Roger Porter
April 4, 2011
It’s a gorgeous day today. I realized that as I was driving from block to block on my way back from work. I saw lots of people standing outside and I saw children spraying one another with a water hose in someone’s front lawn— it’s not yet hot enough for people to begin cracking open the fire hydrants but I’m sure that will be coming in a few months. As I continued down the boulevard I saw a drug addicted prostitute yelling at another woman who drank alcohol out of a brown paper bag. I have no idea what they were arguing about but as I watched them while stopped at a red light I thought to myself; “I really love my hood.”
Now that’s not to say that I love my own oppression or I love to see ignorance manifest itself in daily life (I definitely felt sad that those two women had lost their way). But it is to say that I love my people. I like to be around good humble folks who aren’t afraid to show their joy or express their pain. I like those hot sunny days when everybody seems to be outside as if Keyshia Cole was shooting a video for her new single.
I like the openness. I like to see a mother doing her daughter’s hair on the front porch while scrawny little boys have a water balloon fight with their shirts off in the middle of the street. I like the carefree attitude that enables a group of young ladies to dance in the middle of the sidewalk when a car passes by slappin their favorite song.
On a warm spring day the hood transcends all statistics. The hood is alive, the hood is vibrant, and the hood is well. It is on these days especially, that I love my hood.
ghettosun 