geechie Dan, Career Criminal
GARPHIL GEECHIE DAN BOWLES 