Oldheads: how did y'all survive 1991???

Digital Omen

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Sophomore year of HS. I lived and went to school in a part of town that was your every day middle class 1st suburb outside the city limits (suburb starter pack: townhome, decent schools, minivan). It was sold as the American dream. We had "made it" out of the hood.
Come to find out the Crips and Bloods had arrived. Cube's "My Summer Vacation" breaks it all down.
Miami had its own homegrown gangs, who ran the streets in the late 80s. But by early 90s, Janet Reno had em locked up and on the run. The new generation was mostly wannabes, and that's where the blue and red came in.
A couple of real gangsters from LA would move and enroll in school. They them recruited the most promising of the wannabes and put em on missions
high school house parties went from harmless keggers to stabbings and gunplay. shyt started going left fast.
Had to watch who you spoke to and were seen with "yo you down with them?"
We're talking suburban teenagers in the early 90s. Nirvana was huge. So was NWA.
A couple of them gangbangers I knew from back then are still in the streets, running survival scams, in their mid-40s. shyt breaks my heart but at the same time we were all given the same choice and opportunity. Do for self, God.
 

Geek Nasty

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I was barely out of my diapers. All I remember is my dad telling me years later: “the late 80s/early 90s was one of the most shameful periods for our culture.” That’s why Clinton was able to push through the “three strike” policy with little resistance. :francis:
Don’t play like it was white politicians who pushed those laws on us. Black neighborhoods were the primary victims and just wanted the violence stopped.
 

Swirv

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As a kid, I just played with my friends, went to school, and my mom had me in a couple activities.

I was in boyscouts and the troop master used to come to the hood to pick me up. I learned skills (that I still use) and some good lessons in my troop.

It’s sad to read about how some of the troops were led by child molesters, abusing kids. I’m thankful that wasn’t my experience.

But living in violent conditions, a person needs to see other sides of life to know that that your neighborhood is only a sliver of this Earth.
 

Roger king

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This is why i laugh at those who fantasize about the old days too much, the 80s and 90s were reaked with violent crimes, drugs and AIDS epidemics, black folks also had fewer freedoms and rights. The life of the average black person growing up in this present day and their odds for success is incomparable to several decades, ago.
 
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