Q:
What's the only difference between getting to school
in Baghdad and getting to school in Watts?
A: The Climate!
As
in Baghdad, the 126 kids served each month by Mama
Hill's Help after-school program in Watts, California,
live in shell-shocked stupor. Every day, every block,
every car or bus, every stranger, every unfamiliar
face or noise presents a new unwelcome opportunity
for harassment, confrontation, crossfire, robbery
or even death.
Don't take my word for it. Just click on Streetgangs.com
Black Gang Territories of South Los Angeles,
at. All 270 of them!
"If
you don't know the boundaries, if you're in the wrong
neighborhood, you could get shot," says Millicent
Hill, life-long educator and founder of Mama Hills
Help, a California non-profit corporation that serves
kids of all ethnicities, ages 10 to 18.
"Many children can't remember their math because
they are concentrating on the neighborhoods they must
stay away from," says Mama Hill. "Just walking
down the street is a matter of life and death. Their
memory banks can't take all of that and pick up a
pencil."
Some gang turfs are
only a block long, some encompass a neighborhood,
but all are adversaries and just passing through
presents a fresh challenge.
Lee lives in a Blood
Swans neighborhood, but goes to a school that is Hoover
Crips, so when he gets on the bus he gets harassed.
Hector lives in Swans, but is threatened by several
Latino gangs. Girls are vulnerable to girl gangs,
particularly in Hawthorne, and any studious-looking
boy is subject to "hood hustling," the practice
of stealing anything from a kid who appears defenseless.
Mama Hill's kids must
use public transportation to carry them from Inglewood,
Crenshaw, Hawthorne, Compton, Watts and North Long
Beach to Mama Hill's headquarters, traveling in
pairs, where possible, but never in fours. Even
as they try to learn, all of Mama Hill's street-savvy
kids are threatened every day of their young lives.
"The problem
is that on a daily basis, youth, particularly young
males, are targeted, harassed, courted and killed
by gangs," says Mama Hill. "Many students
are frequently truant because they are afraid to
walk to and from school due to gang violence."
In the world of Mama
Hill's kids, walking three blocks can get you jumped
by three gangs. Other problems traced to turf-dodging
are low (or no) test scores, poor school performance
and behavior issues.
"It is assumed
that these students are irresponsible, lazy, undisciplined
and unable to perform," says Mama Hill, "when
in truth, he or she cannot cross the barriers of
violence in order to get to school and thus perform
well."
There is an old proverb
Mama Hill recites passionately, "`Do not cut
off my legs and then ask me why I can't walk.' My
kids can't walk anywhere, literally!"
Given that the police
can't be everywhere, protecting every child from
danger, and the mad mobility of South L.A. gangs,
Mama Hill's solution is a Safe Passage program -
enough vans and licensed, insured drivers to carry
all of her kids from home to school, from school
to Mama Hill's Help and other after-school activities,
and safely back home again.
"Safe Passage,"
says Mama Hill, "is likened to Harriett Tubman
and the Underground Railroad, because our youth
are slaves to the violence in our communities. They
must feel safe if they are to learn and grow into
healthy adults."
If you've got a dolla'
to holla' with, won't you please help Mama Hill's
kids find safe passage. And if you want more info,
contact her directly at hllmllcnt@aol.com.
For more information on South Los Angeles gangs,
check out these websites:
Props to Streetgangs.com and their exhaustive
research. Check out the history and map of the 18th Street Gangs at
http://www.streetgangs.com/18thstreet.html
List of Crip gangs
throughout greater Los Angeles County
http://www.streetgangs.com/crips/
List of Blood
gangs throughout greater Los Angeles County
http://www.streetgangs.com/bloods/
Gangs located in
the Central Vernon area of Los Angeles
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/667723mp.html
The Violence Prevention
Coalition of Greater Los Angeles Gang Facts
http://www.vpcla.org/factGang.htm
List of Gang Intervention
programs
http://www.streetgangs.com/homicides/programs.html
"Terror In
Our Streets," a special 8-part report
on gang violence in Southern California by the
Los Angeles Daily News - http://lang.dailynews.com/gangs/
© Valerie Shaw
2005- All Rights Reserved
**All contents are the exclusive rights of the author
and may not be copied, excerpted, nor duplicated
without the expressed written permission of the
author. For questions regarding duplication of this
work, send email
to author.
