It's a War Going on Outside

"Theres a war going on outside no man is safe from/ It don't matter if you 3 feet or 8-1" - Cam'ron

This morning as I was getting ready to head to work, I took a moment to look at a video of a young man getting detained by a plainclothes cop. He seemed to have been out a little after curfew, but he pled with the cop to explain to him why there was such aggression towards him for this. I watched the cop use his radio to call other cops and at one point pull his weapon. The only thing the guy had in his hand was his phone. Yes, the young man being apprehended was a Black man that was slightly taller than the cop, but the cop had all the size and authority. Several seconds later, at least eight cops surrounded, manhandled and handcuffed the gentleman while he begged for help. We’ve seen videos like this go so much worse, so there is a relief that being arrested was the only thing that happened. To hear the panic in this guy’s voice and listen to the bystanders asking what he’s done, I felt like I was there. Then I started thinking what I would do in this situation as a bystander or the person being apprehended. That feeling of anxiety, the instant flood of flashbacks of other videos of cops doing this other people, and the attempt to avoid cops sometimes are symptoms of the society some of us live in and signs of PTSD.

Recently, Jim Jones of the LEGENDARY hip hop group The Diplomats, got into a spat with an Iraq war veteran. What sparked this heated debate was Capo’s statement “being a rapper is more dangerous than being a soldier”. The Marine took offense to this statement and the argument ensued. Last week, Chicago spitter G Herbo dropped his PTSD project. This is after he started seeking therapy and being clinically diagnosed with the disorder the project is named after. On the cover art of the project he is holding a tattered American flag. Instead of 50 stars that represent the states, there are 50 faces in their place. What’s the significance? He said in a recent interview that those faces are people that have died in a 5-block radius of where he is from. Thinking about all three events led me to writing this post. I myself have served in the military for almost 17 years. I’ve deployed twice to Iraq, but I don’t consider what I did as a deployment. This is because of the branch I’m in and I know that my fellow Marines and soldiers deal with situations that are 100 times worse than what I dealt with. I will also give my utmost respect for the sacrifices that they have made and will continue to make. But, I somewhat agree with the sentiments from these rappers. Let me explain.

While I respect Jim Jones statement, I’m going to lean on G Herbo for my reasoning. This rhyme smith is from Chicago and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of the murder rate of that city. In 2019, there were 491 murders on the year which ended a decade that accumulated 5,200 deaths. And 2019 was the lowest it had been since 2015. I remember seeing it was big news that there were no deaths over a Chicago weekend. Chicago is just the biggest example. You have Compton, New Orleans, Baltimore, St. Louis and it goes on and on. Each of these places have bred rappers that document these types of atrocities in their songs. Some even give their cities names that correlate with wars or war-torn places, like Chiraq or Fayette-nam. Warriors from these streets give themselves ranks like lieutenant, captain or colonel and some earn stripes. War wounds are earned in these streets. They get to appropriate these glories, but the negative aspects are not accepted? Where military men are surveying the streets throughout the Middle East, going door to door or traveling in convoys, they are searching for adversaries that look the same and different from them. What I mean is the adversaries are aggressive residents of that country. Now, picture a teenage Black male roaming the streets of their respective neighborhood. He has to look out for the cops who seem to fear his Black skin. He has to look out for rivals that don’t understand that they don’t own the land they are representing. He’s nervous to leave his hometown because who knows who might see him as a mark when he steps outside of his comfort zone. So this person has to look out for the people that don’t look like him and are in a position of authority and people that look like him all in an area where he should consider himself safe and be on his Ps and Qs when he’s outside of this area. With all that, why can’t someone like that consider their lives being as dangerous as a war vet?

Here are my reasons why I agree with Jim Jones: choice and society. All military members had to do the same thing. We all had to raise our right hand and choose to serve this country. The people raised in these impoverished areas did not choose to live this way. They were born in it. A Marine who goes to war does become brothers with the fellow Marines that he or she defends with his or her life, but these kids are losing brothers, cousins, sisters and best friends they’ve known their whole lives. Once again, they didn’t choose this. Their socioeconomic status chose it for them. I don’t want to blame their environment on every decision they make in their lives, but I’m well aware that it is a very large contributing factor. They tell us to give back to our neighborhood, but that’s what Nipsey did and his life got taken. Pop Smoke got out of his hood for a little bit and a home invasion gone wrong took his life. XXXtentacion was just wanting to buy a car and he never got a chance to see his son be born. Those guys are just a few names to add to the countless others who fell victim to that type of violence inside the Land of the Free. If a war vet is one of the lucky ones to deploy and come home, his mental scars are what keeps him up at night. It would partially be up to him or her to go back into a war zone. So yes, war veterans, a street rapper, a Black kid or any person from a poverty-stricken neighborhood could consider themselves a vet or at least show signs of PTSD. But here’s the kicker: society has shown that they don’t care about either group of people. Look at all the homeless vets. Look at how some vets are treated by the VA. Look at how the money has dried up in these poor community across the nation. War veteran by going to war or war veteran by proxy, we all are fighting the same fight.

P.S. - Yes I know Cam'ron took that from Prodigy. R.I.P.