'THE NEIGHBORHOOD VERSUS THE HOOD'

For as long as I can remember, the neighborhood represented a communal-based location where its members strived for productively as one body. There was nothing better than living in a neighborhood that protected you, supported you, and had your best interest. The neighborhood would flourish and made sure that success was obtained by every member in the community. The neighborhood was colorful, vibrant, and full of life.

You commonly found the people assisting each other ranging from matters as simple as borrowing some sugar or bread from your neighbor, or even help in keeping an eye on and raising each other's children. Kids could be found running up and down the street playing all kinds of made-up games. Local businesses were owned by those people who lived in that neighborhood. The elders would sit in their chairs on their porches reminiscing over old times, neighborhood watching, and just gossiping as old folks do.

Truth be told, these activities still exist today, but it comes with grave consequence because the neighborhood has been transformed into the Hood.

In the Hood, everyone is out for themselves. The bonds of loyalty, love, and preservation of our younger generation are not welcomed here. Those from the outside come into the Hood to compete for the poor man's dollar, only to drive off in their expensive cars to their suburban homes. The Hood represents a place where there is a constant struggle to either remain in its chaos or fight to get out of its dysfunction. The Hood has been a place of despair and void of hope.

Oddly enough, we praise the Hood to the fullest, while simultaneously, continue to tear it down and leave its people in unnecessary fear.

Why did we disassociate the neighbor from the Hood and made the terminologies an oxymoron? We can't keep screaming that we holding up the Hood and at the same time condemning anyone who wants to clean it up. The Hood has to be more than keeping score of who's up on the body count. The Hood has to be more than introducing our youth to drugs and violence. If we had any sense of what we say and what we mean, then we would remember that these same Hoods, streets, and cities that we representing are the same ones that once housed, tortured, and sold black slaves.

We need that throw-back neighborhood back. The one where I put my brother on to a legal job or teach him to become an entrepreneur and not teach him how to run a dope-block and kill people.

Maybe the Hood is just a mentality; the current enactment of displaying ignorance and self-destructive behavior. Whatever we think it means, we are sadly mistaken and out of touch with reality. The fact of the matter is that the Hood that we want cannot exist without love for our neighbors, and the neighbor would be nothing without his Hood (community) standing by his side.

JMV