Back in Da Hood

A federal grand jury in Richmond indicted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and three other men yesterday on charges related to their alleged operation of a dogfighting ring based at a property Vick owns in southeastern Virginia.

Vick, one of the NFL's most exciting players, was charged with competitive dogfighting and conducting the venture across state lines. The 19-page indictment alleged Vick was highly involved in the operation, alleging that he attended fights and paid off bets when his dogs lost. It said he also was involved in the executions of dogs that did not perform well.[1]

Many people will wonder how a man under contract to make 130 million dollars, not to mention millions more in endorsements, could be involved in something so cruel as what has been alleged in this case? A man who arguably is one of the best athletes in the NFL and a public icon in Atlanta is being indicted for such a heinous crime. Why is it that so many Black superstars continue to find themselves on the front pages accused of criminal activity, some of it imitating “gangster” behavior publically? Are Black stars different from White stars?

In order to get a better understanding of what is taking place; one must look into the history of many of these stars. It is in looking at their backgrounds that their behavior begins to not seem as bizarre as we would like to think. Many of us cannot understand how men who are making ungodly amounts of money are willing to throw it all away to ride around carrying guns, smoking pot, and assaulting women. Let me start by saying that the majority of athletes both Black and White are not criminals. Because we live in a celebrity driven society the media will continue to highlight the ones that they consider newsworthy. This may not be fair, but everyone who signs on for their 15 minutes are aware of the rules and consents to them. You can’t accept the money and the perks from having celebrity status, but then whine when they use it to sell newspapers, because you got caught doing something stupid. It may be something that Joe Sixpack may do all day long and nobody says anything, but that’s because he is not considered newsworthy. Again, it isn’t fair but its how the game is played.

Having read a number of articles concerning this particular case and others that are similar in recent weeks, I can’t help but notice that there are those who will defend a Black man no matter what he is accused of, convicted of, or confessed to doing. I understand the desire to do so, but at the same time it is this blind race defending that cheapens the times when there really is racial outrage. It is not a secret that Black stars are targeted by the media, law enforcement, and an angry white public. There are those who would like nothing better than to see the frailties of Black men and women exposed and make it stereotypical of all Blacks. Again it doesn’t make it right, it just makes it real. Every Black person in America is aware of these harsh facts at an early age and lives their lives accordingly. Having said that, it would be foolish of me to acknowledge that I am being profiled and still continue to do stupid behavior. When I smoked pot, if the police were behind me I wouldn’t pull out a joint and light it. I don’t care how many white boys were driving down the street doing it, I knew better.

We should stop confusing how things should be, with how things are. Sure in a perfect world we would all be judged equally and based on our character and not our color, but we don’t live in that world. We should be able to condemn the behavior of criminals and deviants no matter what their race. Why does it have to be an either/or scenario. Why can‘t we be able to acknowledge that there is prejudice and that we have some criminals worthy of punishment.

Black stars are different from many of their white counterparts. Most black stars come from poor, single mother households. This is not an indictment against being poor or single mothers, it is merely a fact. They grow up in bad neighborhoods and are surrounded by the “ghetto” lifestyle, these are there realities. Poor people live by different rules. The things that people value changes as their economic status changes, but the rules are much harder to change. Because so many of the Black stars grew up poor and most were not just in situational poverty, but generational poverty the rules they live by are still the same no matter what their economic circumstances. The difference in situational poverty and generational poverty is that when one has situational poverty, it occurs due to some unforeseen circumstance, a medical catastrophe or a layoff. The family was making ends meet until the incident occurred and usually given a change in economic circumstances the family regains some semblance of their previous life. Generational poverty is when the family has been poor for multiple generations; this occurs a lot with single teenage mothers, coming from single teenage mothers. My grandmother lived in the projects, my mother lived in the projects, and I live in the projects. For these stars, no matter how much success they receive or how much money they make, in their minds they are always “back in da hood”, keeping it real. This is why they exhibit the same behavior as others who are still living in the ghetto. You have stars that are making lots of money, dealing drugs, not because they need the money but because this is what we do in the hood.

