Dispatch From London # 4

My first week went by kind of fast. Classes are over by 12:30, and we got out early twice which is not too bad. That leaves a lot of time on our hands. But since our reading is doubled, half of the time is used for reading. We did get out this weekend, it was kind of fun. Besides getting lost and walking about 5 miles, and watching the sun come up as we tried to find our way back to the dorms. As we were walking, stomachs were growling as pondered why there were no Ihop's or Waffle House's in London? Can't lie, a brotha was feening for some grits with a whole lot of butter and some sugar on top.....oh with two fried eggs......There was some dude on the corner frying hot dogs on a grill, I am adventurous, just not that adventurous. I had to settle for some leftover lamb and fries. Why was dude giving me a hard time when I ordered the meal, I requested a side of fries, he was like we don't have fries, but I am looking at the picture menu, and the picture shows fries, so I am like dude, some fries playa, we don't have fries, then I remembered, they call fries "chips", dude, can a brotha get some chips........he knew what the heck I was talking about, just wanted to give a brotha a hard time.

Did I mention crossing the street aint no joke? There are no speed limits posted on the streets. It's like a crap shoot....

The hip hop culture is strong. Its amazing how the trends slowly make it out here. Sagging included, damn..

Songs that got folk hype in the club.....Soul4Real,Candy Rain, that song old as heck, but they got crunk off of it, then they played Brandy, My Best Friend, they got crunker, then the D.J. dropped Sleeping in My Bed, the remix by that Thong dude, and when Da Brat started rapping, all the London thuggers got hyped....It was something to see....Why is there always one real big overweight dude in the club? He was crunk, yelling boooyaka, boooyaka, every ten seconds? Why were folk rolling up? I guess its the same no matter where you are.

We were told there was not much gun violence in London, mostly knife related robberies. I met a mother here whose nineteen year old son was shot and killed about 3 weeks back in a mostly black neighborhood outside the city. She told me he was outside of a club when he was shot apparently for no reason. Some of the other youth I have spoken with indicated that there is a lot of random gun violence in the more predominately black areas. The mother went on to tell me that she is hoping to start a nonprofit organization to help get some of the kids exposed to another way of life. I guess the hood id the hood no matter where you are as well. But I think I want to blame the violence on hip hop. Truly, these rappers some of whom never lived in the hood are hyping the thug life mentality up, and our kids are buying into it. One of the guys stated, instead of talking to each other, we are taking each other out. So true.

Why is the murder rate in Memphis off the chain already? What 85-86? We really have to address this issue. It's ridiculous. I often talk about holding churches accountable for certain things as it relates to the black community. Seeing as it is that we have three churches on every four corners in Memphis, why can't the Church leadership, be proactive and take the streets back? Each street where a chuch sits, take that street and be visible, walk it, secure it? I am not advocating preachers and deacons walking the streets with guns, but lets organize, and get the members involved to dedicate a set time to shun on those who are on the streets fu#$%^ off. Let those on the block know, we are going to be visible, we are not going to let our street be a refuge for n@@$@s aint trying to do sh@#. As many churches as there are, a whole lot of streets could be rehabilitated in a short time. Simple community policing. The residents would surely be grateful. Oh, damn, I was dreaming again.

Who am I bumping these days? Meshell Ndegeocello. The sista is bad.