OPINION: What we can learn from the life and death of Tookie Williams
Community Contributor | 12-21-2009 | Comments |
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By Jorge Fuentes (left)Four years ago, on December 13th, a man by the name of Stanley Williams, known to many as Tookie, co-founder of the internationally known Crips gang, was murdered by lethal injection.
The reputation of the Crips gang is also well known. Although Williams was the creator, not all the problems to come can be attributed to him because of the gang's notorious expansion. No doubt that this brought on waves of crime and violence in California and the nation over time, but I share one of Tookie's sentiments in saying that had it not been him and the Crips, it would have still been the Bloods or any other gang to take the streets.
The need among Black youth in some areas of Los Angeles allowed the Crips gang to become the door to obtain a family or simply be part of something in a place that offered them no hope.
Even after all the gang brutality he had experienced and after facing his fate in a courtroom and going through imprisonment, I sustain that Tookie's bravest accomplishment was to go beyond admitting his part in inflicting pain on his fellow brothers and sisters and start an initiative to save young children from street life and spare those who were misguided and misunderstood. He dedicated his remaining years behind bars to leave another legacy in this world. While he was incarcerated, he found the man who he should of been all along: a soulful freedom fighter. Tookie expressed this every time he wrote and spoke. He wrote for himself and for the youth in his many publications; he made many direct apologies and even recorded himself to get across to those involved in gang wars, arguing that as brothers they should not fight, and pride and confusion should no longer rule the Black man.
Tookie realized late in his life that we can all find inner truth and peace by seeking it within ourselves... What's more, he knew of its relative simplicity. For some people however, Williams was doing too much; he had become too wise, too dedicated to his new fight to rid the streets of violence. So they called for his life to end.
Stanley "Tookie" Williams did not disband the Crips gang, neither did he end the gang war... which was never really within his power to do. He did, however, give a lot of hope to the families of former gang members, and tried to ensure that the youth of tomorrow do not follow the same path. He left tangible proof that he had become a wise individual, knowledgeable about the truths that had he known as a child. He would have saved himself and countless others.
The man was killed by a system that always knew he lived within South Los Angeles; they knew of his destructive potential, they knew of what he could create as a gang leader. They never saw his true face, never even knew his name... but they created him in accordance to their vision for the ghetto (do we need to get into their vision of our community?)
Tookie was a repressed individual, stressed over family problems, the drug infection penetrating his reality. At a young age he took his life for a run and sought to be above his pains; maybe he didn't realize that it was at the cost of inflicting pain on others. But after his forming of a street gang, he was finally part of a family.
The fault, I believe, has always rested on the shoulders of an entirely flawed and corrupt system in America. America knows that some of the conditions inflicted on its citizens will breed gangsters and thugs... and wait for them to commit crime after crime to later put them away. We don't know any different, so we cant compare... but this is truly an unfair country we live in.
I would like to encourage everyone affected by gang violence and crime in any way to educate themselves on Tookie's intentions to make peace in the world. If you were affected negatively, try and understand some of the truths and reasoning that caused these people to take the path they did. If you know a gang member or are one yourself, just know that there a bigger things in life than getting what you want, that if you do care about this life you can do much more to make it better without having to take from others. And if you don't care, learn to be passive, even without being peaceful... just don't disregard that people are out to make a difference. You don't have to choose a side...
Further Reading:Blue Rage, Black Redemption
The Apology
Tookie's Letter to Incarcerated Youth
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Want to write an opinion piece or start your own column? Email southla@usc.edu
Jorge Fuentes is a Compton resident and journalism student.
Tags: bloods crips gangs opinion stanley williams tookie williams violence youth