Every Southerner should watch M.T.V’s “T.I.’s Road to Redemption” because the heading to prison rapper is making a sincere effort reach America’s youth. Before they take the wrong path, young people need to hear that “real talk” about choices, decisions and consequences from every angle: family, schools, churches, positive peers and reformed thugs.
When I was a kid, we called “real talk” the Barbershop talk. In the shop, a want-to-be goon walked past the retired gentlemen without speaking and sat down—trying to be hard. Of course, my friends and I would come in the places with “how are sir…good to see you…yes sir, I am trying to staying out of trouble…yes sir, I look like my father.” When the retired vets and pensioners started teaching that knowledge and wisdom, we listened intently and took copious mental notes.
“It’s not the government’s job to take care of these babies…get a good government job on the military base…before you marry a girl, get a look at the women on both sides of her family…a bullet doesn’t have a name on it…don’t buy a new Cadillac if you are renting an apartment…they want you in jail…get your lesson at the schoolhouse…gin makes you sin…some folks are like crabs in a barrel…grown men don’t wear baseball hats to the side…don’t break your parents’ hearts.”
Georgia’s T.I. put himself through some things and is about to serve federal time on gun charges. Tupac and Biggie told those rappers and ballplayers that they couldn’t be a multimillionaire and live in the same neighborhood; wearing 100K in jewelry to the sweatiest club is trouble waiting to happen and the baby mamma/child support drama is inexcusable. President Obama is pushing sensible people to encourage the youth because the cost of the judicial and corrections systems is taking money from education and taxpayers’ pockets.
The federal government should get T.I. to chronicle his incarnation as a continuation of his reality show because the young man has a way of speaking that Barbershop talk that is second to none. Most of those Barbershop talks from the last 80 years ended, “now you can do it but you can’t say you were never told.”
Another outstanding piece on T.V. was ABC story about Appalachia—Lord, have mercy. I got my 9-year-old niece to watch it with me and she came away with a better appreciate for her smooth life. Black folks don’t have a monopoly on struggling; some among us haven’t had a real rough patch yet, thank heaven.
A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains Part 1 of 6
O’Reilly on Appalachia
(This blog is fair and balanced…sometimes)
Project Logic Ga 
Leave a Reply