When it comes to the streets of Oakland, anyone can be a victim. It'll devour anything in it's way, even those who aren't "prowling" the streets. When I was 15, I lost a sister to the streets. She died behind something very trivial; a male friend of her's was "hollering" at a girl that he'd known. Another guy who showed the very same interest in her caught wind of it, got mad, and proceeded to pick a fight. Long story short, he'd followed them as they drove away and shot up the car. She was shot once and was the only one who died. She wasn't in the streets. I guess one could say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As Black people we are often viewed in a very stereotypical fashion; more so Black males than females. With that negativity, we find ourselves becoming outraged and bitter, thus causing hatred towards our counterparts: "the White man". Although the system has been set up so that we rage war against one another, we as a community can defy that system by not yielding to its atrocities. How can a task like this be accomplished if we as a people don't pull together and create unity instead of division? The answer is this: it can't. Our respect will not come easy, it is something that must be fought for. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "...freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it much be demanded by the oppressed."
