R.E.I.T.

© 18 December 2006, Reginald L. Goodwin (The Griot Poet)

The ‘hood IS a government project!
What you don’t get is how the money flows:
First, you need hopelessness…
Started in master-slave Jazz procreation
From Po’ Charlie slicking and pimping
To the modern Step-n-fetch hip hop great grandchildren’s generation
Minstrel shows have to become “status quo”
And relegated to “Bankrupt Entertainment Television” and “U People’s Network”
You can’t have a major show like “Friends,” “Sex in the City” and “Seinfeld” (all praise to Michael Richards’ rant unveiling the hypocrisy!).

They wrote Alfre Woodward crazy on “Desperate Housewives” with a murderous 'normal' son and a crazy one in the basement!

Glorify the Pimp/Hustler/Drug Dealer as the urban entrepreneur one step from Sean Jean and FUBU.
Relegate Rhythm And Poetry – RAP – from revolutionary knowledge to the safe subjects (quoting Cornel West) of “highly sexed, violent, and ignorant.”

Voila: you have a self-hypnotized generation reciting the mantra of their destruction
Sisters “dropping-it-like-its-hot” and brothers jumping in as a “thug-for-life,” “keeping-it-real” with much drama and strife

Repeating the same lie I heard as a child that studying for my future was “acting white.”

This is a better operation than CONINTELPRO or the “Manchurian Candidate!”

Making prison male sexual subjugation – pants below the waist for easy penetration by the dominant, deviant cellblock rapist – a FASHION statement!

Repeal all the laws that put their kind on that side of the railroad track,
Let them attack suburbia and become in debt up to their eyeballs in net worth lack,
In an idolized Cliff and Claire lifestyle

Meanwhile: give your friend the cushy positions for which like “Brownie” they don’t have a horse’s assets qualifications!
But can afford those exclusive neighborhoods the sons and daughters of former slaves are salivating
So they can have the elation of a neighborhood entrance and dues sucking “lawn Gestapo” association

Make laws that subjugate them under the 13th amendment happily:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,

“Shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction…”

And, if their kids get addicted, THEY get therapy!
You need some sorcery to enslave them.
When they beat one – Angel Dust, create another – Crack Cocaine.
Systematically, meticulously so that individually you can’t be blamed for racism!

Exit tests that with single parents barely past 14 can’t get you or themselves ready for
Set you up for a certificate of completion versus a diploma.
So, the only positive thing you can do (besides HIV) is being cannon fodder for the military.

You are standing on “Acres of ‘Blood Diamonds’”.
Cause the industry is NAFTA/CAFTA/outsourced overseas!
The top 1% is cutting you off at your economic knees.
East Winston-Salem, East Austin, South Central and New Orleans, you are allowing modern DeBeers and Trump Tower Developers to steal the one true measure of wealth development!

For my suburban sisters and brothers:
As you live out “Huxtable fantasies,” you leave
An aged population more concerned about ‘the next life’ than owning property
It is a historic loss to our own duress.
What we call “gentrification,” they call “real estate investments!”