Poverty
...he Lord Jesus no doubt, but she saw the difference between faith and hope. Faith was what she was supposed to expect God to take care of it all. Praying for hope and making changes for a better tomorrow was what she saw as an opportunity to do something about it. Why was it that all her people who looked like her lived in such despair? She didn’t have to be in prison to feel like she was already living in one. Her dark brown skin, coarse hair, big lips and butt, with a strong wide nose resembled not only her, but an entire culture that was seen as uneducated, criminals, dangerous. She thought of an excerpt in one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches, “When you treat someone with love, you will receive love in return. If you treat one as a criminal, you will receive the criminal.” Why was her neighborhood, her bureau, her project, her surroundings a depressing, poor, decayed environment? The infected smog and air pollution hung over the buildings and set the atmosphere for the scenery. Would she be happier with a more attractive environment? Questions ran through her mind and led her to take a break. She turned on the TV and she was more disturbed than before. There was never a break for her. The only Black people she saw on TV depicted what society thinks of Black culture, ghetto. Comedians, athletes, actresses, singers, rap artists, good dancers, entertainers rather than educators were the freak show she saw displayed on her television. A commercial break came up with a white Republican running as a candidate for the state. He spoke of improvement in inner-cities and sat in a classroom with minority children sitting around him. If his kids did drugs, would they receive rehabilitation treatment, or would they be placed in jail instead like her people? Was this candidate really going to change her world, or would he give the regular lip service a...