Sunday, September 13, 2009

Why How To Be Rich, Nigga is called that?

I hear this question all the time especially when people hear me speak. Yes, Gerard Spinks is highly educated and a business owner. Yes, I was raised in the hood with my moms and no pops. Yes we were poor. Yes, I was on food stamps and welfare. Yes, this pertains to black famous folks. I got a call one day from the national sorority AKA after one of their leaders read my book. I answered the phone directly and she couldn’t believe I was the author. She said she figured it was some hood related ignorant cat that wrote a book and didn’t know anything. Here’s why the book has the word nigga in it.

My boy runs Midnight Basketball in Pittsburg, California. One day, he asked me to start speaking to the at risk youth who came to play basketball at the midnight basketball program. All of these kids are black kids from very challenging economic backgrounds. I said no question I will speak to these kids and try to steer them away from the streets and all the things that pull our young black youth to the streets. Now, let me tell you a little something about black youth in case you are in a bubble and have never been around young black youth from the hood. Niggas in the hood don’t respect nobody that they can’t relate to. If you sound proper and talk highly educated, no one respects you. Period. I don’t care what argument you make. It’s the truth and I deal in the trenches with prisoners, homeless, and the down trodden. When you start to deal at my level, hit me off and I’ll shout you out, nigga.

For those people who have a hard time with this, I know you’ve never ever been near or around the hood. So, anyway, you can see me all over the internet and how I speak if you look here

Adventures of The Underground Millionaire, Gerard Spinks

. When I stood up in front of the kids before the basketball game to speak to them, I could tell no one could relate. This is basically like talking to prisoners and the same mentality. I lost them immediately trying to talk to them business style and Harvard educated style. I tried it three times and it didn’t work.

I said fuck it. I’m trying another angle. Around the 4th or 5th speaking engagement, I decided to blend in to the crowd to get them to listen to me. I turned on some hard core Snoop Dog “Pump Pump” song and got it crackin. I spoke their language. I started talking about food stamps, general assistance, getting a drivers license, and getting a bank account. Simple shit that people could relate to. That niggas could relate to. And change started to happen right away because now they respected me and they felt I was at their level yet educated. Once I got over the initial barrier to resistance from the kids, they were all ears and truly listened to the message of inspiration that laces my books and movement.

So, this movement is for niggas only. I don’t care what educated cat comes and reads this and wants to dump the word down the drain. Niggas ain’t goin’ nowhere. White people will not stop calling us niggers behind our back because that’s how some of them truly think. Niggas and niggers are two separate things despite what some people say. This is for all my Cali niggas. All my Newark, NJ niggas. All my SWATS niggas. All my Harlem, Brooklyn, and Bronx niggas. This is for niggas. I’ll dive into what my definition is of a nigga in another post. Peace!

[Via http://undagroundmilli.wordpress.com]

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