You add to this poverty mix, the star worship culture that we surround them with and before long they think they can do no wrong. Having been a part of the athlete worship environment I know firsthand how we coddle our star athletes from a very early age, we give them a false sense of the world. They can begin to believe that they are above the law. This attitude is dangerous for any black man no matter what his status is.

I have read that because of white people’s unhealthy love of animals and animal rights that Michael Vick is being unfairly treated. I admit that the calls for the death penalty are a bit ridiculous. I am not an animal fanatic. I have had dogs and I like dogs, but I don’t put animals in the same category as people. As much as sometimes I despise people, I will unfortunately always chose a human life over an animal. What Michael Vick is accused of is heinous. I have never found pleasure in watching animals fighting each other, it just isn’t my thing. But what troubles me more is the treatment of the animals after they fought or during the training process. It is cruel to hang, drown, or beat a dog to death, I’m sorry regardless of your feelings about animals and animal rights this is a no-brainer. I pray that these accusations are false, but if they prove to be true then Mr. Vick will surely be thrown to the dogs…

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701393.html

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The Hidden Rules?

Have you ever noticed how we look at each other and based on our clothes, our language, and our body language we make decisions about people. I have people do it to me all the time and it is not based entirely on my being black. I dress a certain way, I speak a certain way and people make assumptions about me. If they take the time to know me and I give them the opportunity to know me, many times they are surprised to know who I really am. People assume that I will identify with their thoughts and ideas based solely on what they perceive about me through those outward manifestations.

Did you know that we all have hidden rules that we abide by? Oh, don’t look for them because they are never written down, but everyone in our sphere of contact knows them. Those who are not in our sphere do not know them. And this is how we tell who we can share and bond with and who we can’t and it doesn’t matter what color they are because these rules are deeper than color. Poor people bond together usually no matter what color they are because they know “the rules”, just as rich people bond together regardless of color because they know “the rules”. We base many of our assumptions about people we encounter everyday based on these unwritten rules.

So just what are these rules and who created them. The thing about these rules is that because they are unwritten none really knows where they came from, but they are taught to every generation. This is why you see young white men in ghetto situations taking on the characteristics of the dominant culture. Their speech, dress, and attitudes toward relationships change. They learn “the rules” are they are ostracized or physically harmed. In, the same way those young black men that are raised in affluent situations take on the characteristics of the dominant culture. Their speech, dress, and attitudes change. Hence, the infamous, he is so articulate. Both learn and imitate the values of the group they are exposed to. We have seen cases of both in all of our daily lives and sometimes it makes us just shake our heads in wonder.

“One of the key resources for success in school and at work is an understanding of the hidden rules. Hidden rules are the unspoken clues that individuals use to indicate membership in a group. The chart on hidden rules (see p. 5) provides details, but generally, in middle class, work and achievement tend to be the driving forces in decision-making. In wealth, the driving forces are the political, social, and financial connections. In generational poverty, the driving forces are survival, entertainment, and relationships. That is why you will have a student whose Halloween costume cost $30 but the textbook bill is not paid. Relationships and entertainment are more important than achievement.”[1]

Ruby Payne is an educator and lecturer; she has done extensive work in the field of these hidden rules and how they affect our interaction with the world, our successes, and our failures. She has made a list of some of the more common hidden rules that govern us not based on race, but based on class. I have always been a firm believer that race and class clashed and became inextricably connected in America through the slavery experience. Prior to the slave trade in America slavery was never for in perpetuity, all slavery was temporary. You were a slave for awhile and then you became free when your time was up. That all changed and with it race became more important than class. Now we cannot see one for the other and it is clouding our ability to move past the one to work on the other.

Payne’s journey into class consciousness began more than 30 years ago, when she met Frank, the man who would become her husband. Ruby was raised in a middle-class Mennonite family in Ohio, while Frank grew up in extreme poverty in Goshen, Ind. As Ruby began to spend time in Frank’s impoverished neighborhood, she realized that she didn’t understand the first thing about the lives of the people who lived there — and they didn’t get her, either. Frank’s friends were appalled that Ruby didn’t know how to defend herself in a fight; Ruby was stunned that her neighbors would regularly get paid on Friday and, after a weekend of carousing, be broke by Monday.

