Week 1: Inner-City Madness Progress

From Past Gains to Future's Loss
 

The Injections of Influence

The Distortion of Senses

Who is the African American and how do we define him? What is the Inner-City Madness and its purpose? Or should I say to combine the two simply, why does the African American suffer from Inner-City Madness? For instance, I give you Chicago, the city I love and live in; why have there been so many deaths among African American youth in the inner-cities? Is it because they are essentially 3/5ths of a real human, treading and walking in a beastly nature. Are their attitudes birthed from the roots of suicidal behavior? I mean my black brothers seem to kill each other everyday and my black sisters seem to bare children out of wedlock to continue the cycle. Are they just crazy?

Well, this series is designed to answer these questions of why? So many times as a African American, myself, I have been asked by people of other races why can't those people be like you and strive for betterment. (Let me first say that I am not a ruler by which men should measure themselves. I am a mere human being searching for the meaning of life; hoping also to live a life as righteous as possible.)  This series is my answer to those who have questioned me and to all those abroad who have the same question. To understand people you have to understand the past origins of a human being before you can judge who they presently are for yourself. It seems to me that American society would choose to deem people like me and other impoverished people animals, instead of stepping into a person's shoes. The youth that I speak of cannot be summed up by a mere news clipping, but their conditioning to strive for only lowly survival can be traced back hundreds of years in American History.

I seek to unveil this truth through the eyes of the child in the first picture. Children naturally question the world around them, without prejudice or presumptions. It is through this child that I seek to unveil the African American both presently and also his African accomplishments. A people with a lack of history is ultimately destined to enslavement and failure. Most young African Americans cannot tell you about their history pre-slavery and that is where the child in my first illustration originates. To find out what his descendants have become he must be reduced to a child-like state to better understand them. The next two illustrations are the process by which African American children become desensitized to the world they live in. I hope through this series we all get a better understanding of who we are, which are diverse members of one equal human family.