(blog.nj.com) He wants to improve this community along Newark’s Highland Avenue, but he’s fighting a trifling, anonymous group of folk who want their community to be buck wild and wide open.
“I don’t get it,” Lewis said. “I’ve given up on trying to understand it.”
The 34-year-old Wall Street security analyst moved to Newark two years ago from New York, thinking the city was on the move and could undergo change like Harlem and sections of Brooklyn where he has lived. He figured Newark was on the same pace, that he would be part of the renaissance by investing in a home. It just hasn’t gone the way he expected, especially on Highland. You’d think Lewis would be embraced for wanting a nice place to live, but instead he is considered a snitch for calling the cops about speeding cars and drug houses. They damn him if the city’s department of neighborhood services board up abandoned homes. Sweep the street, as he has done, and they think this newcomer is naive and crazy. He’s been frowned upon just for asking people to curb their dog.
“For that, I get flack,” he said. “I’m trying to change this area. I didn’t move out here to do this. I just want to have peace.”
In huge black letters, they spray painted his name and address last month on the side of an abandoned house, surrounding it with racial obscenities. There was the “N” word, then the curse that begins with the letter “F.” One sloganeer wrote “snitch rat jerk” on the same house. In June, “black dog go back home to Africa” was spray painted on the sidewalk with an arrow pointing to his house.
Newark police are investigating, but haven’t caught anyone yet. Flyers have been posted around the black and Latino neighborhood to make residents afraid of Lewis: He’s an informant, a prosecutor, a fraud. Don’t open your door if he knocks. In some cases, the fear campaign has worked. Residents said neighbors had their car windows smashed and were told such harassment would continue for anyone associating with Lewis.
“People don’t want to change,” said Nelson Abrew, a resident on the street. “They are used to things being the same way.” (more…)
Two things first~
My hat goes off to The Star-Ledger for doing this story. I have seen scenarios like this for years, but never have I actually seen it covered in a newspaper.
My hat also goes off to this brutha for at least trying to do something to improve that community.
While I completely hear this brutha when he says that he is trying to change that area, people have to want to change.
This is exactly why I just shake my head anytime I hear about the latest web-driven boycott to shut down certain shows, movies or channel because to the outraged, it portrays Blacks in a negative light. Getting a show off the air isn’t going to help Black people one bit. Sure, it may give YOU some relief that Mr. Charlie isn’t going to see our foolishness. But the truth is that A. Mr. Charlie already knows about our foolishness just as he is aware of the foolishness in his own community. B. The sad truth is that what you define as “foolishness” is entertainment to someone else. There are many people in the Black community who have an appetite for raunchy/violent/derogative videos, music and other forms of entertainment. Deal with it! Anybody can get a show canceled, but how many are willing to do the hard work to help people see that there is more to life than foolishness? You can’t give them that desire to improve themselves, but someone has to be willing to show them the alternative. It is easy to blame a bunch of White corporate executives for helping to produce Black foolishness on parade. But how many are willing to get with those Black “fools” and help them see that there is a better way? Even when they are not welcoming your “help” with open arms. Can you still love your own people even when they don’t want to change in the way you think they should change?
Still don’t understand? Here’s an example.
Before the internet, porn was something that was exclusively sold in an adult book store or behind the counter at your local 7-Eleven. Church groups would oftentimes stage protests in front of adult book stores hoping that it would be enough to shut down the establishment. Sometimes it did. Most of the time, it didn’t. When the internet came along, the porn industry grew despite all the attacks from the evangelical community. Why? Because very little was being done in the church to do the dirty work of helping people who were struggling with porn addiction.
It’s easy to focus on symbolic gestures. But that can never be a substitute for addressing the deeper issues. To do that oftentimes requires a lot of hard work, lots of rejection, lots of grief, humility–all the stuff that does not provide the euphoric feeling one may get after getting a show canceled.
This brutha is doing the grunt work for change. Not too many people are willing to do that.
It Takes WORK. Are You Willing To Do It?
by Duane on October 23rd, 2009 at 1:09 amTwo things first~
My hat goes off to The Star-Ledger for doing this story. I have seen scenarios like this for years, but never have I actually seen it covered in a newspaper.
My hat also goes off to this brutha for at least trying to do something to improve that community.
While I completely hear this brutha when he says that he is trying to change that area, people have to want to change.
This is exactly why I just shake my head anytime I hear about the latest web-driven boycott to shut down certain shows, movies or channel because to the outraged, it portrays Blacks in a negative light. Getting a show off the air isn’t going to help Black people one bit. Sure, it may give YOU some relief that Mr. Charlie isn’t going to see our foolishness. But the truth is that A. Mr. Charlie already knows about our foolishness just as he is aware of the foolishness in his own community. B. The sad truth is that what you define as “foolishness” is entertainment to someone else. There are many people in the Black community who have an appetite for raunchy/violent/derogative videos, music and other forms of entertainment. Deal with it! Anybody can get a show canceled, but how many are willing to do the hard work to help people see that there is more to life than foolishness? You can’t give them that desire to improve themselves, but someone has to be willing to show them the alternative. It is easy to blame a bunch of White corporate executives for helping to produce Black foolishness on parade. But how many are willing to get with those Black “fools” and help them see that there is a better way? Even when they are not welcoming your “help” with open arms. Can you still love your own people even when they don’t want to change in the way you think they should change?
Still don’t understand? Here’s an example.
Before the internet, porn was something that was exclusively sold in an adult book store or behind the counter at your local 7-Eleven. Church groups would oftentimes stage protests in front of adult book stores hoping that it would be enough to shut down the establishment. Sometimes it did. Most of the time, it didn’t. When the internet came along, the porn industry grew despite all the attacks from the evangelical community. Why? Because very little was being done in the church to do the dirty work of helping people who were struggling with porn addiction.
It’s easy to focus on symbolic gestures. But that can never be a substitute for addressing the deeper issues. To do that oftentimes requires a lot of hard work, lots of rejection, lots of grief, humility–all the stuff that does not provide the euphoric feeling one may get after getting a show canceled.
This brutha is doing the grunt work for change. Not too many people are willing to do that.