Friday, March 9, 2018

Michael Marrotti writes



"Diversity"

I recall 
diversity
like an 
unjustified
punch to the chin

I remember
attending
a middle school
in my white 
middle-class
neighborhood
being one of 
no more than 
two dozen 
white kids

The rest were 
shipped from 
ghetto neighborhoods
predominately
the Hill District

To my dismay
they brought
their culture
which was 
based on 
gang signs 
unprovoked
violence and 
a disdain for 
academics

I watched as
frightened whites 
renounced their culture
in a futile attempt to 
fortify themselves
from ridicule and 
physical abuse 

Diversity
presented itself
in my 4th period class
when I was attacked
over my Colorado Rockies
t-shirt

How was I 
supposed
to know 
that CR meant
Crips Rule 
when I didn't
even know what 
a Crip or Blood was 

Solace manifested
in the sound of a bell 
I always anticipated
the end 

Their culture
wasn't mine 
and I wanted
nothing 
to do with it 
Related image
 -- bailey brothaz (Craig Bailey)

1 comment:

  1. The Hill District, a 1.4-square-mile cluster of neighborhoods on the upward-sloping eastern border of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the city's oldest African-American community. Because of its importance to early jazz musicians as a stop between Chicago and New York, and the home of the most influential Black weekly newspaper "The Pittsburgh Courier" and the dominant Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball team (the Craws") in the segregated Negro National League, and because immigrants from 25 countries resided there, the poet Claude McKay called the area the “Crossroads of the World.” But after World War II misguided federal "redevelopment" programs deepened its poverty. In 1956 some 1,300 structures were razed, displacing more than 8,000 residents, in ordert to construct the Civic Arena, isolating The Hill from the rest of the city. By 1990 over 70% of its residents and 400 businesses were gone.

    In 1969 Stanley Tookie Williams and Raymond Lee Washington united their rival street gangs from the west and east sides of South Central Los Angeles to form the Cribs, reflecting the fact that most of its members were teenagers (although Washington had belonged to a Watts, Los Angeles, gang, the Cripplers; when they adopted canes as their identifying symbols they became popularly known as "Cripples." When Buddha, one of the founding members, was killed in 1973, his trademark blue bandana was worn by gang members in tribute, and blue became their "colors." Non-Crips gang members called each other "bloods." In response to Washington's confrontation with Sylvester Scott and Benson Owens, 2 Compton, California, high school students, the pair formed the Piru Street Boys to protect themselves; in 1972 the Pirus allied with other gangs to form the group called the Bloods, adopting red as their identifying uniform and adapted Crips graffiti symbols by drawing them upside down. Largely due to their profits from crack cocaine and increasing violence, both groups expanded nationwide, organized loosely as smaller street gangs called sets. In 1993 Omar Portee and Leonard Mackenzie formed the United Blood Nation in Rikers Island's George Motchan Detention Center to defend themselves against the Latin Kings and Ñetas.

    In 1985 several players on the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team were tried for drug use. leading to 11 suspensions (which were later commuted in exchange for fines and community service). Interests in Denver, Colorade, then unsuccessfully tried to buy and relocate the team to their city. In 1991 Major League Baseball added 2 teams, including the Denver Rockies, who started playing in 1993.

    ReplyDelete

Join the conversation! What is your reaction to the post?