Let’s define a few terms before we look into this controversial subject. A Gang is an organization of individuals functioning together for an illegal purpose. The Klan (Ku Klux Klan) is an organization of individuals functioning together for the purpose of oppressing Blacks and maintaining white supremacy. Gang activity is also oppressing Blacks and helping maintain white supremacy. 

According to one of the original founders of the Crips, it started out as community Revolutionary Inner Party Services and represented Black pride, Black Power, and confronted major injustices Black people faced from the Klan (white supremacists). Supposedly, the Bloods came about as a means to fight back against the Crips. Other gang leaders have told me similar stories. That their organizations came into existence to protect their neighborhoods from police brutality and racial oppression. Some say they were intrigued by Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party and wanted to be like them.  

The most important questions: How did these organizations go from Black Love/Black Power, to Black Self-Hate/Black Genocide? And more importantly, how do we get them back to Black Love/Black Power? At one point we stood together, died for each other and fought our common enemy. Now we kill each other over a word, color, hand gesture, rag, or because a white supremacist (prosecutor) told us to.  During the height of the Klan’s reign, they killed about 300 Black people a year. Gang-on-Gang (Black-on-Black) violence has averaged 3,000 deaths a year for the last forty years. Of that 3,000, many are innocent bystanders, women and children who have nothing to do with the gangs. The Klan killed Black women and children as well. This does not include the 300,000 kidnapped by the criminal injustice system annually. So I ask: Are you working for the Klan Black-man (Spanish-man, Native-man, Asian-man)? Knowingly or not, are your actions oppressing your people, terrorizing the neighborhood and causing the death of your brothers and sisters?! How many Klansmen have you killed?!

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Why do Black men, and women, continue to fight each other when we have so much power and potential in UNITY? Because we are working for the Klan! The Klan controls our thinking and therefore our actions…I’m not just talking to gang members. I seek the attention of all those committing Black-on-Black violence or judge-on-Black violence. Who’s going to have the courage to say enough of this foolishness?! The Klan has tricked you into destroying yourself for them. We have been hoodwinked like Malcom X said. You have been taught by an elephant (Republican) and a jackass (Democrats). They also rep red and blue, and fight against each other to see who will plunder the people. They work for and are part of the Klan! Their mission: maintain white supremacy.

I plead with my brothers and sisters. It’s time to stand together, to stop destroying each other, to protect our family and to stop working for the Klan!

This poem is from a former gang member:

The gang myth, yea, it was just like I pictured it, with bullets constantly flying past my head,

 only to look up and find an innocent baby lying dead. 

Now everybody is screaming for revenge;

so we end up doing the same stupid shit our rivals just did. 

Because in life it’s an eye for an eye, but not one of us could vividly tell you the reason why, Because we were trapped in a mythological lie.

Taught to believe that we were each other’s enemy, 

Only to find out later you are really biologically kin to me. 

And when I finally did wake up from my stupidity, 

It was like my vocabulary did not belong to me. 

I was speaking words like berious instead of serious, 

And when I went to apply for a job the people thought I was confused and delirious.

So I left the place feeling kind of dumb, 

Realizing for the first time that being raised by the gang was not at all fun. 

And the myth that ultimately became reality; 

Well, it filled my life with nothing but heartaches and tragedies!

Harambee (Let’s Work Together)