Host Larry Higginbottom shares his opinion that it takes a village to raise someone, and that the "village" of ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) is gone, in reference to the lack of Black-owned businesses, community spaces, and shared values and culture.
WBCA Podcasts
Observations From The Trenches
Host Larry Higginbottom shares his opinion that it takes a village to raise someone, and that the "village" of ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) is gone, in reference to the lack of Black-owned businesses, community spaces, and shared values and culture.
- Duration:
- 54m
- Broadcast on:
- 03 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio@bnmedia.org. Well, I'm here, Boston. I'm your host, Larry Higginbotham, the name of the show from the trenches, baby. I'm the favorite teacher, I'm the favorite teacher in trenches. You're listening to WBCA, 102.9 FM, again, WBCA, 102.9 FM here in Boston. Well, it's a nice day today. Hope you enjoy it yourself. Hope you had a very pleasant day at work or whatever you was doing. Hope you're home, relaxing, having a cup of tea or enjoying dinner, and I'm going to put my thoughts out here, again, I'm here to denigrate and ridicule anybody to put my thoughts out here for both the two consider because over 26 years of doing wraparound services or mental home services in folks' homes, I've gotten to see our people, their connections, their family dynamics, up close and personal. I've gotten to see policies made on high, how to affect people down the trenches. And in the last 50 years, since King has been murdered, I think we can all say that the quorum, grace, expectation for many, many, many of our community has taken a turn for the world. So I want to speak to it. As usual, my interest in focus is my group as I identify as Adolfs would stand for American descendants slavery, come out of the institution, proud of it. I thank God for our elders who survived, so I might be here. I thank God for our elders who challenged whiteness to somewhat civilize that spirit. Whether we're not subject to what I call the constant indignation, violence that our elders had to endure for you and I to be here. So I speak to my group because no group has been removed from the table like I was. All these laws and policies originally was intended to assist us with our group, formerly called the Negroes. Well, we allied all these so-called group call minorities, come out under that tent. And the reason being, young people, I'm really talking to you guys now, those who are going to replace us, baby boomers. According to the Gen X Gen Z and millennials, in America, language matters because the language did not specify who those oils were there for and why it didn't say the Negroes because of slavery and Jim Crow, just say, you know, alongside discrimination, race, sex, creed, et cetera. And now the king's focus was about race, wasn't about sexual orientation or gender or immigration of women. It was about race. And so we found us in 2024, having our legitimate agreements totally taken off the board, and we have been replaced by immigrants, legal and otherwise. You just term a lot, it takes the village, whereas one point we were at the village because of segregation. We had to depend on each other and we had a sense of standards, we had a sense of decorum and behavior expectation. People would say blacks don't do that, Negroes don't do that. That's coming from a point of standards, expectation, decorum. Well that's gone. So I'm going to put on that mistake for something you consider that ADOs, our village has imploded. Our village has imploded, the village is gone. And many of our people, unfortunately, takes pride in being the most despicable, deplorable individual they can be. They take pride in being the biggest end they can be. And although these habits are detrimental to their health, their children and our community, it doesn't seem to deter them because it has become, in many cases, the public culture. I saw some clips last night of the BET Awards. And you had women rappers and men rappers there. In the last 40-50 years they've become always sexualized and men have become what? Seen as the villains, thugs, criminals, et cetera. Neither one do themselves a favor by emulating and maintaining that image. And unfortunately, the community on those platforms believe Jews, white, you know, Spanish, whomever, they don't mind our individual, our family projecting that image out there because why? It doesn't affect them. And it reinforces the negativity that has been passed down since 1619 to undergird the issue oppression of our community. So standards and etiquette has left the room for many of our people. And those with standards and etiquette still matters, right, has distant themselves from the community members along with their children whose stone, etiquette, out the window. So I want to put it out into the atmosphere as they venture up a vibe who's in his home for about 26 years. The statement it takes the villain might have had some meaning. It might have been relevant seven to 80 years ago. It's not irrelevant now for many of our people. And so we need to really take a look at where we had been. Because believe it or not, America's changing me for you very hours. And if you're not skilled, you're not competitive. You're not going to do well here. And I contend by being out here on the front line for the last 26 years, seeing our families and our children, many of our members are being socialized for a life of vice and crime. Many of our women are being socialized, right, from