This essay was written by my niece after learning that another student in her class had been killed. It offers another perspective on what our children are facing.
Being the bullet....or being the target....a teenager's life
You jus don't know hard it is that i hafta go out into the world....knowing that anything could happen to me...at ANY moment. The part that sad about it is that 9 times outta 10 if something were to happen....it would have been bestowed on me by someone who wouldn't be that much older than myself.
what happened to us?.....to our generation? to the kids of everyday life?.....does the world not care about us anymore?...neglected us so much that we resort to 9 milimeters, knives, drugs and sex? is this a cry for attention or one for help? Why is it suddenly cool to kill people for less than a dollar? or for things not worth anything more than some dirty old nike shoes that had been sittin in yo closet for a half a year? What is cool about gettin teenage girls pregnant and then not wanting to take responibility for the child that YOU brought into this world who probably, because of YOU, will grow up to be jus like you....if not...then worse!? Our generation is hangin by a thread.......there is only a slither of some morals, common sense, and well being..........the rest is us shooting at each other....."killin niggas fo noffin!" is what we say. Trappin on the street like thats a kool thing to do. there or other ways to make money yall!!!! get a job! get an education! be something!.....
.....jus dont be that something at the other end of a bullet.......and please dont be that something who shot it!
teenage life is hard these days........not cuz we are at that age where we rebel against our parents and are at an awkward level with ourselves...learnin who we are, why we are here, and goin thru puberty.......no!......its hard cuz of the fact that teenagers do horrible things to each other!.......the social status between us is a battlefield......not anything beautiful about it.........
.....so as for me! yea i still gotta get up every day knowing and dealing with the suspense and tension from other ppl my age......but im not gonna be the bulllet....im not gonna be the target......i'm gonna be everything else that is and isn't.......everything that tells me to be me and to make sure that i go that extra mile to make good decisions. to be that something everyone wants to be!........
and don't yall be lookin at this n be all like "Man! she crazy! Do she know how niggas are today? they aint gone change cuz she said all this crap....Man if she was nigga she wouldn't be sayin this......" people be like...i'm not black enough to know.....
I KNOW i ain't no "nigga"! i've excluded myself from that catagory! but i can see that those "niggas" are the MAIN ppl i'm talkin about! The ones who call themselves and each other are the main teenagers exchanging bullets to their brains.
so naw....im not a nigga..........i'm the light-skinned negro wtht a BRIGHT future cuz i KNOW what's good!
--signing off---Giddy
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If that is how Giddy has learn to write essay's in school then maybe the school is at fault for not teaching the kids anything. Is she has been taught better than that, which I'm guessing is the case, and she is writing/talking like that to fit in then she is no better than the ones she writes about.
ReplyDeleteyour predudices are showing
ReplyDeleteb4 you all make comments about her talk and spelling then look. then proof read your posts please.
ReplyDeleteI think she wrote it like that to express where teenagers are now days. It is sad that they write and talk like this. But the teachers will allow it in an essay like this becauase it is an expression. Poetic Freedom i guess. Who knows but her essay makes a point no matter hwta you think of the grammar it makes a point.
9:51, 9:44's prejudices are not showing through. This person is stating a valid point. If this person truly views themselves above the fray of racial politics in America, then they should be using proper English grammar and punctuation. I can see one or two errors, as we are all human, but to see many errors is just frightening and sad. Giddy needs to take pride in their work and make sure that they are using proper English grammar and punctuation. I think that if the teacher let this essay fly without marking it up and making the child correct the errors, the teacher is just as culpable in the de-education of this child, and contributing to the overall problems that exist in this country.
ReplyDeleteNobody said this was a school assignment. An essay is an essay.
ReplyDeleteShe is saying what she needs to say, and the form she uses actually contributes to it, doesn't it?
Is this about life in the 'hood'?
Yes.
When you paint a picture, you don't always paint every little detail just so, do you?
This essay makes a powerful statement, and paints a picture of today's youth.
Leave it at that, and put your red pencil away.
I am the aunt who submitted the post. I called it an essay - it was not submitted for a school assignmeent, it was posted on Facebook to express her feelings. I wanted to share her thoughts, not her writing abilities,
ReplyDeleteI always feel sorry for the gangsta looking kids, the boys. They drift around with their baggy pants but they're still little boys, and they look lost.
ReplyDeleteHow many realize that black families were mother-father-kids, in 75% of families, before desegregation? After the 60's and the welfare society introduced by LBJ, the rate of black children out of wedlock soared to about 80% today. What we see is the cost of welfare. It's not the money, it's the cost in young lives.
And these kids are the ones that get to be born, not aborted like their siblings.
WOW...sooo how is this No Child left behind working..So sad..America is getting weak...I applaud my teachers from the past and the OLD School way of doing things...Kids are too soft and so is our government..Bring back the good old corp. punishment and make them learn or your butt is left behind.
ReplyDelete12:30 RIGHT ON!!!!!!!! No child left behind is a joke! Kids get expelled and the system is still responsible for them. The system is a joke!! Just like our judiciary system, both are jokes. What ever happened to the days when you didn't wear a belt to school and the principle made you tie a rope around your waist. Or teachers amde you tuck you shirt in. I remember those days. Teachers were respected, police were respected, adults and elders were respected. Not any more. They (youth) not all but some feel they should get the respect before it is earned. This should all return. I bet Salisbury or any other city didn't have near the violent crime back then. Yea you might say the population has grown, so what. Thats fine the parents or guardians should still manifest principles and respect to the kids and if they can't then why should the governemnt try to coddle these people, send em away and to get the principles they need, don't coddle the little twerps it only teaches them that if they can't do it then someone will, so why try.
ReplyDeleteI don't think 9:44 is showing prejudice unless it all of a sudden became racist to suggest people use good diction.It is very hard to read but the essay itself is a beautiful expression of a teen girls point of view and it's great that she is questioning why things are the way they are instead of "falling in" with her peers.I applaud her,despite the diction.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the lack of families has a major effect on how these kids turn out.People in this area put down Hispanics all the time but have you ever noticed when you see a Hispanic family there is ALWAYS a mother and a FATHER.You do not see single Hispanic women with numerous kids of different parentage like you do with white AND black women.Nor do you see Grandmothers or Aunties raising the kids.So apparently they know something we white and black people arent privy to.We need to get back to old family values in this country or we are doomed.
I have to agree with the aunt. It is obvious that it's not a school essay. It's about what she is saying and I think that she is right on the money. To bad others don't think like her!! I don't think that the slang and speech in this writing is what we should be focusing on... it's the meaning that is being conveyed that is important. You Go girl. and to the ones that are so caught up in the grammar part.. you look at what could possibly be wrong with the writing so you can ignore the real message. It may hit home to hard for some....
ReplyDeleteThree cheers to this young lady! I love to write and there are times, when you can't get your point accross with " proper" grammar. I understood everything she was saying and she made her point, which is good writing as far as I am concerned. I pray that she will never be a target and will continue to write.
ReplyDeleteCindy W.