Reply ID: 36y3

"Niggas institutionalized in their living room couches instead of cots, only thing missing is prison food"... That's what I'm talking about! I can replace living rooms w/blocks or go even further and say their cubicles working for a wage that barely get the bills paid... We're socialized into roles and once that "role" is accepted? Doing anything more becomes a fantasy that's not attempted... As 4 the grown negros? I look at it this way: nature only ensures our physiological development but our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development are completely up to us! In that sense, manhood isn't guaranteed and is why we used to have to go thru manhood training. U look around and there's a lot of biological males who've attained the socially accepted age of manhood but they only masquerade as such. Boys make excuses 4 their circumstances, while men shape their circumstances in a manner that allows them to live the reality they seek. It's not about "what could've been" or "what should've been", because as long as they have life - men focus on what shall be!... Defeat lies in the loss of the ability to believe in self. It's a subtle death that leads to mediocrity being celebrated as an accomplishment; complacence in the face of a daily struggle 4 survival. And not only is it accepted but expected, because beneath the veneer of self-confidence is self-doubt and insecurity... There are no excuses - for any of us. I was a kid when captured and I didn't know the enormity of my actions or the fact that I acted out of self-hatred. In fact, if someone would've told me I hated myself, I probably would've proven it - by shooting them; all while saying they was tripping! But that doesn't absolve me of responsibility. I'm still charged w/ the task of identifying and correcting the problem and moving past it. There's people that had truly traumatic experiences that shaped who they became. And there's no doubt that our experiences shape us, but WE determine how they do so. No matter how bad things get there's always someone that's overcome more. I distinguish a difference between self-destructive conditioned responses and choices but they each speak 4 our ability to exercise control over our lives. It's always us, so no excuse will suffice. We're made in the image of the all powerful, blessed w/a will that is indomitable, and it's been ordained that we push... we push... and we push harder; until we're either dead, or victorious!