menial, over-sexualized position that does not add value to neither them nor our community. So let's just be honest with ourselves. Let's put whiteness aside. Because whiteness is all going to be whiteness. They're going over here. Because while the country's finding and white supremacy, here's what it is. So that'd be the case. How can the people who came here and shackled the chain and had to once the emancipation was signed by Lincoln in the 18th of the three. The last 160 plus years has been fighting trying to overcome that image, right, that undergird of being exploited or oppressed, excepted. Now many in our community don't mind affirming that negativity where women are always sexualized objects and our men are automatically so tattooed like a walking billboard. And they are viewed as dangerous in a minister's society. And so as I sit and observe by being out in the trenches, we need to just be clear in some of our communities. We're going to lose, we already have lost, quite a few of our community on the way to enlightenment or liberation. Because they are okay and comfortable being down there in the dredges of life in America. They're okay. Just a stat I want to throw out to you when you consider this here. When people say, you know, we, black Americans, we need to start our own, support our own, our own businesses. When theory, that sounds good and theory, that's true. But here's the actual stat that you can also look up yourself. Only 2.7% of black Americans are seven-ploid. And most of those, right, are single proprietors, meaning that this one person working. And the average income from that one person being seven-ploid is less than $25,000. There's 48 million folks who identify as black. Once you attract out the Africans in the Caribbean, there's 40 millions who are ADOs or American blacks. So if only 2.7% of us are seven-ploid, that means 97.3%, right, are dependent on white folks to implore them, because we can't. And matter of fact, I really hate statistics where Walmart implores more people than all black businesses combined, Walmart. So it might sound, you know, invigorating to say we must hire our own stat on businesses. But the truth doesn't matter, that spirit of entrepreneurship has to be nurtured, groom, and cultivated, and it's not. And one of the reasons is because many, too often in these cities, have succumbed to just deplorable behavior. And of course, we don't have any institution, neither the church, nor the NAACP, or the Urban League. We don't have any institution with respect and clout from the community as a whole that people will listen to. So there's no community cohesion, because we don't have any institution that we believe in that we will listen to, that will call us on our, in many cases, despicable deplorable behavior. It's called like it is. So the day I want to talk about this village concept, and to my people, my group, Babylon, because I say I'm out here for the last 26 years in the church to get to see firsthand how many are conducting themselves. We don't look good for home, it ain't no village. There's no cohesion, there's no togetherness, that's been gone. Because at least when we was all segregated, and King took up the mantle to confront whiteness, we was all unified because why, we was all being oppressed by the same spirit, whiteness. The last 50 years with multiculturalism, diversity, inclusion, etc, some have been able to elevate themselves and get out and move to the better part of town, leaving many of the less guilt, less coup to themselves. And they have turned, have started to implode upon themselves. You can go any day on these platforms and see many of our young people, you know, males and females now, all right, bragging about being hoodlums, just, you know, lawlessness, being in gangs. And you can also see when one of them getting themselves murdered, all right, the pastures that's pulled out by these young people. And what's really interesting, from my point of view, they already know for the most part what's going to happen to them. Because they've seen many young men and women who's walking down that, you know, unlawful life, you know, terrorizing their community, because they ain't doing a number of while, they already know their faith. They already know that these are going to be, you know, crippled, paralyzed, maybe incarcerated all of their youth, murdered, etc. And so you would think that just self-prolivation and common sense would say, "Hey, wait a minute. I don't need statistics. I'm seeing this happen to my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, me, my father, my mother, playing this here, you know, illegal game. I'm seeing how they're in a fairing. So why would I want to keep walking down that road that's destined to be a dead-end road?" Despite many people in the community who work, you know, trying to give these young people a alternative, I'm begging and pleading with them to turn around. And the conclusion I've come to after 20 years out of the trenches is this here. Not about support is not about being actively engaged, trying to show them a better way, because they already know the way that they're going to be outcome. I'll come to this conclusion. You might agree. You might not. There are some people who will put in your circle of influence, your life, who are not evolving, they'll put that to show you in real time that if you do what they're doing, you're going to get the same results. I'll say again, there are people who are putting your life who are not evolving or advancing. They'll put that for a reason to show you and me that we