Racism: A White Man’s Journey Through Compton

In the early 1990s, it was urban chic to be “gangsta.” Movies like Boyz n the Hood were being nominated for Academy Awards, making gang culture a pop-culture urban force. Also, music, such as N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton, cemented gangsta rap and hip-hop into bonafide musical art forms in the broader American psyche, further fueled by the explosion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Coast%E2%80%93West_Coast_hip_hop_rivalry" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">West Coast-East Coast hip-hop rivalry</a> within the record industry. Killin’ was now kool, and killin’ for cred was a right of passage. Even corn-fed Iowa farm boys were rapping and talking all gangsta-like at school. The following stories contain my initiation into racism by being forced to confront my own. They are as true as I can remember them, and although I’m sure the details have grown fuzzy with time, the moral of the stories remain. This period of my life was truly transformative, and I am a better human being because of my time with the people of Compton. <a href="https://medium.com/backyard-theology/racism-a-white-mans-journey-through-compton-8e8f29f69f89">Read More</a>