Student: Dang Ms. Bolden, you be spittin knowledge … you should be a rapper.
Ms. Bolden: A rapper? That’s who you think has knowledge? Why shouldn’t I be a teacher, or a philosopher, a preacher…anything besides a rapper?
Student: I mean you could be, but then ain’t nobody in the hood gonna hear you. You from Southfield so you don’t really know about the hood.
Ms. Bolden: Southfield? I’m from Detroit!
Student: No you not.
Shirley at 12 years old, three weeks after going into foster care.
That’s not the first time I’ve been stereotyped as a suburbanite by someone living in the city.
Oddly, telling someone that they come off as too educated to have grown-up in an urban city is the one of the most offensive and ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.
While “Detroit” is being typed in the City of Residence box on our birth certificates the rest of our lives are being determined. The assumption is we probably won’t graduate from high school, we’ll have children before we have a chance to grow-up, we’re pre-signed up for food stamps and will visit our sons in jails and cemeteries.
Remove the “Detroit” from the City of Residence box and type “Royal Oak.” That kid will graduate from college, have proper access and an understanding of the importance to birth control, eat Sushi at Ronin and send their kids off to college in a Ford Escape.
Bullshit.
Shirley: Michigan State Univ grad AND an urban city kid
No one’s life should be predetermined by the city they grew up in. The next time someone assumes I didn’t grow up in the hood, the Seven Mile will come out of me and I’ll slap them with my Michigan State University diploma.
Inner city kids are not bound to be failures.
True enough some of us will be underexposed to some of the finer things in life. And some of us may never get a chance to meet our fathers. And some of us may never meet a millionaire. And some of us will never see our parents reach financial stability.
But all of us are resilient.
SPEAK!!!!
Or the infamous statement made to educated residence of the city……stop acting white!
Gail, I forgot about that one. But sooooo true!
This is an awesome read, especially for the young crowd. It shows how important rap is to the younger generation – that the first thing this child thought of was making Shirley a rapper, as if that’s the greatest achievement and the only way to reach a AA person. This is tragic news to my heart because this student embodies the younger society and why they have a disrupted moral compass and drink, smoke, have unprotected sex, rob, kill, all because they hear it in music.
Jay Z is the new Malcolm X. Dr King’s dream has been replaced by the Kanye West’s “Nightmares” (reference to a song he made with Wayne). Not that either of these men are bad, but my point is their influence is stronger today than it ever was. What rappers talk about in songs, these kids actually go out and do because they think its cool.
Why is sagging your pants still cool? Been proven time and time again what its true meaning is. But rappers do it, so they do it. I’m going to leave you with this true story about myself:
I got in trouble with the law when I was 23 years old for having a weapon on my person without a CCW. So as part of my sentence I had to do community service. I will never forget what this 19 year old kid said to me “Before I die, I gotta get me a ’70 Monte Carlo on 24′s. That’s my life goal.” This young kid was serious as fuck. All I could do was hold my head in shame. I asked him, “That’s all you want out of life?” He said “Hell yeah, I’m hood rich then nigga.” I couldn’t say anything else after that. too heart broken…
I am one of the lucky ones I was up and down but, always had love all around me. And still I got great sisters like you, Gail and Cindy just to name a few who are moving forward in life against all odds. Keep telling the truth and the light will guide the past . Love you always ME