Friday, July 23, 2010

Parable of Pull Yo Pants Up fada Prez and Yoself



Parable of Pull Yo Pants Up fada Prez and Yoself

Ideally, Plato Negro would like to cause a paradigm shift in youth culture. Using his hometown, Oakland, as a Model City, in the lingo of Mayor Ron Dellums, we want the youth of Oakland to serve as a model of radical youth behavior by pulling up their pants and their minds, and at the same time we want the City of Oakland to pull up its pants by rearranging its budget wherein presently 75% of the budget goes to police and the fire department. We want 75% to go for youth projects, including jobs, education and recreation, also to anger management and conflict resolution.
This would immediately decrease the need for police to consume such a large portion of City finances.

Just as America has done in Iraq to decrease violence by employing youth to secure their communities, Oakland can do the same, including upgrading education with relevant curriculum
and providing housing fit for human beings.

Since she is preparing to allow the growing of marijuana to increase her tax base, she must simultaneously decriminalize the selling of marijuana on the street, especially since we know persons selling drugs suffer an addiction to either use or selling, additionally they are most often mentally ill, thus dual diagnosed, suffering addiction and mental illness, equally in need of medication. We cannot permit one segment of the population to sell drugs (whites) and criminalize another section (blacks)--this is blatant racial discrimination.

Shall the police arrest a person who legally purchases marijuana at a club, then steps outside the door and sells it?

And why should not youth in the green revolution be allowed to grow marijuana in community gardens just as Oakland is in the process of allowing corporate growers to do?For sure, these corporate growers will be white!

At the very least, police should immediately stop arresting youth for selling marijuana. And all those incarcerated should be given a general amnesty.

This is all about pulling up the pants, but with dignity, honesty, justice and fairness. Adults cannot tell youth to do anything while adults themselves are living contradictions. As Amina Baraka said, "Youth cannot learn from our mistakes if we are still making them."

How can Oakland permit the growing and selling of marijuana by rich, white corporations but continue the criminalization of youth for selling and/or growing the same?

This is sufficient reason for youth to keep sagging their pants as a symbol of rebellion, in short, telling adults to kiss their ass!
--Marvin X
7/23/10

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Prez and Yoself
Essays on Obama Drama
Marvin X
Black Bird Press, 2010
48 pages
Donation $19.95

Order from the publisher:
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley CA 94702
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Also available at:
Academy of Da Corner
14th and Broadway
downtown Oakland

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