Epilogue

Deep in my heart, I feel that I’m a blessed man. After passing the statistics of my pre-planned death, I’m a couple of weeks away from turning forty-two, and in this book, I wanted to share my account of the first twenty-four years of my life.

With each passing day, I see our youth and troubled teens making the same mistakes I made. One thing that’s frustrating about it is that I was a planter of the bad seed. I’m guilty of contributing to the high rate of crime and violence among our youth. I didn’t realize it then, but I do now. I feel that all the gang members, drug dealers, and people who have committed other crimes, such as myself, need to accept some responsibility and be accountable for our youth being out of control.

I think it’s a fact that we are role models to our youth, just like the gangstas and hustlas we looked up to, admired, and wanted to emulate. It was their lifestyles, their reputations, and the respect they earned that made them our role models. I really feel that if I had a hardworking, positive, and caring black man as a role model in my life, my chances of growing up successful would have been greater.

“Gangster” is the appropriate spelling of this word according to the dictionary. However, “gangsta” is the appropriate spelling according to the hood. Either way the word is spelled, it means a member of a gang of criminals. I’ll also define “gang” and “criminal” for my own comparative questioning. “Gang” means a group of persons working or associated together for some criminal purpose. “Criminal” means a person guilty of a crime. But what is a crime? The definition of “crime” is an action or an instance of negligence that is legally prohibited.

Now, I defined these words because these are terms used by white America to identify the average black or Latin youth or adult who is uneducated, hangs in the street, and breaks the law, according to the media. Why does the media always depict black and latin people negatively, when there are white that do the same thing?

I’ve found out in my forty-two years of struggling in life that the United States as a country; with its laws, economy, and government, was made for white people! When I was born, the

process was started to deprogram me of my heritage. I wasn’t informed of my true ancestral history in the schools I attended. I’ve been lied to and misinformed about most of my African American ancestors’ accomplishments and contributions to America’s success and prosperity. European Americans don’t want African Americans to truly know of the scars and pains our people had to endure for over four hundred years.