I was saddened recently to hear about young gang members abandoning respect for O.G.'s. Many people, particularly those who have never had direct contact with the gang experience, are simply unaware of the significance of this moment in the devolution of gang organizational architecture.
Without the intention of romanticizing gang life, I describe the shift as one of organized activity degrading to a level of marauding. That is, armed angry young black who see themselves as responding to nothing other than the raw emotion of any given moment.
The elder system has fallen from grace and no one can really say where things will go in terms of impact on the black community. The idea of addressing this problem cannot be countenanced from the broad scope of healthcare issues, tax relief, or combating global terrorism.
No presidential candidate has risen from the institutional life of gangs so the national platform has no real assessment or strategy for the situation.
I spent some time teaching Buddhism in small store fronts in gang neighborhoods. I'd sit quietly as pants sagging young men with pockets drooping from heavy handguns sauntered in and out of the tiny niches. A small alter with Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen, flickering in candle light was the only sign of peace in the tense environ.
I learned quickly that my moody young friends weren't listening to the Dharma. They were simply tolerating my presence as a way of showing respect for the fleeting moment of peace talk I could muster.
How do you speak of the potentials of a peaceful life to those who aren't sure tomorrow will come? Racked with the pressures of ever-present violence and death around them, my words seemed distant and ineffectual to everyone present including me.
All I knew is that without the O.G.'s who invited me and stood by as my protectors there would be no possibility of having contact with these young black Americans.
I also knew that what people call American Buddhism, including the famous glossy Buddhist magazine cover celebrities and their spacious Dharma center operations, had no chance whatsoever of connecting with this base of neighborhood suffering.
The O.G. system in its redemptive state served as both watchdog and optimistic conduit to pre-prison black youth. Some of the better community programs encouraging young people to transcend gang mentality are run by O.G.'s. Unfortunately, the same system in its unhealthy state served to worsen everything and as San Quentin death row inmates Steve Champion and Anthony Ross write, "(O.G.'s) abused their status by exploiting and manipulating younger homeboys....where the big homie/little homie relationship is only about superiority, control, and someone else doing the dirty work."
In some respects the latter has subsumed the former creating an unrecoverable generational breakdown that has affected a system wide disillusionment of the relationship.
A few years ago I shared the community service award stage along with mothers who's children were been slain in gang violence. I wrote a symphony titled, "Rainbowdharma Symphony for World Peace: Lullaby for Mothers." I offer it again here as a requiem for the loss of the O.G. system. It runs about 9 minutes, please take a moment to listen and reflect.
