Trapped Black Youth: Prison or Death

Germany forcibly destroyed the food source of African nations.

Contrary to popular imagination, white “civilization” has been the most destructive entity on the planet for at least past five centuries of human history. It is single single-handedly responsible for two world wars, the genocide of Native Americans, the transatlantic slavery trade, colonial wars, the destruction of Australian Aborigines and numerous other genocides. The unrestricted technology associated with white civilization that has been unleashed on the world (often utilized to showcase the culture’s supposed superiority) is responsible for global warming, destruction of the ecosystem, and environmental pollution. One avenue of this mayhem is its economic system of capitalism. Europeans seeking control over most of the world’s wealth sought to accumulate capital through the creation of colonies. Colonies served as a place that would bring in wealth for the mother country.

The ghettoes within America should not be viewed as an accidental social arrangement. Rather, it was intended for the purposes of the global Euro-America project, which succeeded the period of slavery, followed by black codes/Jim Crow, etc. It is characterized by gross inequality, poverty, and oppression – black people are systematically isolated and separated from mainstream American life. “Some how, some way, we gotta make it out the hood some day. Some how some way, we gotta make it out this life,” were the words of Jay-Z who grew up in the internal colony of Brooklyn. Like nations in Africa yearning for independence during the ‘60s, so do blacks colonized internally within America who face the pain of police brutality, lack-luster schools, unemployment, false chargers, and discriminatory sentences. They live in a social system that has two fundamentals: prison or an early death.             It is important to characterize what is commonly referred to in African-American discourse as “the hood” or “ghetto” as an internal colony of America to expose the erroneous notion that blacks are within mainstream American society.

The end game of this global white supremacist project is to secure the majority of the world’s resources and wealth for the benefit of a few white elites. The American Empire often utilizes faulty rationalizations to justify wars for imperialistic purposes. For example, “The War On Terror” was utilized as a pretext to invade the Middle East and secure the financial resources for rich capitalistic corporations. Dick Cheney, the vice president who labeled Nelson Mandela a terrorist and opposed sanctions on apartheid in South Africa, also made a bundle for Halliburton during the Iraq War.Like the “War on Terror,” which was waged against the Middle East for profits and resulted in the death of millions of innocent people, the War on Drugs waged on the black community should really be called “the War on Blacks.” The campaign was waged by the mother country America against its internal colonies throughout America for the purposes of luring blacks into the prison industrial complex. Many blacks growing up in the ghetto turn to the drug economy out of economic necessity and, despite creating the social situation in which this is the only viable economic choice, the state would rather start a war against them than seek to create opportunities for them. Blacks within these colonies often describe the horrors of growing up under police occupation. Freeway, who was raised in an internal colony within Philadelphia, raps, “Don’t you know cops’ sole purpose is to lock us down?And throw away the key.But without this drug shi* your kids ain’t got no way to eat, huh?” “What We Do is Wrong” provides insight into the ethical paradox facing inner-city youth; many people can’t survive holding on to morals. Colonies seek to exploit and “lock us down” in a similar situation of Britain  with their colonies.

Big L, of the internal colony of Harlem, elucidates this point further. Speaking from the state of mind he developed as a 10-year-old, Big L states, “Nobody knows how I feel, it’s quite ill, Cause I had to steal to fill my stomach with a nice meal.” Food distribution occurs within the mother country, but in internal colonies, like many third world nations, dire hunger is an everyday issue for those living there. Many of these areas are food deserts; while those outside the internal colonies look to Christmas as a fun family time to be showered with gifts, Big L describes his situation as follows, “on Christmas I asked Santa for a father and a hot sandwich.” At age 15, Big L turned to the drug economy and theft as the only to survive, describing it as follows, “Now everyday  I creep with the heat, Ain’t nothing sweet, I rob for meat, If I don’t steal I don’t eat.” Soon, Big L became a victim of the billion dollar prison industrial complex (which brings in wealth for white elites); he states, “Then I realized I’m better off in a prison cell. Now I can eat, now I can sleep.” When he left prison, Big L was not given any chances for social mobility, but instead had to turn the same activities that got him in jail, “And can’t get a job cause of my jail record, Before you know it, I was robbing them same ducks.” Then he states, “I hope I don’t get snatched by the beast again.” Like people in the Middle East dealing with U.S. military occupation, within internal colonies blacks at any time can be shot at or rounded up by the police. Big L then makes a very profound statement, “My whole life was deserted. Either I’mma go back to jail or get murdered, but do I deserve it? All I tried to do was live the one life that I got. But it seems like I can’t get a fair shot.”

Why couldn’t Big L get a fair shot? He, like millions of others, found himself born black in an internal colony of an economic system befit on benefiting white people. Big L ends by challenging the common myth of steady progress for African-Americans, “In the ghetto, all you can wish for is a better tomorrow  It ain’t getting no better, it’s only getting worse, word up…” The dominant lifestyle in internal colonies is hustling between being a drug dealer to putting in time in jail. In “We Will Survive,” Nas discusses the bleak opportunities for social mobility: “Nothing left for us but hoop dreams and hood tournaments… either that or rap… we want the fast way out of this trap… rather a 9 to 5 or slinging crack…”   So why should black ghettoes be viewed as colonies? It is clear that black youth within America certainly does not feel as though they are a part of mainstream America. Rather, America maintains an exploitative relationship with them, forcing them into the drug economy via its exploitative economic system for the purposes of making them a victim of the prison industrial complex.

Many black mothers growing up in the ghetto face the fear that their male child may grow up and be “accidentally” shot by the police. When blacks step outside their colonies, they can be killed by white vigilantes (like Trayvon Martin) and have the judicial system let them off scot-free.  As in colonialism, the businesses in the black community are all owned by foreigners who take wealth back to their native countries from the inflated goods they sell to ghetto inhabitants. Moreover, the ghettoes serve as a place which hounds the worst behaviors and social habits that result from capitalism — crime, shootouts, etc. — from the larger, mother society. It’s a segregated place that seeks to separate the larger white elites from the chaos their economic system has caused. Like plantations, ghettoes are intended to maintain a segregated space and utilize black bodies as nothing more than commodities in the U.S. Empire. The discriminatory prison sentences, discriminatory hiring purposes, red-lining, and sub-prime mortgages are all purely to maintain a colonial relationship. Within these black colonies, the option for blacks are bleak; they are “trapped,” as Tupac states, and the system destines for them to face either prison or death.