Styler, whom I'd written about in my last entry, is an interesting person to talk with...
I've known him for about a year, and he is very knowledgeable about the so-called gang culture. I believe, as well, that he sees me, an older white man, as something of a father figure. Styler is in his late thirties, and he is black. He came to prison at the age of twenty-two.
He can be outspoken and blunt, with a tongue that can be as sharp as the razor blade he once carried with him just in case he had to defend himself, or slash someone to help even an old score. Like many young black men, Styler says making fast money is the only means of escaping a life of mediocrity. His father, a hard-working and honest man, labored eight to ten hours a day, five days a week. With this, he was able to make a decent living while supporting a wife and raising nine children to adulthood, including Styler.
But Styler craved adventure as well as the feeling of glamour that came with belonging to a gang. And it was this kind of false glamour that is so often portrayed in movies and on television, in books, and by an array of rap and hip-hop music artists whose songs about the "gangsta" lifestyle make joining a street gang, or in Styler's case starting one up, seem like the coolest thing to do.
Frankly, both prisons and graveyards are full of young men and women who thought this way, too. That being in a gang was a good thing, and a way of getting respect, power and money. But, as with Styler, it turned out to be an illusion, and a lie.
For Styler and his crew of criminal friends, controlling a busy intersection by setting up a drug spot at this location was considered by them to be a big thing. In retrospect, he regrets this now. Yet his mind seems to display a strange kind of mental defense mechanism, too, which I find disturbing. For he has somehow convinced himself that while gangbanging is wrong, today he has a new role of uniting the world's gang members in order to bring about positive change and world peace. Talk about self-deception!
Styler is basically a nice guy. I feel sorry for him, but at the same time, I am angry at the foolish lies he once believed in. And these are the same lies that lure young persons into gangs today. In my honest opinion, gangs are for losers. To me, they represent a culture of death, while openly displaying a false glamour that is the equivalent of fool's gold.
God, however, has a better plan for everyone. I believe this with all my heart.
D.B.
He can be outspoken and blunt, with a tongue that can be as sharp as the razor blade he once carried with him just in case he had to defend himself, or slash someone to help even an old score. Like many young black men, Styler says making fast money is the only means of escaping a life of mediocrity. His father, a hard-working and honest man, labored eight to ten hours a day, five days a week. With this, he was able to make a decent living while supporting a wife and raising nine children to adulthood, including Styler.
But Styler craved adventure as well as the feeling of glamour that came with belonging to a gang. And it was this kind of false glamour that is so often portrayed in movies and on television, in books, and by an array of rap and hip-hop music artists whose songs about the "gangsta" lifestyle make joining a street gang, or in Styler's case starting one up, seem like the coolest thing to do.
Frankly, both prisons and graveyards are full of young men and women who thought this way, too. That being in a gang was a good thing, and a way of getting respect, power and money. But, as with Styler, it turned out to be an illusion, and a lie.
For Styler and his crew of criminal friends, controlling a busy intersection by setting up a drug spot at this location was considered by them to be a big thing. In retrospect, he regrets this now. Yet his mind seems to display a strange kind of mental defense mechanism, too, which I find disturbing. For he has somehow convinced himself that while gangbanging is wrong, today he has a new role of uniting the world's gang members in order to bring about positive change and world peace. Talk about self-deception!
Styler is basically a nice guy. I feel sorry for him, but at the same time, I am angry at the foolish lies he once believed in. And these are the same lies that lure young persons into gangs today. In my honest opinion, gangs are for losers. To me, they represent a culture of death, while openly displaying a false glamour that is the equivalent of fool's gold.
God, however, has a better plan for everyone. I believe this with all my heart.
D.B.
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