The Solutions to Gang
Murders
Sheikh
Donald Bakeer
Los
Angeles, CA
The Solutions to gang murders are simple
but not easy to apply. The cure for gang
banging is mass dosages of 2 vitamins, Vitamin A, and Vitamin L – ATTENTION and
LOVE. Mass doses of these
vitamins reduce the tendency for youth to choose violent solutions to problems
because adults are able intercede in those critical fat seconds with better
decisions, lifesaving alternatives . Of
course, a condition that has festered since Slavery and Beyond will not be
easily eradicated. First, you must make
a lifetime commitment, (the sick tradition has been going on for decades, maybe
even to pre-slavery tribal roots). Secondly, it must be properly analyzed, neutralized,
then eliminated in stages.
I have been working with gangs since 1979 as an English teacher, a Muslim
father, author, and filmmaker in South Central L.A. and Inglewood, my
neighborhood. I am pleased to say gang murders (which surpassed 1000 per year
in the bloody gang/drug wars of the
1980’s and ‘90’s) have subsided to pre-CRIP and BLOOD levels. The L.A. Black
gang wars are, predominantly, over.
In Los Angeles our Black gangs (CRIPS and BLOODS) were greatly
influenced by the local militant Black organizations in the 1960’s – US Organization,
L.A. Black Panther Party, and the Nation of Islam. The anti-establishment,
anti-White, unabashed belief in violence
as a primary solution philosophy appealed to pubescent wannabe heroes attending
Junior and Senior High Schools in the early 1970’s, now, Black, Bold, and
Proud.
But, these powerful organizations, all
of whom were avid readers and many who were intellectuals, left their
bastard children a legacy of hatred for and resistance to society, but did not
pass on their own positive tradition of literacy, i.e., the Black literature in the
evolving Black Revolutionary canon: How
to Eat to Live (parts 1 & 2); and, Message to the Black Man by
the sagacious Elijah Muhammad; the, Wretched of the Earth by Fanon; the Red
Book (for some); the
(2)
African writers, Diop, Soyinke, Achebe and, his prescient, Things
Fall Apart; the Black poets - the militant Langston Hughes, the genius and
General in the Art and Culture War, Amiri Baraka, Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti),
and his strident, Don’t Cry, SCREAM…,
Gwen Brook’s, “We Real Cool”; Eldridge Cleaver’s prison diatribe, Soul on
Ice;, and, The Spook that Sat by the Door, by Charles Greenlee, were
just a few of the must-attempt-to-reads in those days.
All of the Revolutionary organizations in the 1960’s were refining
philosophies through their study and writing.
Ironically, CRIPS and BLOODS admired Malcolm, Huey, Bunche, Geronimo, et
al, and, often dressed like them, at first, and the CRIP Constitution (1973) was
written by U.C.L.A.’s BSU in the revolutionary jargon i.e., Community Revolution In
Progress –CRIP- of the Black Panther Party).
But, the makeshift new tradition of the emerging gangs eschewed reading and
writing. The tradition of voluntary illiteracy
was so rooted in their culture that not one CRIP or BLOOD graduated from
college until the late 1990’s because it was considered “slippin’” to attend.
The average gangbanger in L.A. is
functionally illiterate, very sophisticated at hiding it, but reads at the 5th
or 6th grade level. I know because I taught them in high school
English classes for over 30 years in South Central L.A. I know from experience that there is a direct
correlation between illiteracy and violence.
The less literate children are, the
more likely they will be to perpetrate extreme violence. “Smart gangbanger” is
an oxymoron. If they become smart, they
stop gangbanging. By the Grace and
Mercy of Allah (SWA) we were able to bust a hole in that ignorant tradition,
and a critical mass of them are escaping into literacy since we created a new
literature that speaks to their specific needs.
In 1986 when I published my first novel, South Central
L.A. CRIPS (The Story of an L.A. Street Gang -1971 to 1986), it was the first
book written to the CRIPS. In fact, even though “crippin” was at least 16 years
old, it was the first book to even use the word CRIPS. I gave away dozens of
hardbacks, fortunately, it sold like hotcakes, too, and they
stole it out of every library in South
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Central. And, I could never recoup a full
set whenever we read it in class. But, these
were 10th and 11th grade gangsters who read at the 5th
and 6th grade levels and were slipping backward for lack of
practice. The “anti-literates” who did not have the will to refine their
reading skills, the ones who proudly called themselves “N*gg*s”, in class, not
knowing it signaled their failure to graduate and likely doomed them to jail or
death.
I was overjoyed. I had accomplished my
goal of writing a contemporary Huckleberry Finn for Black youth, a
doorway into reading, and gangsters went from getting caught slippin’ and
laughed at for reading a book to everybody reading/wanting to read/or, claiming
to have read the book South Central L.A. CRIPS... It was the late 1980’s
and the ubiquitous, ignorant tradition of illiteracy began to die. It was not the
“skill” but the “will” that was keeping them illiterate.
