Thursday, April 17, 2014

"What does the future look like?"
"The future of Grand Rapids? When you talk about the future, you're talking about two or three different things. I can look at it from different perspectives. Grand Rapids as a whole is climbing, I feel like it's productive, like it's going to be the place to live. You look at it now, the inner-city is a part of downtown. things are building up, I feel it'll be prosperous for a lot of people... but for some, being black it's going to be hard. It's hard now, but it is going to be harder because there is a push. You've got this thing called gentrification. Whites moving in, blacks moving out. I mean we're talking about the future for our kids man, the inner-city kids. When you put more money into the prison system than you do into the Grand Rapids public schools, then you've got a problem. You're guaranteeing the future of prisons. So... it depends on which future you're talking about.
I just try to be a positive influence in the neighborhood so that the kids can see the lifestyle that I lead and where I came from and, you know, 'if I can do it you can do it' kinda thing. We need more black men to stand up and show our black kids how, so that our future can be brighter. So, I try to live an example."

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