Growing up I lived in project housing located in South Philadelphia with my mom and my four siblings. Back then my neighborhood consisted of senior citizens, children, single mothers, alcoholics, drug addicts, and drug dealers. By day everything was pretty much quiet, but by night we were awakened by the sound of gunshots as if it were our alarm clocks. It was the type of neighborhood that you didn’t feel safe to raise a family in and if you did have a family you feared for their lives because you didn’t know when your last day on earth was. My mom never really let us out of the house, she was one of those overprotective parents and she had every right to be. When we needed to go to the store we all went together because she feared that something would happen to us either walking to the store or if she left us home by ourselves so that she could go to the store. I went to a neighborhood school, where the majority of the kids in my community went, we had good teachers but they did the bare minimum when it came to teaching because it was so many students in one class and you had students who were educated and some who lacked education, so on a teacher it was kind of hard to teach to a class of children on different learning levels. In my household, my mom believed that education was the most important she wanted us to be more book-smart than street and she didn’t want any of her children to fall through the cracks so our extracurricular activities were outside of our neighborhood because they didn’t offer anything in our neighborhood, so my mom would pay for my siblings and I to be bussed to an afterschool program 30 minutes away from where we resided.
The norm for my community was to be a single parent in public housing, that was all I saw growing up, and to be honest some fell into that norm, but my mom wanted so much better for her children that she moved us out of the projects and became a homeowner, something that most of our neighbors didn’t respect because they were so used to paying little to nothing in rent so they didn’t want to better themselves because that may have been the end to them being eligible for housing. My socialization process consisted of:
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Internalization: I was brought up to make my education a priority because my mom felt that education could take us farther in life than it got her. See my mom was a high school dropout who received her GED then she went on and took advantage of a free program that offered to teach her a skill and from there she became a carpenter and she’s been in her rewarding career for twenty-something years. Even though I somewhat fell in my mom’s footsteps of being a teenage parent and a high school dropout who received a GED I went on to finish my education and here I am. This helps me now in life because I now know what’s important in life, what’s useful and what’s useless. I know that now having a college degree or degrees would get me very far in life I wasn’t lucky like my mom in a sense.
Roles: The role I played in my society was a small one, my mom only allowed us to associate with the neighbors who shared the same steps as us, so we didn’t socialize. When we wanted to play, we played amongst ourselves because my mom thought it was in our best interest not to socialize with the people in our neighborhood. After all, they were nothing but trouble. This helped me because I know who to let in my life and who to not let in I don’t allow certain individuals inside my life. After all, they may be a bad influence even though I’m not easily influenced.
Identity: Growing up I never fit into a specific group of people, I always connected with everyone, the nerds, the popular people, etc. The majority of the time I was friends with the older kids, it may have been because I was the second youngest and my older siblings were 8-11 years older than me, so I was mature for my age which attracted older people. So, I was a very social person who could pretty much get along with everyone. I think this helps me today because I don’t have to fit into a box that some people close themselves into to be what others want them to be. I feel that I can go anywhere in the world and still be accepted just because of the person I am.
Personality: I’m a firm believer in doing what’s right and believing that there’s some good in people. Growing up in my neighborhood, you had to have tough skin so I grew up with this tough exterior. I had the attitude that it was me against the world. So, I grew up a loner, even though I can get along with everyone I still chose to be a loner. So, I don’t have friends it’s pretty much my family and that’s it. I don’t think my neighborhood helps me because it’s kind of hard to allow people in and allow my guard to be down. It takes forever for me to open up to people.
I would say that my family was decent, even though we lived in public housing, my mom didn’t allow her children to fall through the cracks. She did what was right and she didn’t take advantage of the system she used it to better herself. My mom worked hard to get where she is today and she didn’t take no for an answer when it came to her getting her children out of the “ghetto” and just basically working to provide a life for herself and her children. You had so many parents who chose to let their children fall through the cracks and let them do whatever they wanted without guiding them in the right direction. Some of them didn’t work, because they didn’t want to lose their benefits. My mom was a superwoman because she didn’t go looking for handouts, she looked for steps to put her in the right direction and she kept going she hasn’t given up like some people from my childhood did and all of my mother’s children have either graduated college or in college.
Today we have so many people who have no respect or trust for the police. I believe it coincides with the Code of the Streets dates back twenty years but I also believe it goes back further than that especially when it comes to African Americans. Many years ago, we had Caucasian police attack African Americans just because of the color of their skin so I feel that growing up in that day and age they had a right to be angry towards the police and even today where we have so many police killing innocent individuals. We have so many people who are scared to go to the police and speak up due to the rising numbers of deaths due to people telling. They have Instagram and Facebook pages with people’s pictures up saying that they’re a snitch. I believe from then to now it has gotten worse because back in the day people fought with their hands and today you have people who choose to fight with fire.
Where I reside now in the last year there have been two attacks on the police, while I understand the whole black lives matter when a black person is killed by police, I don’t understand why cops are so trusted and welcomed in the community when its black on black crime and a mother or father wants answers. YES, we have been let down by the people who vowed to protect and serve but every life matters, and you just like the person who was shot by a cop how does it justify going out and shooting a cop that had nothing to do with it? Everyone's life matters just because I’m this shade and you’re that shade or I’m a cop and you’re a doctor doesn’t make your life more valuable than mine, We all need to realize that, but until then we will still be living in a world where you can’t even be safe in your own home.
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