What is war? What do you see when you think of war? Philadelphia is a city that has been under the influence of war for decades now.  It’s not an ordinary war such as  blacks against whites, nor criminals against the government, it’s the citizens of Philadelphia versus the citizens of Philadelphia. Violence, neglect, and pain is the outcome of it all as the city battles itself. The city has been prayed for by many of people, the government has been act to be more strict, miracles has been wished upon, all to stop the war. No one really understands the war of the city of Brotherly Love.

The annual average  of homicides for the past decade in Philadelphia is 283. This means at least over two hundred people have been killed per year since 2006. These numbers consist of people of all races being murdered by people of all races. Many and most of these murders were committed by Philadelphians on Philadelphians. Moreover, this war has carried on for more than 10 years however, families, friends, and loved ones have all been victims to the war within the city. It’s not just violence that carries this war on either. The School District keeps taking money away from the budget because they believe students don’t want to learn. However, this belief is contradicting because it counts out for those who really do want to learn. It takes away many opportunities for all of students in total. Athletics, Lunch/Breakfast, and of course Education are the 3 major factors when it comes to school. If the School District of Philadelphia keep taking away money that they’re supposed to spend on these 3 things for the school and putting it else where, how will the schools be successful? Science Leadership Academy is one of the most successful public schools in Philadelphia and it’s location allows the students to be exposed to many different things. However, the school doesn’t have or own any location for any of its sports teams. Now, why would one of the best high schools in Philadelphia not have at least 1 facility for at least 1 of its sports team you may ask. It’s because the School District of Philadelphia is failing and the more it fails, the more students began to take the wrong path. With that happening, the more the war increases.

Another major piece of the war is the tension between the government, mainly the law enforcers, and the citizens of Philadelphia. In the picture above, it is an image of a dark figure (preferable black) shooting and murdering a cop (preferable white) inside of Philadelphia police car. Why? What may have caused a man to commit such a crime? Now in the specific example it is a black male, however this not the scenario for this case. Whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc. have all been engaged in this fight with the police of Philadelphia. The police of Philadelphia have been historically known for their overly authorized activity. There are records on records of cases where police have violated the rights of citizens of Philadelphia. However, due to their position within the city, the cases are normally won by the police and the result of all of this is just more war.

Now, with all this war going, how do the citizens of Philadelphia continue to live within it? Citizens born and raised within the city of Philadelphia have so much pride for the city of Brotherly Love that they don’t see the war, as a war. It brings you back to the question of what is war? Statistically, war is believed as “love for ones nation/home”. The people of the place that is going at war will never really see the negativity of the war due to their love for their home. Kevin Cook is 25 year old photographer who one day woke in the middle of the night to gunshots outside of his home in North Philadelphia. The next morning the family of murdered victim were grieving at the corner of Kevin’s street and Kevin decided to take photos to promote the sympathy for the family. During his new interview Kevin talked about how the violence in Philadelphia needs to come to an end but he then followed up on with those statements on how much beauty he sees within Philadelphia, regardless of the whole reason he was given an interview. I’m not saying the pride of the citizens of Philadelphia is bad but, the pride holds majority, not all, of the citizens to make an effort to stop the war going on. Our government is democratic, so if we can’t get the people to be against the war, it’ll just get worst.

The people of Philadelphia has endured so much of this war. However, the effort of the people to prevent the war has been very weak due to many different reasons. The war causes a lot of the issues that goes on in the city today and it’s getting to the point where it is becoming unstoppable.

Zaeem Wallace-Parker

11/23/15

Water Stream

English 3

Advanced Essay #2

In my society, young black men my age are becoming more and more violent and criminal that it causes all young men in my society to be stereotyped. I was one of the young men leading into the violent and criminal path. Smoking, fighting and being disrespectful were some of the things I began to do. However, I moved to Georgia and lived there for 3 ½ years and I’ve changed my ways. Although I’ve changed, the other young men in my society haven’t. Therefore, it causes the young men headed in a good path to be stereotyped as a defiant and criminal teens.

