This is part 2 of “From Revolutionary to Gangbanger.” In Blood history, we are taught that we form to protect our communities and fight against oppression. A theme that followed the expansion on the Bloods from California to New York, where the Bloods started in 1993 in Rikers Island jail to combat the oppression of the Spanish gangs like the Latin Kings and Los Ñetas who dominated the jail and oppressed the Black detainees. It is in this historical stance against oppression that the true cause and character developed of what it means to be a Blood and defines the meaning of Blood itself, which means brotherly love overrides oppression and destruction.
Unlike the Crips, without true revolutionary principles, guidance, and structure, nothing has stopped us from becoming just an oppressor to others as we claim others have been to us. Instead of protecting our communities, we have traditionally preyed on them and have become locked into cycles of Black-on-Black crime and violence; pitted in gang warfare, reminiscent of the tribal warfare of our West African ancestors that caused us to be brought here in the first place. Bloods kill Crips. Crips kill Bloods. Bloods kill other Bloods from different sets, and Crips kill Crips from other sets of communities. Our communities are suffering while the true enemy that is oppressing us all is free to go about business as usual. None of us own our own communities that we’re dying and killing for. All of our communities are poor, and none of us have any say so in the institutions that govern and shape our communities.
So what are we really banging for? Who is benefiting from all the destruction? The government destroyed the Black Panthers in just a few years. So why have they allowed our tribes to exist for this long? What benefit are we bringing to our communities, and what is the purpose of our continued existence? If history has taught us anything, we must see that reactionary tribalism has only weakened us as a people and made us agents in our own subjugation and exploitation. How are we going to, how are we being true to the meaning of Blood when we embrace the role of oppressor and destroyer in our own communities? The true Blood is disciplined and militant and real tight in all of his affairs. The true Blood embraces the spirit of the Panther, for the Panther understood the true source of our oppression and moved against it.
If our blood and our banging to mean anything, we must rise above reactionary tribalism and commit ourselves to becoming a true revolutionary force in our communities. Prison is a normal next step for many gang members. The first Bloods sent to Chino, a mainland California prison, are commonly referred to in Blood circles as the first Bloods to walk the line. To increase their membership and recruitment, they created a bloodline constitution patterned after the constitution of the Black Guerrilla Family, a constitution patterned after the Black Guerrilla Family, which is a Panther influenced group already established in the California prison system at that time. The bloodline constitution contained the Bloods’ code of conduct, history, and bylaws that was required reading for each new recruit. And then to speed up recruitment, the older first Bloods made reading the constitution an automatic induction into their ranks, and thereafter began tricking young prisoners into reading it, and once they read it, the new recruit could only reject membership at the risk of being stabbed.
This pressure gang banging of young recruits at Chino set off ripples of dissatisfaction and breakaways among Bloods in other California prisons. These disenfranchised centered around Peabody at Old Folsom Prison, who took parts from the Bloodline and the Black Guerrilla Family constitution and created a new United Blood Nation constitution designed to unify all Bloods in prison. Since then, Bloods have chosen which constitution they would come under. Blood members under either Bloodline or United Blood Nation Constitution are held to a higher standard than other members. They hold positions and are similar to the officer corps of a military organization. These Bloods, not under a constitution, are the foot soldiers. The Bloodline and United Blood Nation organization spread throughout the California prison system and are strictly prison organizations. Once a Blood leaves prison, he returns to his own neighborhood set to gang bang with no discipline. This is the conclusion of “From Revolutionary to Gangbanger,” by General Divine Minister Sinque-El, Almighty Black P. Stone Nation, El Rukn Tribe. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
