"I don't steal nothing but a b****'s mind"

My sister got Netflix recently, and I've been watching a lot of the online documentaries, and today I watched American Pimp. I had my ideas of what a pimp was, most of which I thought was a stereotype, but, I soon found out that those stereotypes were true. After a while I was laughing. Laughing, because these men have made this lifestyle a reality. They are not fictional characters from 1970s movies, but they are fulfilled stereotypes. They are men who control women and use them for money.

Some quotes...

• [In reference to how much money their prostitutes make]"0% percentage...life ain't fair...you know what I'm sayin'"

"It's exciting for her [to make a lot of money]....because it's us against the world"

"B asked me if she could take Mother's Day off...I said for what...yeah, she got a baby...so what...she got a pimp to pay too"


According to a prostitute: "It doesn't matter how special you think you are to them, because you're not."

"Anybody who exploits women for profit could be called a pimp"

"A pimp is somebody who lives off the earnings of what a woman does"

The documentary seemed almost like a glorification of the lifestyle. There was not a lot of questioning of the pimp's beliefs, more of a you tell us how it is. The biggest stereotype that I think most of these pimps met, were the clothing. The alligator suits, shoes, jewelry, gold teeth, hats, etc., and each each had catchy phrases and lines they used.

The pimps spoke highly of the mentor/mentee relationships they had built over time with older pimps. Since women are they product, they don't believe in unnecessary abuse, but just enough to keep the prostitutes in line. There were a wide array of pimps from all areas of the US. Since there was a variety of pimps, as a viewer, I became informed on how prostitutes have to learn to be most productive in different areas. For example, in Hawaii, a prostitute must be proactive because she cannot stand on a corner, she must walk constantly and not be a [and I quote] lazy bitch. Whereas in Las Vegas it would be simpler for her to get a trick by standing on the street corning.

It's almost surreal to me that I spent about an hour and a half of my life watching this documentary, and almost surreal to me that this is their truth.

Two days ago there was a shooting across the street from the school where I work. Since I'm there for the after school program, I missed the events of the day, but got the aftermath. I drive up to the school and there are at least 10 police cars, crime tape, and neighborhood members standing around watching what's going on. Oddly enough I didn't have any sense of fear, maybe caution, but not fear. I find out later that there was a quarrel in the street, and a guy was shot two times in the chest.

Where it relates to my life...
The kids I work with saw the shooting. It happened around 11:30 AM, when the 2nd graders were having lunch. They saw the man being shot through the windows of the cafeteria, and they know both the victim (who died) and the gunman. At the age of 21, seeing someone shot would have a huge impact on me, and I can only imagine what it feels like when you are 7 or 8.

The school went into immediate lock down. Everyone had to sit in their locked classroom with the lights off huddled in a corner. Unfortunately, this is the life of which these kids have become accustomed. Shootings, arrests, drug deals, police searching their homes, etc. And no, I'm not stereotyping or making generalizations, because I have either seen these events first hand, or had a child at work tell me about their own personal experiences.

Although they experience such turmoil and stress at a young age, I love when they can be kids, smile and have a great time.

Hippo Roller

I was reading Skirt! (*loves*) and found out about this amazing contraption.

vs.

It's called the Hippo Roller. Check out the link here.

The article I read in Skirt! is as follows.

Some of us only have to walk a few feet to a tap to get water -- other have to walk long distances every day to get theirs. The Hippo Water Roller is a 20-gallon rolling water receptacle that is simple for anyone to navigate, and saves the carrier from the excess energy usage and spinal damage that the traditional way (in buckets on their heads) causes. The Rollers have even proven to help protect the person moving them when rolled over landmines --the water absorbs the shock and heat of the blast, minimizing injury.