As Payne studied her new surroundings, she came to appreciate more subtle nuances of class division. She realized that her husband’s family’s poverty was what she would later come to call “situational”: they had been middle class until Frank’s father died when Frank was 6, and only then had they slipped down to the economy’s bottom rung. Most of their neighbors, by contrast, were in “generational poverty,” meaning their families had been poor for as long as anyone could remember. Each group, she discovered, had its own distinct set of beliefs and customs.

Payne believes that teachers can’t help their poor students unless they first understand them, and that means understanding the hidden rules of poverty. The second step, Payne says, is to teach poor students explicitly about the hidden rules of the middle class. She emphasizes that the goal should not be to change students’ behavior outside of school: you don’t teach your students never to fight if fighting is an important survival skill in the housing project where they live. But you do tell them that in order to succeed at school or later on in a white-collar job, they need to master certain skills: how to speak in “formal register,” how to restrain themselves from physical retaliation, how to keep a schedule, how to exist in what Payne calls the “abstract world of paper.”[2]

Ms. Payne teaches that it is unfair to hold others to these hidden rules that they are not familiar with. We assume because we were raised with these hidden rules that everyone else has been taught them as well and we become shocked or disappointed when others do not abide by them. And in fact we all have been raised with these hidden rules, it’s just that different groups have different rules. And rarely in the majority culture is it necessary to know the rules of the other groups. These rules she uses of course are based on lots of people and are not laws, they are just rules. They are some people whom they will not apply to. But for the most part they go a long way in explaining behavior and motivations. Many whites can never understand how seemingly successful people, both black and white can sabotage themselves for what appears to be no reason. We have a saying in the “hood”, “You can take someone out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of someone.”

Truth be told, these people are still being directed by their hidden rules. Unless these rules are replaced with new rules they will continue to control an individual’s life and choices. Just because I am now successful doesn’t mean I identify with other successful people. This is why whites discriminate between “old” money and “new” money. Old money has had generations to get use to having money; new money has not become comfortable with having money. Lottery winners are a prime example of those who are not accustomed to having money.

While I found a lot of her concepts valid, I don’t think Ms. Payne recognized or gave enough emphasis to the racial component of these rules. We have cultural rules as well and sometimes those can cause misunderstandings. Overall, I think that her ideas are valuable for educators and those who interact with people in another class and to help create an atmosphere of understanding and a bridge to communication.

I think that we here in “Blogoworld” suffer from these same symptoms. We come here and share ideas and think we also share “rules” and when we realize we don’t it is sometimes difficult to accept that others may still be sympathetic but in their own way, in a way that their rules allow or expresses. Many here are shocked when expressions of color or race are depicted and it makes them uncomfortable, because in their rules we just don’t talk about those things. We are color-blind, well that is not accurate and prevents meaningful dialog. I guarantee you if you are in an urban setting and 2-3 hip hop boys come your way on a dark street you will begin to notice color very quickly. If we are to come together and overcome the myriad of issues that confront us as a nation we must take the time and effort to know one another and not assume we know each other, but actually talk, discuss, argue, debate and not be fearful of the consequences. We must each one of us search our own consciences, fears, and prejudices. I can‘t get help if I can’t admit there is a problem.

There will always be those who can never overcome the stigma of racial superior thinking and that is their loss, but for those of us who are genuinely serious about addressing race in America, we must begin the dialog and not just here in Blogoworld, but in our homes, local communities and states. We should engage each other in personal ways, spending time with one another. This is no easy task, but it is one that some of us must try. It is in our “rules” to try and keep trying.

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/magazine/10payne-t.html?em&ex=1181793600&en=f7b3f9766a0e0792&ei=5087%0A

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/magazine/10payne-t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=f7b3f9766a0e0792&ex=1181793600

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