“You wonder if you’ll ever find yo’ dreams…” - KanYe West

Everyone knows the deal so I’ll spare the “I’m back” speech.

As everyone attends (or participates in) this year’s high school & college graduation ceremonies, be sure and let that family member know how great a job they’ve done, especially if that person happens to be a minority. I don’t have any specific numbers or statistics (according to some really smart person, 90% of all statistics are true 50% of the time….always), but I’m sure that more Black men were beat half to death shot 41 times wrongfully imprisoned were locked up this year than there are graduating.

To quote some ninja who’s not important enough to credit: Shit’s disgusting B.

And I’m not writing this to blame society, or the Mom who worked 3 jobs 27 hours a day while Lil’ Latarian Milton pushed the family Caravan. I’m not blaming law enforcement either (gasp!). What I am saying is that it takes a real ass ninja (nun) to ignore the ongoing fad of being “proud to be dumb” (c) BET and their wonderful programming, and to get a futhamuckin’ education. It’s real out here — and with Hip-Hop sales declining, a ninja better have a MEAN jumper or be able to do this if they plan on gettin’ all the bitches making any kind of real money. But (cliché alert) more importantly it shows that you can finish what you started. With all of these people co-signing the idea of “experience > education”, it is important to remind those that are still willing to sit their asses in a class for 4 years and say “Fuck it, we’ll do it live.”

I don’t give a flying-747-free-bag-of-peanuts what anyone says: education is crucial. By the time the average inmate learns that prison is an industry rather than an institution, he’s already on his third strike and probably reading some big-ass book “Hurricane Carter” style having some sort of Albert Einstein-esque epiphany. To anyone reading this currently in high school: don’t let up. Flippin’ burgers is not a pit-stop on the road to success, no matter what VH1’s Behind the Music tells you. Build that MTV Crib on a solid foundation — word to my lil’ bro who will be walking across that stage tomorrow.

Again, congrats to everyone who said “no” to ignorance.

— Phuque