stop denegrating PG county! (Laurel, Beltsville: mall, affordable housing, suburbs)

[ebo202]

Guess what people... You are getting labeled every day. And you are going to continue being labeled. Yeah, it does suck.

But if you want that to stop, you have to get off your asses and do it. Don't complain that the neighborhood is declining when you don't know where your own kids are at night. You say you hate being labeled as ghetto trash by people who don't know you? THEN STOP SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE THAT PUT YOU DOWN!!!!!!!!

What am I talking about? Here are some Yung Joc lyrics I cut and pasted...

My *****s cut throat My *****s cut throat
I got some killas on the east and the west coast
Dem braids on your head, get up hoe, uh get up hoe, uh get up hoe
My *****s cut throat My *****s cut throat
I got some killas on the east and the west coast
They whip game real good, they got the best tho
Uh get up hoe, uh get up hoe

Yeah, real classy. There is absolutely NOTHING in those lyrics I want to be associated with. When you pump "My *****s cut throat" or some crap like that out of your car speakers, it doesn't matter how much money you make. You just associated yourself with ghetto-trash. Where do you think Yung Joc would rather hang out? Bethesda or Suitland? Look, I'm not saying it's all terrible... There are some great rap songs out there, but if their message is bad, I gotta make a sacrifice and turn the channel. Why would I put money in the pocket of a guy that calls me a n***a and my daughters hoes?

I used to LOVE rap. It's all I listened to at one point. I listened to Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Kid 'n' Play, Eric B. & Rakim... They talked about how great their lyrics are and how well they can dance. By contrast, here are Slick Rick lyrics....

La di da di we like to party.
We don't cause trouble we dont bother nobody.
We're... just some men that's on the mic
And when we rock upon the mic
We rock the mic (Right!).
For all a y'all keepin' y'all in health.
Just to see ya smile and enjoy ya'self.
Cause it's cool when you cause a cozy conditionin',
That we create, so that's our mission

Now let's see... "Just to see ya smile and enjoy ya'self" vs. "My n****'s cut throat." It doesn't take a genius to figure out which has a better message.

Anyhow, the point is... TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. You don't like people calling you the "n-word" then STOP SUPPORTING PEOPLE THAT CALL YOU THAT! Set the example! Listen to some Luther Vandross, pop in a Tony Evans sermon! Enlighten yourself and speak up when you see kids on the wrong track! Don't expect the world to change if you don't do a thing to change it.

[pwright1]

I have to agree with Alicia Bradley:
The sad thing is, I often hear people criticizing the kind of arguments I'm making as "racist"--ridiculous!! Take Chicago--a much greater city in many ways than D.C., but I digress. In Chicago, there are lots of majority-Black-and-nouveau-hip sections cropping up on the west, south, and even north sides.

I would be thrilled to see P.G. County become livable and aesthetically interesting and harmoniously multicultural and--I could go on and on. But it isn't going to happen anytime soon, from what I've seen. For now, I'm counting the days until I can get out of this place.

I also keep reading Iscalder talking about her beautiful $500,000 home in Upper Marlboro. For me it has to be more than some cookie cutter housing development with strip malls filled with the same old cheap chains. KFC, Applebees, the Dollar Store and the Golden Corral.

[RoadTripGurl]

TO pwright1 if I never gave you props I am now. I feel you on everything you have said. I think all you need to get a taste of PG County is to ride the Metro everyday. The way people talk, and fight over running to catch a train and then acting indignant when somebody accidentally bump you is a trip. I have seen PG County folk go from happy go lucky to pure ARROGANCE! All I see PG County being is a bunch of economics/developnets and no substance. I would like to see it be interresting, I hope the National Harbor Project will open the door to that. Other than that, crime sucks, schools suck, real estate prices suck, not really much to draw attention to.

[ebo202]

Wow, pwright1... You just said it all in your last paragraph! McMansions surrounded by Dollar General and Golden Corral... Wow, if that doesn't scream Bowie, I don't know what does.

In the end, if PG was such a great place to live, there wouldn't be 29 pages of city-data debate over it.

