The Evil plan…

I just watched Willie D’s video on the death of Afrika Bambaataa, and I have to say, I agree with Willie D. I feel nothing for that man. His contribution to music changed the world, but his impact on the people he abused is more important to me.

Wow, what a Hot Take. I don’t like pedophiles. Give myself a pat on the head.

But for real, I cannot separate the art from the person, because they are so intertwined in my life.

I think about what happened to those boys, and then I think about what happened to me, and countless other little boys in the 80s. I was put in a foster home, then sexually abused.

Later on, I found out that many other young black men experienced the same. Now that I'm in my late 40s, I can look at it as almost a planned thing. So many black families were destroyed by the Crack epidemic. No father at home, many boys are either put into the foster care system or they get into gangs...each road can lead to SA.

Bambaataa was supposed to be a safe alternative to gangs for those boys. He wasn’t. And I don’t think he was alone.

Now so many of us either don't have children and don't want them, for fear of the evils of the world.

So many of us have trust issues, a string of failed relationships, and crippling depression.

Since this seems like the baseline for normal in the modern world, it’s hard to feel sympathy for myself. So many people who weren’t sexually abused experienced other forms of abuse, and they are dealing with the crap that comes with that too.

I was going to leave some of this as a comment on the Willie D video, but decided against it. I don’t want to get censored by the YouTube Algorithm.

Anyway, I gotta go to work. Talk to y’all later…