When it comes to thinking about inner-city communities, also known as “The Hood,” what influences come to mind? Do you think of the neighborhood in "Training Day?" Desiigner's "Panda?" Or Rockstar’s "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?" Either way, you could come to the same conclusion, the same description, and the same neighborhood. You think of the hood as a place filled with gun violence, drug addictions, theft, and of course, murder. It's an unfamiliar jungle to us that, let's admit, is something society likes to watch from afar on silver screens and home theaters. In reality, a lot of us wouldn't dare step into those streets. When you have to ride through these city streets, you lock your windows and keep looking straight forward because someone, either your mom or friend from work informed you that looking at someone in the bad part of the city could get you hurt, or worst killed. This similar mindset also occurs when it comes to knowing someone from the hood.

To live or come from the hood is to have a bittersweet advantage in society. You're seen as someone who's probably tenacious and even "cool" because most of the slang, trending dance moves, and popular fashion statements come from the neighborhood (need a new word) you were raised in. But even so, people don't forget who you are or where you come from, especially if you regularly show your "black characteristics." As a black person, anyone who lived in inner-cities, you're approached like a dog rather than a human being with thoughts, speech, and emotions. It's a dehumanizing process. African-Americans aren't seen as humans because of the stereotypes from our past; we share the same mindset with every black person, even the ones that commit heinous crimes and acts of shocking violence. We're seen as the image that was created by our infamous communities.

For years now, communities that are referred to as "ghettos" have been around. Some are doing better, some have gotten worst. Being that the hood is always being watched by society because of how "interesting" our lifestyle is, society is informed on the status of inner-city people. Even though the outer-class people are ready to copy the next trendy thing, they fail to realize the turmoils that plague the hood such as the conditions of schools, poverty, and how unstable home life is for some residents. They fail to see this, but do see that our crime rates are continuously on the rise, that people die, if not, everyday. So when a black man is shot and killed by the police, they ask "why should we care? It’s been like that since forever."

During the time where the Trayvon Martin case was on everyone's mind, I was roaming the online forums of Reddit. I couldn't tell you what the post was about being that it was so long ago, but I can tell you that in the comment section of the post there was a conversation going on about black people rioting, or making a big deal about cops killing black people. One of the comments read "Black people kill each other everyday, why should I care if they die if they don't." This of course was quite the offensive comment but that wasn’t what got me. The thing that got me was the amount of "upvotes", a user's way of saying they approve/agree a comment, this quote had gotten. This wasn't the first time I heard this either, I have seen similar words a ton of times throughout the years on social apps and other sites similar to Reddit. A lot of people believe that black people simply don’t care for the welfare of other black people, but the people that say this are quite misinformed or ignorant to the amount of hard work inner-city communities put in to save their community.

Through the media, black communities are seen as rap videos and fiction hood features. People who haven't stepped one foot in the hood or had a bad experience with someone from the hood have this image painted into their heads that everyone in the hood just want to rob, steal, and commit other atrocious crimes, but that's pretty much not true. We do have a fair share of people who embody these stereotypes but only because it's all they know. Inner-city communities live in this cycle of failures and dead-ends. The education system is based on test grades and teachers who either care about the kids or are only there for a paycheck.Someone can point out that the kids can learn for themselves, that they can pick up a book and teach themselves whatever they have to because all they have to do is apply themselves, but it’s not the easy. Referring back to the cycle, people have been living a certain way for generations; Students or just kids probably don’t have that person to push them to do something because of their parents or guardians aren’t capable of helping them or aren’t even around because they’re streets. This not only takes out the a parental teacher for the person, but also a caregiver. Children may end up starving because their guardian isn’t around or doesn’t even feed them. This forces them to do whatever they have to do to make sure they, or a sibling, are not starving. Those acts of survival can lead to crimes, which can, possibly, lead down a path they can never escape.

The hood doesn’t just consist of people who have no choice but to commit crimes to survive but also have people who are avoiding the streets and the drama that comes with it. These people who are trying to escape the cycle their past family members put them in and kids who are lucky to have a parental guardian to take care of them and push them to reach their goals. These are people who know better and want better. Alongside with the hood infamy lies season of summer where crime rates ascend due to the irritability that comes with the heat. Due to the weather people are more likely to get into fights with and people are killed due to an argument going wrong, but even so,I can say that almost every single one of those bodies has a family that mourned them. Throughout inner-city environments, one can find t-shirts and/or candles placed in areas where their loved ones were murdered. People even organize and come together to stop the violence that occurs in inner-city neighborhoods.

If the above statements are true, someone might ask "then how come people believe that black people don't care for their own people?" and that can be answered by simply saying that it's not being covered by the media. Shootings, dead bodies, and crime is what's taken away from our community and put on our TVs and newspapers. Some rallies and marches are reported but not enough to have society or people who don't live in these communities believe that we're not trying and that we're fine with the living conditions that we’re currently in. The aftermath of shootings and murders aren't reported or followed up on, for reasons unknown to me, but if they were people would have changed opinions.

It has to be known that the ghettos are dangerous, they are filled with crime, and some people of the citizens who live in those communities do commit awful crimes, but that we’re fine with how everything is and it doesn't mean that we aren't filled with sympathy, empathy, or just emotions. People, no matter the skin color or their home address, breath, love, hate, and cry just like everyone else. Instead of assuming that a whole group of people don't care for each other because of a news channel that only reports what they want you to see, do research and learn about those people and the environment they inhabit. You might learn that things aren't as black and white as you think they are.