A few weeks ago, America was taken aback by footage of an Omaha Nebraska toddler that was prompted by adults to curse and utter out vulgar phrases. The recordings made quite a stir as the Omaha police union posted the video footage on their website and called this the Thug Cycle.
Popular pundits tackled the story from all sides – from attacking the parents, to attacking the police association for making comments regarding the video. There’s one particular angle that I want to discuss and that’s the question of whether or not this video is being blown out of proportion and that events like this are isolated in this country.
Well, I’m here to say no. This isn't isolated. But that's not to say that you can't overcome what you've seen in your past. And I’m not going to speak about what I have heard about, but rather what I have experienced and how that shaped me into the man I am today. I’m a 35-year-old black man, who grew up in a rural South Carolina town, during the 80s and 90s.
When I was 6-years-old, I witnessed my next door neighbor savagely beating a woman out in broad day light with a wooden board. His porch was filled with spectators of both sexes that cheered him on after each painful strike. No one did anything to break it up – until an off duty police officer just happened to pass by and took the neighbor into custody.
I can remember when I was in middle school – a man, who lived right down the street from my parents hit his pregnant-teen daughter in the head with a glass plate. I still remember her cries as her family held a blood soaked towel to her head … hoping to staunch the bleeding. At the same time, he yelled out that this was his home and he runs it, and no one could tell him any different.
I recall a young couple that lived in front of my parents’ home, that would have bare knuckle fist fights in view of everyone at the end of every month. Often times the woman would be on the losing end.
Some of the things I saw and experienced as a child are unspeakable, but they were common place for my neighborhood back then. They were also the foundation for me to want something better for myself and my family.
I now have a wife, that I have never and will never lay a hand on, as well as a daughter now, and they are both far removed from the foolishness that I along with countless others in my neighborhood experienced.
Some weren’t as fortunate and went down a different path, but a strong mother, who saw to it that I graduated from college, and a father who stayed in the household, helped shape me into the man I am today.
So I close with this, children are often exposed to a whole lot more than they should be, but that isn't always an automatic death sentence. Some are able to become productive members of society and escape the "Thug Cycle." You can be successful.
Popular pundits tackled the story from all sides – from attacking the parents, to attacking the police association for making comments regarding the video. There’s one particular angle that I want to discuss and that’s the question of whether or not this video is being blown out of proportion and that events like this are isolated in this country.
Well, I’m here to say no. This isn't isolated. But that's not to say that you can't overcome what you've seen in your past. And I’m not going to speak about what I have heard about, but rather what I have experienced and how that shaped me into the man I am today. I’m a 35-year-old black man, who grew up in a rural South Carolina town, during the 80s and 90s.
When I was 6-years-old, I witnessed my next door neighbor savagely beating a woman out in broad day light with a wooden board. His porch was filled with spectators of both sexes that cheered him on after each painful strike. No one did anything to break it up – until an off duty police officer just happened to pass by and took the neighbor into custody.
I can remember when I was in middle school – a man, who lived right down the street from my parents hit his pregnant-teen daughter in the head with a glass plate. I still remember her cries as her family held a blood soaked towel to her head … hoping to staunch the bleeding. At the same time, he yelled out that this was his home and he runs it, and no one could tell him any different.
I recall a young couple that lived in front of my parents’ home, that would have bare knuckle fist fights in view of everyone at the end of every month. Often times the woman would be on the losing end.
Some of the things I saw and experienced as a child are unspeakable, but they were common place for my neighborhood back then. They were also the foundation for me to want something better for myself and my family.
I now have a wife, that I have never and will never lay a hand on, as well as a daughter now, and they are both far removed from the foolishness that I along with countless others in my neighborhood experienced.
Some weren’t as fortunate and went down a different path, but a strong mother, who saw to it that I graduated from college, and a father who stayed in the household, helped shape me into the man I am today.
So I close with this, children are often exposed to a whole lot more than they should be, but that isn't always an automatic death sentence. Some are able to become productive members of society and escape the "Thug Cycle." You can be successful.
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