On Education, Change Starts With Our Youth.

Greetings readers my name is Brandon C.L. Hope, and today I will be writing to the topic of how I think people incarcerated can benefit from a higher education. Now, while I do believe that people incarcerated can benefit from a higher education, I also believe that a higher education should not just be a privilege, but an obligation. My brother and role model so gracefully pointed out an age-old saying: “if you know better, you’ll do better.” So, if the point of incarceration is really rehabilitation, then our political leaders and captors would make sure that we knew better.

I also do not believe that it should start here with incarceration, it should start in society and in our homes. Now, not to say that college is meant for everybody, because everybody has free will so they should do with their lives whatever they choose. However, I do think that there shouldn’t be so many obstacles for those who do choose the path of higher education. But, having said that, I still believe that we should be focused on the generation under the ones who are preparing for college.

See, I was the generation under those preparing for college when I ultimately made a decision that was so life-altering, that if I had known what the outcome and consequences would have been, I know that I would not be incarcerated. More than likely, I would be pursuing my higher learning at this point in time. If I would have had faith in the school system, then maybe I would have actually gone to school. During my 9th grade year of high school, I only had four full days of attendance that were accounted for because at the time, I didn’t care. School was just so boring, and I didn’t understand why I would possibly be doing this school stuff when I could go hang out with the guys in the neighborhood.

Now, I am not justifying the way I felt, but I am saying that even when the youth doesn’t have the understanding to care about these things, it is our jobs to care for them. But there’s only so much we can tell them at that age, we are no longer able to watch over them and tell them what to do, as they will make their own decisions whether we like it or not.

Being that it is our job to care, we must find a way to make school interesting to the younger demographic. I know that you’re probably saying “I heard this before”, and I’m pretty sure that you have, because I have heard this before. But somehow no matter what we try, we still get the same results… or maybe that’s not true. Maybe the truth is that no matter how hard we say that we try, in all actuality we don’t try hard enough. Because I know that this idea that I’m stating right now that everybody has heard before was definetly an idea when I was that kid in 9th grade, yet somehow, no matter what they said they were doing it still doesn’t account for why I only had four full days of attendance and nobody cared.

It’s the school system that failed me and the system period, for allowing the school system to fail me. Nobody cared, and this can not be a continuing cycle or we will continue to lose our brown and black children to incarceration and/or street violence. So it’s time for change to happen, and change starts with us starting with our youth. Thank you for your time.

– Brandon C. L. Hope, From Hampton, VA

Protests 2020, a freestyle by Brandon CL Hope

I write this rhyme to tell the times
no better life than living white,
but somehow we supply the white,
that’s why our mommas cry at night…
yet we can’t reap the benefits
cause our skin is darker pigmented
america, ameri-can’t, ameri-kkk again.

They got drums on k’s its evident that they want us off their premises
but I’m trippin cause we built this
and it might sound like ignorance
but violence brings us peace again,
destruction builds us all back up,
and darkness let’s our light shine from
the bottom of the bottom to the highest of the high.
You’re going to recognize that we’re alive and all are here to thrive.
Gangbangin’ to the left and gangbangin’ to the right
we meet up in the middle and bang at 12 on sight,
out here on the block at 12 O’Clock at night
an hour past the curfew on front lines ready to fight
trippin and stumbling your brother’s face is bleeding,
but don’t let it deter you cause were out here for a reason.

What’s good for you is good for me,
good for the goose good for the gander
400 years of being peaceful forced me to grab the blammer
forced me to be the bad guy
in society’s eyes.

Tear gas all in our eyes,
used to tears in our lives
no stranger to the struggle,
you hate me but I love you,
wanna kill me, wanna hug you,
can’t you see that I’m not trouble?
But somehow, some way, you’re blinded by my face.

You built it in your mind that criminal is our race –
but that’s just not the case and one day you will get it
whether you end up dead or whether your still living
your sins have been forgiven.
But sin once again and mercy is straight fiction.
Mercy is not given –
just like respect its earned
no more use for mercy you’ve used your last turn.
You’ve burned your last bridge,
murdered your last black man,
scared your last kid,
let’s live and let live.