Gangsters were not so much illiterate as anti-literate. As we wrote more books
that compelled them, gang aesthetics changed, subtly. I discovered that literacy is critical for changing gang culture while
I used my classroom as a laboratory.
My techniques hit the front pages of the
L.A. Weekly, I became the gang expert for
then emerging CNN, and CRIPS and BLOODS began to get Hollywood’s attention,
prompting the Ripoff blockbuster, “COLORS”; then, John Singleton (whom I mentored when he was at
USC) wrote and directed the profound homegrown and carefully crafted classic,
“Boyz ‘N the Hood”(1991); followed by my own collaboration with Oliver Stone and Warner Bros. to produce the subliminal dawah movie, “SOUTH CENTRAL”(1992), adapted from my novel, South Central L.A. CRIPS…(1986),
and true to the Malcolm X paradigm that prescribed reading in prison to rescue
and revive the human mind and spirit.
(4)
The
Solution to Gang Murders
PART
II
In the 1990’s the rapper and former CRIP,
Ice T, (whom I met and mentored when he headlined a concert my BSU gave) wrote
the Ice Opinion for gangsters, then, Sanyinka Shakur (aka Monster Cody) (whom
I was corresponding with when he was at Pelican Bay Prison) wrote the rights of
passage bestseller of all in the genre, Monster, from his jail cell.
Tookie Williams (who with Raymond Washington were the O.G.’s of Crippin’)
wrote a series of children’s books and the rights of passage memoir, Blue
Rage, Black Redemption from his cell on Death Row.
Before he was executed Tookie was
considered and rejected twice for the Nobel Peace prize; they had no idea how
many lives he had contributed to saving by recanting illiteracy with words and
actions. I did a celebrity read-a-thon
at Morningside H.S. in Inglewood one Saturday, back in the day, with Tu Pac who recited, “I’ve Known Rivers”, by
Langston Hughes. He told me he loved my book and movie; I was aghast. But,Tu
Pac was well known as a reader, and, later on, wrote his own book, The Rose
that Grew Thru Concrete, that inspired many a gangster poet and galvanized
the poetry/rap explosion among lower and middleclass Black youth that began in
the 1990’s and continues, today.
There’s a whole lot more to it, like establishing
public school uniforms in elementary and middle schools to negate the whole
colors and gang insignia mania (I got that from teaching boys in Muhammad’s
University, 1972-74), and getting the whole village/city to buy-in to giving Attention to our “Oops babies” (“Oops, I forgot to take
my pill”, or, “Oops, I waited too late
to have an abortion”) - fornication’s children
doomed at birth by low expectations.
Many of the most afflicted cannot be
saved, so the first focus is on the “wannabe’s” in elementary and middle
schools, beginning with uniforms to take the burden of how to dress off them and to Neutralize gang attire. The singers, the rappers, the
writers with street cred, and all of the artists have to create and show them Love
by making “Peace Art” to validate nonviolence and subliminally change the
culture of their neglected anti-literate fans.
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It takes a movie or two, also, because
movies are wannabes’ novels; their values and behaviors are shaped by Hollywood
and the latest rap gurus. Chicago screenwriters have to write specific stories
about specific gangs, functional movies that hook them on literacy with the Malcolm X and SOUTH CENTRAL paradigm. Save them from illiteracy and perpetual
slavery.
Los Angeles, also, invested 10’s of millions of dollars to create
an anti-gang bureaucracy that utilized reformed gangsters and neighborhood
leaders to intercede in deadly conflicts, show both sides Love, counsel, inform
and refer them to people who could help them.
But, to succeed wannabe gangsters still
must read, copiously, and most of that specific literature must be written by
those who know well their dialect and culture (as well as Standard English). In
Chicago, the Commons and Kanyes, the R. Kellys and that ilk have to pen “We’re
All in the Same Game” type anthems and convert some of the great rappers from the
gangs and the ‘hoods to do the same. Only they can easily inspire and uplift
these unique bastard-victims of our 1960’s Black militant philosophy, and fatherly neglect.
Allah (SWA) has given us a great
challenge, but these are historic times, and out of great challenges come opportunities
for great victories, the crucible for developing great people. And, I can
guarantee you that when the wannabe’s minds are expanded, very few really want
to be gangsters when they know they can be successful in life, legitimately.
Remember, “with difficulty comes ease“. The Panacea is Work. Work Works!
(Donald
Bakeer’s latest book is a memoir titled, I, Too, Can Create Light (From
Negro to N*GG* to Muslim). The e-book is available, on most e-readers. He, also, authored the critically acclaimed
novel, …CRIPS…, and adapted it into the Warner Bros. classic film, “SOUTH
CENTRAL”. His books, DVD’s, and CD’s can
be purchased at DonaldBakeer.com He can
be reached at DBakeer107@att.net)