choose to walk down that path and do those things, here is the outcome. So if you arrive, you would choose not to emulate those who are not evolving or progressing, because America don't need our community for cheap labor or inter-level labor anymore. Don't need you to put anymore. You'll be completely replaced in the last seven years by the Spanish community and everybody else. And what they're bringing is something that you don't bring. There's no grievance there. There's no history of antagonism. There's no history there of violence, exploitation, and oppression, because the wealth of America was not built on these individual backs and bodies, unlike ours. That's why I contend it will always be tension between American-born blacks and our community. That's why it's so easy for them to hire everybody but us. So when Trump said that they're taking a black folks job, and he's wrong about that, immigrants did not take anything with black America. White folks gave it to them, because they preferred us over them because of what the relationship we came here and shackles and change, and we have been in constant agitation and grievance against this community for four and five years. So we're not going to get a different source of cheap labor, just already docile and domesticated, because they are coming from a place where they have been independent for seven or eight decades. There are issues no longer with whiteness or white supremacy. So they have, for the most part, right, but after under the influence, control, or manipulation of whiteness. So when they come from either Caribbean, they make a Trinidad, Nigeria, you know, Mexico, Colombia, wherever, they're going to run the white people. They've got no problem with them whatsoever. Their company is strictly to try to get a piece of that $25, $3, gross magic product that America produces every year. So when you holler, race them, race them does not mean to them what it means to me. We holler whiteness, it does not mean to them what it means to you and I, because of this, they have been free from white domination and control for seven or eight decades. So when it comes to America, hey, I got a problem, I got a problem, they got no problem with white people and white folks got a problem with them. So for you to call these folks allied, it's a misnomer, it's a mistake because they're not. So you've already been replaced, the minute our folks don't don't understand that. So if you're not in possession of essential high income skills, you're not going to do well. And what I'm saying out in the trenches is that a lot of section of our folks in the inner city, I'm not needed, they are not needed. Other than the field, prison role, jail role, you know, section eight, some kind of poverty program, they, their, their intellect is not needed nor is it anticipate or want it for anything that's going to be creative to advance civilization or advance the town of city they reside in, because they have lost sight of the importance of having standards, boundaries and expectation to when it comes to behavior. And so I'm just here putting out an atmosphere to say to our community, you can get that village stone, village has been dead for the last 30, 40 years. I think King was murdered by over 50 plus years. It takes the village and no village, it's the neighborhood. You got all these different ethnic group, all here, all cramped in these cities, these cities were different ethnic, ethnic group, food, music, clothes, language, et cetera. The only thing that you really share is you need to play this day, they're so late. You need income, they do too. You need bare sense, they do too. But culturally, you know, lineage wives, you got nothing coming. Nothing coming with these people. So when you go in these schools, the reason why they have multiculturalism is why, for the 70 years, you don't have all these folks in here. And for the eighties community, those who trap me serving school, you already know it's not going to get better, despite what your politician and mayor are saying, it's not going to get better. And when they take any kind of tests, that's why these schools exam are always, always dismal, but hide their heads when it comes to the results, because I already know, because they know in most of these homes, right, academic excellence is not really practiced or modeled. You already know that. So they already know the caliber of homes you live in, the caliber of parents that have conceived you, the caliber of friends you hang out with, and the caliber of your community. Those underpegg, any young person of element, the parents, your peer set, the school and community. So those four pillows, right, are already contaminated with many of our young people. So here we are in 2024, on a virtually new election with Trump and Biden. And the Democrats have already said, they're not sending these folks back now. None of these 20, 30, 50 million people are going anywhere. They are here to stay. So adults, if you're stuck in these cities, you might go move on and make room for them. They're going to be stuck in your school, let your kids attend. Public housing, they're going to be there. Social services, they're going to be there. Employment, they're going to be there. And so if you don't have the skill set to elevate yourself and remove yourself, you're going to be there. And the white employer, whether they hire them than you, because of the history, is based on agitation, irritation, because it was founded on what? It was coming here, the shackles and chains. We didn't come, we didn't come in these other