[ptsum]

Have been reading this thread for about a week now and find it very interesting being a native Prince Georgian and have probably seen more changes than any of the rest of you on this thread I figured it's time for me to offer my opinion, mind you it's only my opinion, on this particular matter. I have lived in many areas of Prince George's County, attended various different schools at various different times within this county, Bradbury Elementary School, Capitol Heights Elementary School, the original school that was a three-story brick located on Central Avenue across the street from the firehouse movie theater and drugstore and only went to the fifth grade, Greendale elementary school, for the sixth grade, Maryland Park Junior High School, when desegregation started in Prince George's County, Greenbelt Junior High School, when JFK was assassinated, Bladensburg High School, and went on to the U.S. Navy, and North Carolina State University. I have lived in Hillside, East Riverdale, Hillside, Capitol Heights, Riverdale, Lanham, Landover Hills, Bowie, and Glen Dale. My family and relatives live all over Prince George's County and owned businesses in Prince George's County, in 1947 they started a company and Bladensburg and is still going today, one of the largest fence companies in the metro area. I now live in a different state because I choose to, I am retired and I am looking for a place of solitude to possibly sit back and write my memoirs of Prince George's County away from the noise and congestion that comes with development, don't get me wrong I love Prince George's County after all it is where I was born and I have a lot of good and not so good memories of Prince George's County. In 1962 I was in my homeroom class at the beginning of the school year at Maryland Park junior high school, I sat next to a young man whose name was William didn't get his last name at the time and still don't remember it today but the interesting thing is I know this young man was scared and at the time I was a little afraid myself but within the first few minutes that we both sat next to each other in that classroom we got to know each other fairly well and I accepted him as an equal and he accepted me as the same throughout the rest of the year we would help one another out on different problems in the classrooms, you see he was among the first 25 black students that was sent to Maryland Park junior high school because of desegregation here he was a black minority and here I was a white kid from Capitol Heights at that time that was a white community and was a member of a street gang known as The Avenues. William and I got along pretty good in school, we had our differences but the difference be color of our skin never became a factor, so you see things have changed in Prince George's County, maybe not for the good in every area but basically Prince George's County is not that bad of a place to live, I have lived through the 1968 riots that took place in Washington, DC, after that the majority of the black community that lived in DC at that time started moving out into Prince George's County and who could blame them they wanted to get away from all the crime and burning that was going on in the trouble at that time was not caused by those that lived in Washington, DC but that of those who came into the city to cause the problems and riots, out-of-towners, no one can blame people looking for a better place to live in Prince George's County just happened to have been it at the time. Times were that Prince George's County was always known for its commercial development, warehouses and such, I'm glad to see some high-end development in the county, it's been a long time coming, things can only get better and it doesn't make any difference whether it's known as the riches black county in the country or not all counties have their good and not so good places, the color of one's skin should not dictate that.

[azgirl85220]

I can remember living there for short time in District Heights. It was 1990-1991, crack was the drug of choice. People peeing out in the open at the gas stations. Somebody grabbed my butt as I walked through the carnival at Penn Mar shopping center. YIKES!!

[pwright1]

OMG remember Pen Mar shopping center with the old JC Penney?

[maat]

Originally Posted by pwright1

OMG remember Pen Mar shopping center with the old JC Penney?

Actually, JC Penney is in the Forestville Mall and Pen-Mar is across the street. And pray tell, if we don't have stores like Target and JC Penney where would the average person shop. A lot of people can't afford (or don't care about) Juicy Couture, etc. I'd prefer to focus on ways to stop the violence that takes the lives of young black men every day and claimed the life of our beloved Sean Taylor. Fashion seems pretty superficial in comparision, no.

Please try to come up with some new criticisms of the county. This whole "all you have are strip malls and chain restaurants" thing is getting old. A lot of good things are happening.


BTW, can somebody PLEASE close this tread.....

[bobrulez]

What the heck does "denegrating" mean? You mean denigrating?

Agreed, this thread needs to be taken out back and shot.

[LoveMiiorHateMii]

Yes please please close this nonsense clearly no ne really knows what is going on in PG except for the real people who have grown up here....lol.....Close IT!!!!!