Bankhead

Bored and trying to kill time the other day, my best friend and I drove through Bankhead- an infamous slum in Atlanta that the government is now trying to polish up. They changed its name to Hollowell Parkway, and have started to build nice condominiums and town homes in the area. Even though the government is trying to fix it up and make it look nice- which seems to be a nice idea, you still can smell the scent of the grime...the blood...the drugs...the hood.

You may have heard T.I. talk about life in Bankhead- the home of the "trap", or you may have heard Shawty Lo speak on growing up in Bowen Homes- selling cocaine...

Many people may ride through Bankhead and become disgusted at what they see, maybe turn up their noses- but I couldn't do anything but remain humble as thoughts of grief and sorrow flooded my mind. As I drove past young women with large bellies holding a baby, I felt I could just reach my hand out and tell her everything will be okay; warn her about the boys out there that claim their man enough to lay down, buy too boyish to stay around; tell her that her body is a temple- too precious to just let anybody enter and vandalize...but would she even listen to me- a pretty boy from Alpharetta? My best friend threw deuces at the floods of young black men in white tees that walked the streets. He may have been just simply greeting them out of respect, but as I pointed two fingers at them, I was reminding them that there could be peace in the world- peace in their world- reminding them that they didn't have to shoot or stab somebody for stepping on their shoes, or looking at them funny. Do you think that’s too ridiculous to happen? Turn on the news, or go to a club in that area...
As I drove through Bowen Homes, and a school bus drove into the project housing, a child stuck his head out of the window and started to yell, scream, and beat the side of the bus as he stared at the car I rode in. A lot of people may look at him as a crazy monkey child, and send him to the doctor to get him a prescription for Ridlin asap, but I honestly think I would work my patience to the last line trying to discipline him and make him behave. You have to have patience with children these days. So many people are giving up on the children, which is why they are acting like how they do. What else can they do when all they see are people’s backs turned to them? How else will they get the attention they need?
As we drove further down the street, I saw a girl that caught my eye- a young lady that looked like she had a faint indication of hope in her eyes, and our eyes connected. Yet her hope was violently snatched from her as the thug behind her who saw me looking offered her to me for a price…
“Ay, you want sum a dat? Come holla at me, shawty!”
We drove on…

We were playing some music in the car...a little Pastor Troy, Shawty Lo, you know- Atlanta based rappers, and I paid attention to the expressions of the children we drove by. Their faces changed at they heard the beat of the track coming from the car, and like a God, the music seemed to call onto them and control them. They would immediately start to rap the words of the song, and I wondered if they were as smart in school as they were when they memorized the words to their favorite rap songs. This is why I don't believe in ADD...but that's another story.

Seeing all of this was shocking, because since leaving New York years ago at the age of thirteen, I haven’t had the chance to see such things- and pay attention. For years, I haven't been this close. I live in a house that some people call huge, and have been around houses that are ten times the size of mine. Our schools are full of white people, and we don’t even have a Zone precinct. There are many people in my area who think they're gangsters and try so hard to prove it, while people in New York and Bankhead have no choice but to live like that at times…Where I live now, we hire people to keep our lawns nice and neat, and we get fines if we have a strand of grass out of place. In the hood the landscapes are so unkempt…

As I said, seeing these things may disgust and disturb many, but I just look at it as a reminder of how hard my mother works to provide for her childen, and how hard I need to work to make sure her invesments were worth it...I need to make sure she receives as much as she put in. If not, I'd be a failure...

Peace & Blessings
Lu