folks here, of our free will, beat walking on the boat, or plane, we didn't come like that. We came shackled in the belly of a ship. So again, I'm going to say on this year, pre-fulfas July celebration, eight of us, our village has imploded. And I don't believe in gloomy doom, as you know, I don't believe in being sinister. I believe in being real myself and saying to those who listen, all this can be changed in one generation. I believe a generation left between 20, 30 years. So again, it starts with you. It won't be no group activity. It won't be no March down, Main Street, with bands playing. It'll be that you come into realize you're going the wrong way. It'll be you come to realize that I'm involved and engaged in and mauling the wrong things for me and my children. I'm going the wrong way. The change will start with you, with you, and how you conduct yourself, how you flow, the language you use. And right now, I'm going to meet with my people, it's all what? FFFFF or NNNN or BBBBB or HHHH8, that's their vocabulary. Well, that's being fed to your children. That's being fed to your children. So any one of them that they have, no regard for killing their community members who look like them, because if you call someone an N word 10 times, and this I would recommend you do, right now, just say it 10 times, see how that person loses their humanity. See how they are no longer valued, no longer deemed worthy. This I've had families I work with do this experiment and they say, "You're right, Larry." I don't feel anything toward that person, after saying that word, the N word 10 times. So call a female the B word, call her the B word 10 times, and see how little regard you have for her. See that you have no sense of sisterhood. See how quickly, right, they lose their humanity. You have dehumanized that person, and I contend to be out in the churches in the last 40-50 years, but they have been a rep taking a turn, but they're worth a lot of the shows you see on TV what it just shows what Black folks being gangsters, gangsters, gangsters, gangsters, you know, over the sexual lines, you know, you go on any platform or you see what women for the most part in the prostitution would have come down to, moderning prostitution. And for our men, for the most part, you know, they're into what, negativity, some of them. But the image affects the whole group, the image affects the whole group. That's why I'm here to say today, the change starts with each one of us, that we're gonna look in the mirror and say, "Hey, I got a do-and-about face." It won't be no group activity, it's gonna be you coming to realize that I'm going the wrong way. And my children are watching and emulating me, never let anybody tell you that "A" what you do does not matter because you have no idea who's watching you whereby you can either enhance their development or you can't retard it because they're gonna emulate and try to walk in your footsteps. That's why I say none of us should have embraced the concept that your life is your home. My life is not my own. Dear folks who are watching me, dear folks who want to emulate me, so either I can put out a healthy image whereby they want to elevate themself even higher, or I can put an image whereby they were gladly, right, low expectation and take the role that's traveled to do our kind of file stuff, evil stuff. And it doesn't take much, really, to be a bad boy, or to be a hooker, it don't take much to do that, it don't take much to do those things. But it takes discipline, right, it takes to be steadfast to come out of home with no wealth and to go secure those skills through education, be it vocal or technical, it's gonna take time. And then to get out there in the marketplace, be it rehabilitation, give a name for yourself, then the money's gonna flow. It takes time, it takes time. And unfortunately, we have, in the last 40 years, become a drive-through society. We want out of now, because we've seen our entertainers in 1819 getting paid, making it a rain, only to lose it because why our food and his money will soon depart. So today, I wanna put out here supposed to consider, I don't use the term anymore, it takes the ability. No, the village hasn't uploaded it. And we don't try to steal a sense of standards, morals and ethics and things we don't do, many of our folks not gonna make it, that I'm clear on. Again, you listen to WBCA, 102.9 FM, can WBCA, 102.9 FM? I'm Hills Larry Obama, name of the program, from the trenches, baby, from the trenches, off the pavement, trenches, off the pavement, trenches. Today, I'm talking to my group, I'm magna born blacks, eight of us. Our village hasn't uploaded, because standards for many, not all, but standards for many, have disappeared, etiquette disappeared, grace, style, class disappeared. Being raunchy, lewd and loud, is all the other day. So I'm gonna take a break, be right back. Don't you go away, 'cause I got some more to say on this topic, but the village hasn't uploaded. I'll be back. I'm gonna wear it. The revolution wasn't televised in the '60s, is it gonna be televised in the '90s? Well, you know, the catchphrase, what that was all about, the revolution would not be televised. That was about the fact that the first change that takes places in your mind, you have to change your mind before you change the way you live and when you move. So when we said that the revolution would not be televised, we were saying that the thing that's going to change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film. It'll just be something that you see and all of a sudden you realize, I'm on the wrong page or I'm on the right page, but I'm on the wrong note and I've got to get in sync with everyone else to understand what's happening in this country. But I think that the black Americans have been the only real, that hard Americans here, 'cause we're the only ones who've carried the process through the process, that everyone else has to sort of like skip stages. We're the ones who marched, we're the ones who carried the Bible, we're the ones who carried the flag, we're the ones who tried to go through the courts and being born American didn't seem to matter because we were born American but we still had to fight for what we were looking for and we still had to go through those channels and those processes. 