Slum Culture

          Just as a fair warning this post isn’t going to be much like my previous ones. I want to write about  something that has been bothering me for a long time and I prefer the relative anonymity of the internet as a forum. I would like to preface this by saying that I am in no way trying to make a far reaching statement about minorities, especially black people. I know that the group of people that I am about to talk about represents only a minority and it shouldn’t be seen as a representation of the whole.

           I live south of Baltimore and travel into the city on public transportation 5 times a week. The stuff I hear and see on the train disgusts me. I have a mind to record the statement I hear during the course of the week and to put them up here.

I want everyone to know what I see every day. I see women with black eyes and bruises all over their bodies, I see men exchanging knives, I children getting smacked and sworn at, I see men flip out their penis and start masturbating when they see a young attractive female walk by, I see children skipping school, I see drug deals, young girls dressed like street walkers, I see young men’s underwear, I see a complete lack of respect for older/ disabled people.

I want everyone to hear what I hear every day—people swearing at each other, people addressing each other as “bitch”, people haggling over the price of a prostitute, men talking about how their woman is such a dumb bitch that they are going to pop her in the face when they get home. I hear young children swearing at each other and at their parents. I hear people yelling degrading rap songs with offensive words in front of children. I hear about police arrests, robberies, and high school “bankings”.

Why though? Why do people live like this? How can people live like this? I am not for one second going to deny that these people were jaded by the system. They had the misfortune of being born poor. But at what point do you draw the line between Jaded by the system and Jaded by choice?

It seems second nature for these people to blame all their wrongs on something that someone else did. These aren’t the same people that walked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and fought for civil rights. What happened to them?

Why is there an urban culture that says this kind of stuff is acceptable? Why is it ok for a highschooler to tell an old lady to mind her own fucking business when she ridicules him for skipping school? Why is it ok for young girls to wear the equivalent of lingerie and roam the streets? Why isn’t anyone mad about this or saying anything about it? When did this become ok?

I think that there is something to be said for a parent that can put the fear of God into their child. I am not talking about being beaten or abused but a parent that actually does their job. Why aren’t parents making sure their daughters aren’t walking around with their ass and breasts hanging out of their clothes? Why aren’t parents making sure that their sons aren’t walking around with their ass and boxers exposed? Why aren’t parents making sure their kids go to school? Why aren’t parents disciplining their children? Aren’t these the type of things that are done out of love? Or is lack of love the problem?

Why are all these quintessential parenting obligations being forced upon the school system? To enable parents not to do their jobs? I really can’t think of another explanation. Why are the schools tasked with teaching about sex education and making sure children have enough to eat and making sure that depression is detected before little Johnny brings a shot gun to school and shoots up his classmates? WHY ISN’T THE SHOTGUN SECURED WITHIN LITTLE JOHNNY’S HOME?!

Some parents blame the schools for “being so shitty they caint even teach my kid to spell. They aint taught him to write good neither”. Let me remind you that these are the same schools that other minorities, living in slummy areas, go to. They are the first generation immigrant students, a lot of them with the added disadvantage of not being able to speak English well at first, and somehow they excel in the same “shitty school system.”

Despite that, society sees immigrant children, the ones that tried hard and follow the rules, as the problem. Not the kids that perpetually skip class and the parents that don’t give a damn. These ones, the ones that work hard at school and go home and work even harder because their parents actually care—they  are the problem. They are the ones that “steal jobs”. What jobs are they stealing exactly? The ones that little Johnny couldn’t qualify for because he never graduated?! Are we really punishing them for this?

Why would we want to give job preference to someone that just looked at an opportunity for success square in the eye and said “fuck you man”? That didn’t try? That would rather spend his days wandering the streets looking for girls that pull tricks on the side of the road? Why should you be rewarded for that kind of behavior with job preference?

Then there are the few people that abuse welfare that cause everyone that is rightfully deserving of it to suffer the consequences. If you get welfare, unemployment, food stamps, whatever… you should be 1. Thankful and 2. Trying to get back on your own feet.

It irritates me to no end to see restaurants specializing in blue crab and king crab with banners that say “FOOD STAMPS ACCEPTED HERE!” What the hell?! Why are these people eating luxury food items on government assistance? Why didn’t anyone think this was messed up? Why don’t people on government assistance feel bad for eating a delicacy when they aren’t footing the bill? What kind of person does this? But these people don’t seem to care. They aren’t thankful. They act like society owes this to them. Society owes them a king crab dinner because they are a minority or white trash, and therefore they are jaded by the system.

This culture sucks. It needs to be changed. People need to tell that man on the bus that swears into the phone that those words are offensive and he should be ashamed for saying them because small children can hear him. People need to stand up and tell that girl wearing booty shorts and a tube bra that she looks like a street walker and if she has any respect for herself or her safety she would put more clothes on.

People need to stop acting like it is ok that every other word in a song is a swear and that women are referred to as bitch and hoe. People need to recognize it for what it is—degradation. People need to stop watching/promoting music videos that degrade women in how they are treated and how they dress.

Parents need to change. They need to start knowing where there kids are and watching their language when their kids are listening. Parents need to recognize that their life changes once they have a child—they can’t act the same way they did before. They can’t dress like a street walker and stay out at night clubs until the early morning hours. The excuse “I am still young” is forfeited when you have a baby. Stop spending money on your hair and nails when your baby doesn’t have shoes on his feet. You aren’t the priority any more—the child is. If you aren’t ready to accept that reality, then don’t have kids. Parents need to reinforce the idea that schooling is important and to teach their children to respect their elders. Parents need to reinforce positive a self-esteem and personal dignity in their children so that they aren’t walking around in the middle of the night half naked looking for acceptance. Parents need to spend time with their children—period.

This culture needs to change. This is unacceptable. I refuse to believe that people in slums that live like this are completely a product of the system. There is definitely an element of choice. They choose not to stand up to a culture that encourages such awful behaviors. They choose to pretend like there is nothing wrong with how they act. They choose to put their kids in same cycle of poverty and self-destruction as they chose for themselves. In doing so, they shame themselves and should not be so surprised when society’s disapproval of them materializes.

I am not about to apologize for saying that I am disgusted with Slum culture. It makes me afraid for myself and for children. I really would like people to take responsibility for themselves and start to put an end to it.