"Super Predator"

There's a term used in the Hip Hop Community "get those who got you," meaning look out for the people that's got your back.

The first time I heard the term super predator, it was used by Hillary Clinton referring to troubled youth. The term was as insensitive as calling a homeless person a bum, or a mentally challenged person retarded. This blog isn't about the Clintons, Joe Biden, or even the 1994 Crime Bill, but it is insanity to continue supporting people that have totally different interest than those of yours, and your community.

When talking to many older people, they waste no time speaking on the lack of discipline of today's youth, the way they dress and how much worse they are than they themselves were at that age. Some elders criticize younger people for their lack of work ethic, but from what I've come to understand is that they don't want to work the jobs that are available. The jobs that often pay less than a living wage, or don't seem to have a future are undesirable to them. I do recognize the element of youth that would prefer not to work for the things that they need and want, the group that prefers to steal from those who have labored and sacrificed for what they've attained. I don't discount that group from existing, but that's not an element that's not exclusive to a time period, race, or age. I never hear elders take responsibility for the youth that they deem to be so outrageous, as if they aren't partly responsible for what the youth have become.

I've recognized in the past few years that the generation that we currently produce are the best that we've seen so far. I say that because of their intellect, as well as the fearless nature they possess. The reason that many of them struggle with adapting to this society is because of the limitations that they have come to realize exist for them. As they grow and develop mentally, our society continues to take things away from them instead of creating more opportunities. How many school and social programs have been closed without providing anything in their place. We sit back and vote for people that figure out ways to make our neighborhoods last in prioritization of funding. We allow police to harm them, teachers to mis-educate them, politicians to criminalize them, and entertainers to tell fantastic stories that send them to criminal institutions while they send they're children to institutions of higher learning. At some point, and sooner rather than later, we must admit that as a community we've been failing, and as a result our children suffer the most "Super Predator."