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The impact of a meal goes well beyond feeding our bodies, because when people don't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, they can truly thrive. Like Marta. And now we'll hear from our class valedictorian, who with our hard work never ceases to amaze us. Please welcome Marta Moreno. And Alex. Hey Alex, how did the interview go? I did it, I got the job, I can't believe it. I knew it, let's meet up later to celebrate. And Diego. Mom, I got first place at the science fair with my volcano project. That's amazing, sweetie, congratulations! Because when people are fed, futures are nourished, and everyone deserves to live a full life. Join the movement to end hunger at FeedingAmerica.org/actnow. A public service announcement brought to you by FeedingAmerica and the Ad Council. The revolution wasn't televised in the 60s, is it going to be televised in the 90s? Well you know the catchphrase, what that was all about, the revolution will not be televised. That was about the fact that the first change that takes places in your mind, you have to change your mind before you change the way you live and when you move. So when we said that the revolution would not be televised, we were saying that the thing that's going to change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film. It'll just be something that you see and all of a sudden you realize, I'm on the wrong page, or I'm on the right page but I'm on the wrong note, and I've got to get in sync with everyone else to understand what's happening in this country. But I think that the black Americans have been the only real, that hard Americans here because we're the only ones who carry the process through the process, that everyone else has to sort of like skip stages, we're the ones who march, we're the ones who carry the Bible, we're the ones who carry the flag, we're the ones who try to go through the courts. And being born American didn't seem to matter because we were born American but we still had to fight for what we were looking for and we still had to go through those channels and those processes. I'm back, Boston, again, listening to WBCA 102.9 FM, again WBCA 102.9 FM, I'm your host Larry Achenbottom in the program, I'm the changes baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, I'm the baby, cause I'm out in the trenches for that 26 years doing mental health services in our family's home, didn't see firsthand how they are faring. And I'm gonna put out here today, this is just simple, simple thought, eight of us talking to my group, my group, our village has imploded, give yourself time, it takes a village, well, this village has imploded, last 30, 40 years, for many, that concept is in this number. The many in our community, they are okay, okay, with this self-destructive behavior. The reason why I like playing that interview with that brother, Gil's got a hammer, I'm about the village, you know, like you say, it all stuff in your mind, it all stuff in your mind. There won't be no fanfare, there won't be no group activity, when this, when this revolution takes place, when this revolution takes place, it will take place in your mind, in your mind, in your mind. I said, wait a minute Larry, you're going the wrong way dude, you're involved in things here right there, they're not going to allow you to live kind of life you want to live, cause nobody's coming to save you, no one's coming for you. So it won't be a group activity, and unfortunately for a lot, or too many of our young people, they're around people who are emulating that same destructive mindset and value. And here's the kicker, they all have procured, so they got kids that are also being exposed to and groomed to be okay with that. And you watch, which I didn't, the BET awards, the sexy red and gorilla, you know, those those individuals. And even the male rappers, you and I know, whiteness doesn't respect them, they will make money off the, off black culture, because they're selling the worst part of black culture. They okay with you, denigrating yourself, they okay with them, so they're all kind of vile things, nasty words, over these sexualized lyrics, they okay with that, why? It does not respect, it does not reflect on either Jewish owner or the white owner or the Asian owner, it does not respect on their people. And we can always say creativity, freedom of speech, but it's useless. And yes, these people, some of them are finesse, finesse, well off, but they can't do enough for the group, entertainers will never, ever be able to address hiring members of the community in large numbers, every four, 2.7% of black folks are seven ploid. That means that 97.3% of us, right, are depending on white folks for a job. That's why when you, those who are working get paid, that's why the money leads. As soon as they can't pay