🔵 By Tyreall DuBoe. Photo by lauragrafie.
I am from Korean owned liquor stores on every street.
I am from Baptist Churches and Mortuaries on every corner.
I am from where mothers’ bury their children at an early age.
I am from graffiti sprawled across alley walls.
I am from where vagrants push grocery store baskets full of aluminum cans and glass bottles.
I am from where baseball caps represents more than a sports team.
I am from where single mothers’ rely on Section 8, WIC, SSI, food stamps, welfare and government assistance.
I am from where wearing the wrong colors can get you killed.
I am from drive-by shootings, curb serving, house licks, bank robberies, gang banging, recycling cans and bottles are a norm.
I am from West Coast Music, lowriders, Dickie Suits, flannel shirts, beach cruisers, mini-bikes and Converse All-Stars.
I am from where Tommy the Clown got his start.
I am from where Raymond Washington, and Stanley “Tookie” Williams established the CRIP’s.
I am from where Blacks and Browns kill each other because the color of their skin.
I am from where racial profiling, gang injunctions, mass incarceration and police brutality occurs.
I am from where the Dash, Metro, Red line and Blue line are normal transportation around the city.
I am from where individuals get harassed by C.R.A.S.H.
I am from where you hear gun shots and the ghetto bird every night.
I am from where ambulance sirens blare in the background.
I am from where the fatherless boy seeks love and guidance but finds it in gang banging.
I am from where airplanes fly over your home all day and all night.
I am from South Central Los Angeles.