YOU'RE BEING SET UP By Shawn Harris

You are being tricked, trained & taught, enticed, lured, encouraged & persuaded to call yourself a thug. To refer to yourself as a gorilla, goon, goblin, beast, an animal, nigga, a bad ass, nazi, hard head, skin head, a dog, hustler, pusher, a pimp, loco, looney, cut throat, ruthless, nightmare, mack, gangster, killer, jacker, murderer, gang banger, home invader, cold blooded, heavy hitter, monster, boogie man, rebel, maniac, psycho, grimey, hood, street, trash, rough neck, red neck, low life, savage. In your mind these names define how rough, tough, rugged & raw you are. To you, these names are beastlike. But they lack love & sophistication, intelligence & compassion. These names make you a target. YOU'RE BEING SET UP.

Nobody cares for the monster when he lies bleeding in the street. Nobody cares for the bloody beast lying dead on the curb. It's just roadkill. YOU'RE BEING SET UP! Set up to be killed in crack houses. You're being set up to be massacred in make-shift meth labs. You're being dehumanized. You're being set up to be legally slaughtered in courtrooms, set up to be caged like the wild animals that you call yourselves. Lawyers won't help you, judges have no mercy. Police officers are killing you, and the public doesn't understand you. You don't speak english. Goons & monsters don't talk. The professionals don't understand you. You don't speak the language of the stockbrokers. You don't speak the language of the doctors, the deans, and the professors. The colleges and the credit unions are afraid of you. The teachers, the people, the citizens find you to be menacing. This means you've been set up to be seen as a menace to society.

You're being set up to be mistreated, to be thrown away, cast away in prison or a grave. So find a new name, a new title to call yourself, something that refers to and describes a human being. Not an animal. Because electrical or mechanical engineers aren't being gunned down in the streets. Automotive or computer technicians aren't rotting away in jail. Welders and carpenters aren't thrown to the grave at a young age. Pipe fitters, plumbers & architects aren't running from the police everyday. Airplane pilots & air traffic controllers aint hiding from the police?

So call yourself a man, a father, son, brother, friend and husband. Call yourself a child of GOD. Define yourself as creative, kind, mature, sophisticated, compassionate, cerebral, strong, loving, unselfish, honest, honorable, even tempered, disciplined, fair dealing, respectful and loyal. Be human. Don't be a beast. Don't become the walking dead. YOU'RE BEING SET UP to fail, set up to hate yourself, to hurt yourself. YOU'RE BEING SET UP to see yourself as something broken & filthy. YOU'RE BEING SET UP to identify yourself as someTHING instead of "someONE". You're being tricked into calling yourself the worst names imaginable.

Please see your brilliance. Recognize your uniqueness & beauty. Be more than a thug, more than a goon, more than a beast, more than a maniac, more than a rebel. Don't degrade yourself. You don't have to be the monster. You don't have to act like the animal. You don't deserve to be trapped like an animal. DON'T GO FOR THE SET UP!!