"WANNA SEE HOW TERRIBLE HARLEM WAS IN THE 80'S? VISIT NOW!" - A Short Photo Essay

Who is responsible for this?
6.6.2015

Harlem is my home. 

It's where I was mostly raised and no matter where I die, I will always be a Harlemite. I consider every human to be valuable, unique and important. But the people of Harlem, are my "folks." If you take the time to get to know them, the result is that you will inadvertently, know me better.

I will always speak up in the interests of the people of Harlem, Black or White, Jew or Gentile, regardless of who it's against, liberal or conservative, urban or rural.

The following thoughts and images were birthed from the canal of a conversation I had with a sister of mine. She was ostensibly, complaining about the still-current Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. But her rant really wasn't about him. Her topic was the condition of East Harlem, which seems to have turned into to a hopeless skid row recently.

125th St. and Lexington Avenue, NYC

  

"What's he doing with 125th St.? What's going on there?"  My sister asked me one day while I sat in her living room in East Harlem. . 

"Whaddya mean?" I asked, knowing full well, what she meant.

"It's like skid row out there! You know what I'm talking about! All types of men out there sleeping all

day with their butts out in the open!"

"Well, sis. I think that the methadone clinics down the block..."

She interrupted me. "PLEASE, Jamal. those clinics have been there for 20 years! They were they when Bloomberg was mayor! But still Harlem didn't look like this when HE was in office! It's a disgrace. This is 125th street!"

125th St. is, for many reasons, considered the "center" of Harlem. It's home to the world-famous Apollo Theater where Michael Jackson, James Brown, and other music legends performed routinely during their "heydays." Tour buses make a business of stopping by the nearby Sylvia's restaurant, which is famous in its own right. Other "hip" restaurants have now popped up.

While known as a prostitute-laden ghetto in the days of my childhood, Harlem saw an economic revival in the 90's due to being designated as an "Empowerment Zone" by Bill Clinton. Soon after, corporate investments and Clinton's after-term office came in to the neighborhood, with the unintended consequence of raising rents astronomically. I'm not an expert, but I think that's called "gentrification."

Even Bank of America came through.

There appeared a huge Pathmark supermarket that everybody became excited about, IHop and Magic Johnson Theaters showed up to hire folks. All were hopeful about Harlem's economic future.  

But apparently, something went wrong. These pictures are the best evidence I need. Bill Clinton moved his office to downtown, near Wall St. The train must have run off the track somewhere. 

WANT TO HELP BLACKS? DO THIS!

The simplest of actions, can make the greatest difference.
4.19.2015

Please allow me to bloviate about one night, a while back. Maybe 8-10 years or so.

5 Black guys enter a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a joke.

Well, it was many bars. And it wasn't regular Black dudes. It was us. SU heads. College buddies. The type of guys to buy bottles everywhere we went and not finish them.

I visited Ferguson Missouri in November of 2014, right after the riots.
This is Michael Brown's memorial. I had an eye-opening time

On this particular night, we club-hopped till about 4AM. Our last stop was this place I'd never been to before. It was on the second floor of what seemed like an office building in an area of NYC some people call, "Hell's Kitchen." Back in the day when the name became popular, the kitchens there really looked like hell. No longer. Now, it's a pretty expensive area of Manhattan.

When we got off the elevator, everybody around us became instantly South Korean. The house music was booming. Seems like our Black Buppy crew had crashed a South Korean birthday party for some rich IT guy. After a while there, I came to realize that this was a coworker of one of my buddies.

I was surprised at the amount of interaction from the folks there. Strangers where offering me drinks, the women were friendly, people started crowding around as if we were celebrities. I didn't know what the excitement was all about. My stupid caveman ass grew up in projects thinking that Asians don't like Blacks. 

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE. A LESSON FROM CHESTER...

People are your greatest resource.
10.12.2014

When I was born, the government name I was given is one that I never use: Carson Jamal Wright IV.