Less graves we will dig,
witness a civil war if righteousness don’t win.
If justice won’t prevail,
unleash our passionate rage and give them hell,
unleash the pain of ones before you,
‘I can’t breathe,’ ‘hands up, do not shoot.’
Who’s next? Me? It might just be you.

George Floyd, bam world, Trayvon, too,
injustice in the streets,
injustice in the schools,
injustice in the prisons,
injustice stands true.

I’m tired of losing breath, man, I’m tired of the chatter
long story short, fam,
BLACK LIVES MATTER!

– Brandon C. L. Hope Contributing Writer | Hampton, Virginia #1842318

Man // Foundations

By Brandon Hope

Black man, white man, who am I man?
Oppressor or victim to oppression?

I am human, you can not second guess it –
but that tends to go in one ear and out the other.
The less that I’ve chosen one race over the other,
the deeper I dove in to the bi-racial struggle.

Confusion that’s when they can’t tell what’s my color.
Deception accusations when they can’t tell what’s my color.

Abusive repercussions cause I’m not quite my mother,
Abusive repercussions cause I’m not quite my father,
Abusive repercussions cause they don’t know what I am,
Abusive repercussions when I’m merely just a MAN.

My experience with racism is very different from most, being that I am a bi-racial man that comes from a bi-racial household. For one, my grandparents on both sides of my family are very bias towards the other race, so that was an interesting and painful experience growing up, never feeling accepted in my own home amongst my own family. Then, I got the same type of experience at school and in my neighborhood. So on top of the systemic racism that we are all faced within our neighborhoods, (the ghetto) and in our schools, I was dealing with it from my family and peers.

Now, I believe that racism can be fixed…. but only with hard work and time, because racism is inbred within the system (when I say the system, I am speaking of the American government).

Now, picture the system as a structure like a building. If the system was a building, then the issue that needs to be fixed is deep within the concrete structure, so the only option when there is a structural problem, is to build a new foundation. But to build a new foundation, we must first tear down the building; and the new building can’t be built upon another corrupt foundation. There must be no flaws, or we will have to tear it down again. There should be no hatred in the foundation, nor bias of any kind. We must find a way to utilize love, or at the very least empathy, and build our foundation amongst it.

The answer to racism is the most common and simple phrase you hear growing up – but it is also the most complicated – because America as a whole has still failed to master it. All we have to do is, TREAT OTHERS HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED!!! Think about it.

– Brandon C. L. Hope, From Hampton, VA

Sleep in Peace, by Brandon Hope

Awake behind walls of concrete,
Stay away wicked thoughts of deceit,
My appearance and my name is clean,
The truth lies in my thoughts and my dreams.

Drift asleep and nightmares are present,
wide awake and life’s still unpleasant.
Through the pain, hate is the norm.
Utilize love and make it form
the new norm,
a brand new society,
one where to get justice –
there’s no need for rioting.
Where there will be no battles where none should exist,
Now I understand why we hold up our fist.

The power’s in us, united at least.
Once we accomplish this goal,
I can sleep in peace.

– Brandon C. L. Hope, From Hampton, VA

The Battle is Within, by Brandon C. L. Hope

Greetings to the readers, my name is Brandon C.L. Hope. I am 19 years of age. I am incarcerated at Lawrenceville Correctional Facility in Virginia. I have been incarcerated since the age of 14. Through the process that the judicial system has put me through, I have become enlightened to many beautiful things of this country that we live in, but I have also been enlightened to many detrimental issues.

Right now, I would like to speak to the topic of “What’s free?”

Despite my obvious lack of freedom, and despite all the complaints that could be brought to society’s attention, that is not the aspect of free that I would like to indulge in at this particular time.

The lack of freedom that I would like to bring attention to, is that of not the oppressed, but that of the oppressor. Yes, the oppressed obviously lack freedom, but freedom is not just physical. There is also a mental and spiritual aspect to freedom. Although we, the oppressed, often view the oppressors as powerful and free, that is not truth at all. The truth is that the mindset of oppression has enslaved humanity.

Often times, the oppressor only oppresses because of demons and struggles they battle within their personal life. So, the simple fact is, that the battle for freedom is not the oppressed against the oppressor, nor the oppressor against the oppressed… the battle is within. The fight is humanity against physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional slavery. Unity is key.

Thank you for your time…

– Brandon C. L. Hope, From Hampton, VA