Hi, this is Raymond Jenkins from Corcoran State Prison. The name of this story is called “Proud to be Black”. And the reason why this story, where I’m talking about that, because we have a lot in the prison system that kinda ashamed to be Black, kinda ashamed to be African American, was it female, or male. It’s an outgoing thing, it’s never been put out there, because people hides it. And being out there, you have a lot of that.
You know, in the prison system you have a lot of young men that some are proud to be Black, and some, it’s not. So the whole issue of the nutshell is, always be proud of what race you are. Always be proud of who you are. Always be proud of the things that you can do for. Look up, look up ahead and always keep your head up high by being the race that you are, especially being Black, African American, because we have a lot of judgement because of that, and we take it to, to the extreme of sayin’ you know, ‘they doesn’t hire me because I’m Black’, or ‘they doesn’t like me because I’m Black. They just, they didn’t give me the job because I’m Black.’
We kinda look down on ourselves as that’s the only excuse that we have when it comes to any issues, instead of looking at beyond that. We have to look beyond that. We have to look over that. We know it’s there. And we know it’s going to always be, but you don’t look at your color of your skin all the time and think that’s the reason why you didn’t get the job, or you didn’t get this first, or they ran out because you was Black and they didn’t have no mo’ something in the restaurant or store. We have to be, get beyond that. And the only way we can do that, is just look at ourselves more than just being Black. You’re more a person than that, your outlook of that. We have to be able to identify the reason why we didn’t get this job. The reason why we didn’t get this or get that, not because of your skin color. I think that we need to bring out something to pertaining that, that shows that it’s not all about that. Your character mean more than anything: the way you act, the way you approach people, the way you be around people, that accountable for. You have to look at that more than what you look at when it comes to skin color.
And remember, every race counts. Remember, everybody counts. It’s not no color line on certain issues. Everybody likes being something, all race, life, matters. Everybody has a responsibility to play in part of their life. So my thing is this, be who you are. Be what you know you can be, and always believe in yourself, especially, African Americans. Because you are, you know, we always say we’re Number one but we all Number one, in everybody’s eyes, and just how you carry and act yourself. So always be something, and be who you best that you can be and don’t worry about what other people think. Because on the end of the day you still somebody. I’ll leave you with that and say, you know, have a good day.
And once again, Mr. Jenkins, if you want to respond, write me. My CDC number is BM 4522, 4B3R-C58, PO Box 3481, Corcoran, California, 93212. I’d like to have feedback from you and we’re gonna talk to you next week, it pertaining, “How good is America when it comes to Black?” And I’ll leave you with that, and thank you, and have a nice day.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
