hip-hop
P • 68
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06 • 14 • 2011
Are you white? Are you Caucasian? Are you a god damn cracker? However you want to phrase it, I’m asking if are you of European dissent? I am. This fact alone gives me a huge advantage living in the country I live in. Which also happens to be arguably the most powerful country in the world at the moment. Both in terms of economics, political pull and military agendas.
Why do I bring this up? Well I have found that when I go into poor areas that are primary black, you know the city dwellings where are the white people ran away from years ago, the fight or flight activity in my brain goes wild. I automatically feel out of place and rather fearful. Do I want to feel this way? Of course not.
And yes let me just get this stupid spiel out of the way because you knew it was coming: I don’t consider myself to be “racist” or a bigot or any of those labels that we associate with someone who is a close minded ignorant asshole. I’m not going to tell you how many “black” friends I have because I’m not trying to prove something to you (can you get any more lame by the way? I just want to punch white people in the face when they say that trying to prove their un-racist worth). But here I am admitting that my brain tells me to get scared when I go in to what people commonly refer to as the “ghetto”.
But I’m here to also tell you that I have a happy little moral to this story. I have found that when I am actually able to push these negative thoughts to the side, I wind up much happier.
Case in point? This picture. When I see the people in these areas while I take these pictures (at night) without acting like a scared little white boy, they tend to warm up to me. The more I unquestionably treat everyone there with the kind of respect of a human being that I would expect to be treated, the more accepted I seem to be in return.
But most prominently, the less fearful I genuinely am, the less hostile they are to me. The key word here being “genuinely”. Because you can’t fake this shit. You have to actually mean it. This isn’t a fucking Hollywood movie, it’s the real deal. The opposite of love is fear, not hate. No truer words have ever been said.
And if you think about this whole concept, it makes perfect sense. Think about you pimp photo viewer whoever you are. Think about if someone came to you and was a scared little pussy coming with all kinds of preconceived notions of who you are and completely judging you right off the bat before they even spoke a word to you. Would you dislike them? Would you automatically want to fuck with them? Possibly to just get them the fuck out of your face? Who wants to be around someone like that anyhow? Not me.
The shot at hand? One of the most notoriously “bad” locations of the entire bay area, West Oakland. There were parties, music blaring, people hanging out, and there you had Mr. Photo Man taking pictures because I LOVED this street corner. Something about that old restored car under that street lamp with that mural made for an awesome shot. Fedora included.
Posted by pimpdisclosure on 2011-06-14 17:51:35
Tagged: , pimp , pimpexposure , pimpdisclosure , oakland , ghetto , west oakland , the mural was a dude who died back in 2009 , there is art and murals ALL OVER west Oakland. It’s actually a really interesting place to drive around and check out , had my kid waiting in the car barely out of the view of the shot to the left , I love my body language, i pulled this shot off in one take , dusk , night , urban , in case you didn’t know, I got my braces off. , the pimp chronicles , part 68
