Freedom Like Fairness Ain’t Never Been Free; And It Never Will Be
by Betty Jean Grant
“It ain’t fair!” one or the other of my two youngest grandsons uttered to me when a bad community situation or a challenging event finds its way to one or another on Grant’s list of things that shouldn’t but will usually find a way to go wrong. “It ain’t fair, Grant bemoaned, when it was his time to walk the dog, but he wanted to keep playing his video game. Why can’t Quentin do it, he ain’t doing nothing right now?”
Grant understands that we all have a role to play in how well a family functions and that we all must do our part in ensuring that order, peace and stability thrive in the family unit and that one steps in and assist if that is what is needed to maintain and improve the relationships among siblings and their parents in their particular family dynamic.
A community or neighborhood is not unlike a family in that aspect. Each family unit in that community, whether their particular participation is positive or negative, plays an active part in how healthy or vibrant their household and neighborhood are. If one family does not do its fair share of making sure that they help maintain the areas around their home by mowing their lawn in a timely fashion and picking up trash, the other neighbors may start to notice and may begin to think that, “If that family don’t do it, why should I?”
Our beloved Buffalo community is suffering greatly because too many of us who profess how much we love the city, especially the Eastside, are not doing more than just talking about how bad it looks and how they don’t believe it can be turned around. If those who are saying these things, have moved away from Buffalo, they need to hold their comments until they move back in and help us save this city and our youth.
Also, it serves no purpose for anyone to be out here bragging about living in a 1.5-million-dollar house in Buffalo’s suburbs, while the youths who are hearing this, are struggling to help their mom put food on the table or scrape up enough dollars to pay the rent. The children in these low-income neighborhoods know that they will probably get arrested and go to jail for stealing a hamburger and a drink while their white counterparts will just get a good talking to and later, driven home by the friendly neighbor police officer!
Finally, we have a serious caste system problem among Black People in this city. Children of those who proudly point to lineage and being among Buffalo first families to settle here, in the early 1830s, do not look too kindly on immigrant or migratory families regardless of what color they are. Those African Americans with these “superior mindsets,” like those scary white residents of the 1970s, left Buffalo decades ago. Now, they only come back to the city to work, see a play or to go to church.