Carson C. Wright. This man was tough. You had 
to be tough to be one of the few Black Sergeants 
in the NYPD, during the Civil Rights Era. He took 
hell from both sides of the controversy.You can 
see the resolve in his eyes. At least I can.

I never use it because it sounds tight-assed to me. 

My dad's dad, was Carson Chester Wright. We are all Carsons, but the tradition is that the first born sons are always called by their middle name until their father dies. So I am Jamal. And my father, Carson Anthony Wright, is "Tony." I respect this tradition even though my son's name is Jhalil D'Vyne Wright. But I digress, as always.

My grandfather Chester, was one of the first Black police Sergeants in Queens, NY. In fact, the Wright family has a history with many members in law enforcement. It's strange to me considering how many problems I've had with authority figures. But grandpa Chester wasn't really much like me. He was a man of God and an Elder in St. Paul's Pentecostal Church, an organization he helped to create with his wife, Dorothy Wright, my dear grandmother. It was the church I grew up in. and even now, 50 years later, it thrives.

My dad's favorite, of my grandfather's 11 brothers, was Irving Wright. He was a cop too. But he also operated a small business in Harlem. Unfortunately, he met an untimely demise when He was shot in the back and killed by friendly fire from other cops who mistook him for a criminal who robbed his store. Irving was chasing the real culprits at the time of his murder, by cop.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Although that's plenty reason for a cop to be bitter towards the streets, my grandfather never was. In fact, he told me the following story all the time:

WATCHING MOMMA DIE

The Long Wave Goodbye...
9.21.2014

(Note: This is a diary from an emotionally-tragic time in my life. As such, I feel a great deal of creative license and I reveal a lot about myself. My hope is that nobody feels offended, disparaged or taken aback by my frank talk. To reveal myself in this way, is an exercise of love to my community.)

On my first visits, I just sat there and held her hand.
Sometimes, crying.I think she liked me not talking
and just being there.

I write this in Homage, to my mother, The Honorable Judge Deborah Shelton Griffin, whose shoes I could never fill. 

Spoiler alert: she died after a long illness.

I remember the day I began feeling that something was really wrong with my mother. I have a terrible memory, but I believe it was in September of 2009. 

We were in France, as part of a fantastic Mediterranean cruise she had set up for her immediate family to enjoy; her, myself and my little brother, Jonathan. I forget which stop it was on the cruise. Perhaps Marseilles. Mom and I decided to escape my brother on an excursion to see the city. 

YOUR BODY IS A MACHINE. REMEMBER THAT...

You should watch this lecture. But if you don't, you have my notes. You're welcome America.
3.29.2014

This is my favorite lecturer, Ya'll. Lend him your ear. Notes from Simon Sinek. The expert on Leadership:


Your body is a machine. There are four biochemicals responsible for your happiness:

EDSO

The first two are selfish Chemicals. In other words, you don't need others to indulge in them.

ENDORPHINS: Designed to mask physical pain. They are the reason you run, and feel no pain until long after you stop running. It's the endorphin rush. When you laugh hard, your organs convulse. The reason why that doesn't hurt is cause of Endorphins. But then they run out. That's what happens when you laugh so hard, it hurts. Your Endorphins have run out.

DOPAMINE: Responsible for the feeling you get when you've accomplished something you've set out to accomplish. The purpose of this chemical is to get you to get things done. It goes into action when you cross something off your "to do" list. We get a shot of it even after we accomplish eating...
Dopamine is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. Other triggers for Dopamine = Alcohol, Nicotine, Gambling and even your cellphone. The addictive quality of Dopamine is the real reason that many people are easily distracted, or have problems paying attention; wrongly attributed to Attention Deficit Disorder. You can even get addicted to performance through dopamine. Dopamine is the reason people write down their goals. Ever forget something on your "to do" list, then do it, THEN write it down THEN cross it out? You wanted the Dopamine "fix."