I used to work in African Descended Nubians Publishing (for dummies, African American) and I had my book kiosk set up in a manner that the street novel genre was on one side facing the most popular entrance in the strip mall and on the other side were the "conscious" books facing the movie theatre side, the less active side of the mall. I noticed many teens would come to "hang" out and meet each other and perhaps get into some sort of wrong actions, so I would make it a point to speak to as many of them as possible by shouting out, "Hey you", I have something to show you..when you finish going after that "poom poom", come by and see me"!. I did that all the time. One day some young ladies dropped by, about the age of 14 to 16 and they all were jumping around inquisitively wanting to know if I had the latest Wahida Clark book (she is a sister in prison who has written such books as Every Thug Needs a Lady). I told them yes I had it more. I asked them to look at a book cover and tell me if they thought they were like the cover. The book was title "Booty Call" and it has a picture of a young lady no more than 14 or 15 with her chest almost exposed and a lollipop in her mouth with red lipstick on. You get the idea and I am sure quite a few people got the idea from the cover. All of them told me, "NO I am not like that". So I asked them, what were they like, they told me they were nice girls..So I asked them when they walked past young men, what did they think the guys were laughing at. They said, well, we think they like our clothes and us...So I asked each of them, what kind of clothing were they wearing when they did walk by many times. They said what we are wearing now. I noticed two of them had on short shorts and halter tops and the others were in very tight jeans one with cutoff shirt and the other one with her top tied up in the back with her belly showing. I told them, I have sons and I will let you know they are not laughing with you, its at you. They look at you as easy! They gasped and said How you mean? Just like that...I told them, lets stop some and ask them. When I stopped some and asked them, they solidified what I said and even stated if I had not tole them why I stopped them, they were not going to stop cause they thought the young ladies werer "hoochies". The young ladies were not too happy to hear that. I took them on the other side of my kiosk and showed them books on Willie Lynch and The Nile Civilization and showed them they came from royalty not easy. One of them said to me, this is not real, there were no slaves cause she never saw them "online". So I gave her the site I am giving to you all to view and reflect and told her to come back and see me when she did. I saw those young ladies again, but they were dressed much nicer and not "hoochie", like the young princesses and goddesses I knew they could be. This is true story and it starts with us, the adults, to make a way to teach our young people, before we lose them all to the lies and deceit that has locked many of own peers. Just some of my thoughts tonight. Peace and LoveMetruhttp://www.maafa.org/index.html
https://theblacklist.net/
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