Inside of barber shops, liquor stores, Chinese restaurants, and elsewhere about "your hood, USA," topics of conversation include: the local hoodbooger everybody smashed but won't say they did; Kobe vs. Lebron (But we got Melo!!); Hip-Hop; BET (fuck them still). Then there's the one where it's always talked about but has yet to end, the "holding each other back" paradigm. As it's called the "crab in the barrel" approach.
Don't know what it is?
...Real simple...
Does it run wild in out here? Fuck yes! I see and hear the shit everyday from somebody. Who fault is it? Our own, because now it's implanted in everybody's brain where we believe it. Its simple negrodian logic:
The more you hear it, the more you believe it. Until it becomes second nature. There's so many different branches of the crab tactics muhfuckas don't even realize it.
Complaining: You think pulling a person down is dreadful, listen to a complainer. The nagging, the bitching, the everyday there's a problem. The FB statuses of their fucking melodrama about not being able to get a date. The twitter updates of the whack muhfuckas at the club or elsewhere. The text messages of "eh, I'm alright, just annoyed" sent every other fucking day like they didn't know I really don't care about her fucking drama-filled life.
Shut. The. Fuck. Up.
Complaining is the number one crab in the hood, because once that complaining ass muhfucka gets one listener, you're now pulled in their barrel. Now you got to go talk to somebody about what you heard. Why? Because that's what that person did to you and your barrel has plenty room.
Imagine if you used that same complaining into something constructive like talk radio, spoken word, or just shutting the fuck up. It'll make the world a better place.
The "crab" that wants to leave: This could be the hardest thing for most people growing up. To leave all that's left behind for your benefit. To better you. Some people won't understand that, even some of you closest friends. Here at I.S. We got the best advice for that:
Fuck 'em. ¯\_(•_•)_/¯
Those aint your peoples if they don't see your potential for growth. I had a talk with this dude at a bar and he said "these my niggas and I ride or die for my niggas I won't leave them for nothing." I looked at him and said "these my niggas and I would ride or die for them too, but, I got to live my life, as do they." Chilling with the same pot leaves you with little room to grow and around the same people. You go out there, meet new people, and then bring 'em into you equation. That's the blueprint of growth. Because sometimes hanging with ya niggas just leave you a "hanging with ya niggas" ass muhfucka.