check, there's no institution, the aid is sustaining a community that we own and control. So your money is always what, constantly flowing out. Because we're not saying and practicing healthy behavior, we're not saying and cultivating right, productive behavior in too many of these homes, but these children. And all these urban centers got the same decay. And there's no institution that we own or control, they have to respect that the group will listen to and start to improve on its own behavior. That's why I say, whiteness aside, put whiteness aside, don't worry about it, whiteness is going to be whiteness, here, too often, many, now, many are engaged in what are called self destructive behavior. And those kids, those communities, reflect that. And for those who are working, they own the low end of the way scale. They can have nobody. And so those of our community who's enlightened, who's grounded in thinking, they take their kids and they separate, rightfully so, I know I would, who want to be around foolish people doing foolish things, who you can't tell them to. And so those who are enlightened, those who are grounded and understand how America works, they take their kids and they separate, or they move to the better part of the city. And you stuck down there in the little rent district, in the high crime area, with those underperforming school, another word, another word city, failing school, with your new children. So it is nothing but a desire, it's nothing but a wealthy, wealthy, wealthy, wealthy for doing, for many, only to repeat the cycle. And so that's why I say being a realist, as I had to, I had to take heed to what I was doing to hurt myself. What I was doing, not helping me, like brother Gil's got here instead, he said, "Let me tell you what we meant, we meant by revolution won't be televised." Let me tell you what I meant, we wrote this song, "Real revolution won't be televised." We meant it starts in your mind, it starts in your mind. Change occurs in your mind, in your mind. And nobody to be there, as they were in my case, when I decided I need to change. Now I conduct how I roll myself, it's going to be different, and who is benefited from it? No one, my wife and my daughter, my daughter is benefited from it. Also the 40 folks who are not employed, it'll start, benefited from me deciding the revolution begins in my mind, I got to change. There was no fanfare, there was no being going out on Main Street, no confetti, nothing like that. I had to do things differently, stop hurting myself, to take myself out of certain situations and around certain, and away from certain people and environment. Well, brother Gil, Gil's giving you the blueprint, but unfortunately they are many, not all think they are many, who don't want to hear that. It always perplexed me when he and brother say, "Well, you're my sisters." You've got to have three or four kids that realize, "This is hard, I did it's wrong, I just think I have a sequence all by myself. I'm stuck in poverty, I'm working a low-end job, going nowhere, because I did things out of order, with three or four kids or whatever, out of it long." It was amazing when he had certain males say, "Man, I was doing ten years in the joint. Before it finally dawned on me, I was going the wrong way." Now, people have been telling you all along, right? You're going the wrong way, you're going about it wrong, but you had to be locked up in that cage and call prison for ten or twenty years, or thirty years before the light found it kicked off, that he was going the wrong way, and now all your youth have been squandered, because you decided to embrace a spirit that was just kind of productive, and was really, really telling and perplexing that you already know the outcome, you already know how the story is going to end before it's end, because you're seeing in our communities what I love about living in the hood, you already see folks doing that very same thing that you're doing, so you already know the outcome. You already know how it's going to end up, but yet still you persist, you already see other women who've had these kids, one, two, three, four, five kids by themselves, you see the psychological, emotional, physical struggle, struggle and strain, and not to mention the caliber of men that she can deal with, men who are trying to make it, men who aren't making it, not saying they're going to sleep with her, but they won't stay. So you are reduced to what I call the bottom of the bar when it comes to, when it comes to male mate, to mating, and for God who want to be a bad boy, you know, or a street negro, you don't own another there, you don't only control anything, who gets me? Street creds, you got street credibility, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee, do, for me to get here, you know what I mean, you don't mean that my fellow community members who live with me, live on the same block, I just step over to get here, who along the wayside, I stepped over those who want to be, you know, the stick up kid, those want to be the B&E kids, three-caught model kids, who want to say adult kids, want to be the B&E kids, right, want to be the gangster, I stepped over all those folks on this way, being the so-called wimp, the so-called nerd, because in America, there are rules of engagement, there are rules on how to advance, and we don't make those rules, so like I said, he got street credibility, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee, do, do you think white folks care about that, you don't make no posse, you don't make no rules, and everybody that's you in