One night this summer, I came in the house and the smell of baked fish rushed into my nostrils. I dropped my gym bag and made my way straight to the kitchen. My mom was in the kitchen preparing dinner how she normally does. “ What you cooking mom?” I asked, and without answering my question she quickly stepped in front of my face and said “Were you smoking?”. I rapidly responded no because I didn’t understand what would have made her ask me that question. “So why your eyes red?” she asked. At this point it became offensive because I always hear people say, your eyes are low, your eyes are chinky, or your eyes are red. “Mom I wasn’t smoking” I answered aggressively. She ended up backing off and returned to cooking so, I figured she decided to leave the situation alone. Little did I  know I was wrong. 20-30 minutes later, my uncle came to my house. When he came in he said “ Damn what’s that bump on your face… Let me see”. Now I’m not a child, I know he wanted to look into my eyes and see if I was high, I knew if I backed down it would have seem like I was lying about smoking. So I brought my face close to his eyes and let him stare deep into my eyes. He was staring so hard, it felt like he was trying to see into my soul. He stared into my eyes for a good 10 seconds and then said “ that bump is big”. I played along with his schemes and said “ yeah it just got there like 2 days ago.” Then, he turned away from me and went into my mom’s room and shut the door. I could hear them whispering but, I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. Stuff like this just shows the issue within my society. That’s what most males of my culture and age is doing in my society therefore, I was justified and seen as one of them because my eyes were red.

My mom should know me well enough to know that I would never go back to the life I used to live, the life that the boys my age in my society are living. I’m an athlete now and I actually want to get somewhere with the sport I play. Living the life my society portrays will only hold me back from my dream and not only me but the other young men in my society that have dreams too. Absolutely all my friends, not 1 person singled out, smokes and do dumb (illegal) stuff. But not only my friends but my family too also do the same stuff. My cousins that are around my age are either in juvie, on their way to juvie, or occupied with their child. No matter where I go and who I’m with I always feel like I am the oldest and the most responsible. Even when I am around grown men that watched me grow up as a child. These grown men are not my uncles or cousins, they are just grown men that live in my neighborhood. When I’m around them, I still feel like I’m the oldest and the most responsible because the contribute to the stereotype holding down my society. With them I think like, how are you all grown men but I have more money in pocket than you do and I don’t even have a job? All they do is waste their money on weed and would waste it on clothes and shoes if they had enough to splurge on that stuff.

People outside my society use this stereotype of my society so much. Everytime South Philly comes into the equation of conversation with my friends here at school, I here the same stuff from people who never really experienced the South Philly experience. “South Philly’s the mix”, “You’ll get robbed if you go there”, “Zaeem you don’t need to be outside”, those are the most common things said when or if we talk about my society here at school. My society displayed itself this way and has been long before I was even born.

However, stuff that happens in my society happens all over the world. As humans, we are going to naturally judge a book by it’s cover until we control our thoughts and think neutrally. Until then, our thoughts will always be biased, not perspective.

People who don’t follow Black Lives Matter campaigns believe in the statements I made earlier. Some are even going against the hashtag Black Lives Matter and are saying #AllLivesMatter. It’s like Black Lives Matter is creating this boundary between blacks and other races. They might not believe in that way but that’s the way it looks because the name of their movement. It’s like saying we only care about the black guy or lady that was killed about the police. Black Lives Matter is creating a bigger problem than just police brutality and injustice and they should be criticized for it.

The founders and supporters of Black Lives Matter don’t see that they are idolizing black supremacy. Now it’s ok to be angry and upset when black are treated wrong by the police. But, in the process of being upset don’t discount those who are not black. Mexicans and other hispanics are killed and harassed by the police every day. They can’t be in our country without permission! 14 year old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for having for a homemade clock in school. The police discriminated him and saw for his culture and not for who he truly is, a smart young American.

This essay is not to discredit Black Lives Matter, don’t get me wrong their movement was made for a good cause. It’s to educate those who don’t see the flaw and what may be the outcome of this movement. This movement is on a path that’s causing segregation all over again. They’re segregating their beliefs from those who are not black and those who don’t believe in Black Lives Matter. The same thing goes for all the other black supremacy movements like Black Girls Rock. As a nation we should all care for each others races and maybe just maybe we would have a better country. Stuff like this goes back to the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King believed in All Lives Matter. While other leaders such as Malcolm X on saw and believed in the injustice against blacks at the time. Therefore he was supportive of Black Lives Matter or black supremacy. Black Lives Matter is movement that adding fuel to fire. They’re doing what whites were doing 60-70 years ago. They’re trying to rise against all other races and cultures instead of just coming together as 1. You never know maybe police will even join in!