the heart, that's you, employee, flinging your dope, or whatever you're doing, all end up what, either serving in a white man's prison, or getting murdered, getting paralyzed, or getting maimed, so what they do, you got street creds, it can't do nothing for you, it can't do nothing for them, and I was amazing, I'm supposed to, that's the only thing, he's a bad dude, to who, to who, not just supposed to the count, he cannot hire our people, but by the way, they can be elevated middle class, live where they want to live, so many kids in school, they're short, have their kids involved in an after-school program, you know, that he can afford the paperwork, he can't give you an above average income, that's legal, so in whose eyes is he a big man, I'll tell you, foolish people, one thing the rapper heavily said, songline came out in the 80s, and I always quote this here, and just stay with me, he already said, I don't get with fools and fools can't get with me, I said again, close my back row, who don't ever listen, I don't get with fools and fools can't get with me, and for many of our young folks who get involved in that kind of activity, both male and female, they're foolish, they call women, you know, pick-me's, they call the guys, simp, well, I'm a simp, I make no bones about that, I'm not going to spend none of my time in that cage called Prison of White Man, that the white man has created, for folks who have violated his laws, call me what you want to, as I told my daughter when she went away to college to Hampton, I said, baby, let me tell you something, it's the nerds who run America, it's the nerds who run the cities, the companies, it's the nerds, it's not Slick Willie, or Bad Boy Billy, or Pretty Boy Floyd, it's the nerds, and it's amazing, when you see him now, you're flowing, you know, they're now bent over the crepe and having spent all their time in and out of prison, and abusing their body with drugs and that all, they tell you, they told me, hey, I'm proud of you, man, I'm proud of you, and I didn't say, appreciate you, because I didn't do what you did, only the reason why I'm not there, I did not choose to walk down the road that you walk down, and young people take it from this baby boom, when you lack standards, etiquette, class, standards, a behavior, anything will do, you are doomed, you are doomed, you are doomed, and it's going to cost you, it's going to cost you, it's going to cost you, America has rules of how do you progress from A to B, and many of our families, not all, but many of our families, I'm not preparing their kids on how to be successful out here in America, and now with all these illegal around here who's going to be made citizen, you are not needed baby, brother, you ain't need it, so if you don't have skills that are tangible, that I need it, that are valuable, you're not going to feel what I am, and this village, which already has imploded, it's going to disappear, because for those brothers and sisters who know what time it is, and know how to navigate the terrain called America, they don't left you, they don't left the hood, they live in the better part of the city, at the end of the city, or the outside of the city, because why I think it's going to be there, they're not messing with you, because you won't listen, they're not around you or your misbathing kids, and so you are stuck in the belly of the beast to waste away, but again, as brother Gil Scott Harris said, the rebels just start in your mind, it all starts there, it's the day of my mind, 30 years ago, I had to have a serious sit down talking myself about where I was going, where I was, and that I had the ability to change, and so do you, and so do you, it's a good thing, as long as you are above ground, you can make something happen, and for many, many, walking down this same path going nowhere, it's just self annihilation, because you already know these those, but you see many, many, many of your family in your community who are already paying the price that you want to pay, so I say to you, it's time for you to start, do you want a thriving prospect in this great country of ours, or do you want to just stay on the bottom, because nobody's coming to save you, nobody's coming to get you now, because many of our friends have left, those who it's thinking clearly, they're going, and their kids are going to, look around you, look down at what you're on the bottom, folks are struggling, folks who refuse to come to a list of realization, what I'm doing is not working, what I'm doing is not working, so if you continue on that path, well, you get what you get, but one thing we do know, the village hasn't bloated, so you can decide to create a different village that's healthier, more vibrant, more prosperous, or you stay in that same village there that's just melting away, there's nothing there. Anyway, that's my word for today, if I come to a close, I'll just get nice Wednesday afternoon, you've been listening to WWBCA 102.9 FM, I'm your host Larry, name and show, churches babies from my office, babies from my trenches, I'm going to talk to my group, it does, it does, our village hasn't bloated, but your fate lies in your hand, you stay down, you can keep going on that road, or you can change, until the next Wednesday God bless you and enjoy your holidays, bye bye. The preceding commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WWBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 0211, to arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WWBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio@bnandmedia.org. [BLANK_AUDIO]