Hi, my name is D. Scott and I’m a suckfish.  I’ve spent the past 72 hours reading so much academic drek critiquing critiques of popular culture that the muscles along my neck stem have gotten the krylon shakes.

“…A good critique ought to ‘leave room for a surprise…for something or someone to surprise you and say stand aside, I want to speak…Critique is most useful when it is grounded in a deep understanding of the concrete cultural practices of ordinary actors…in order to criticize a cultural practice, the cultural critic ought to use the moral criteria at work within the community…developing a critique of evaluation that are as much as possible internal to the traditions, standards, and meanings “ -Eva Illouz

So let’s make graffiti.

I don’t really know what day it is and I don’t care.  And thinking about it, I’m not sure if all this blurring red eruption on my wrists is a stamp or cause for serious concern…

[Gods, why?]

…Maybe I should be at a hospital. I think I actually succumbed to heat stroke an hour ago when I stood outside with an event promoter, threading some odd number of falsehoods and misleadings into the life-line toward a free-pass into this KRS-One show.  It went something like this:

“Oh hey, whassup man - I’m a DJ.”

“That’s great! Are you Kool Kuts?  DJ Novella?”

“Oh, nope.”

“So…”

“No, yeah, I’m a DJ. I’m just not DJing tonight, but I came with one of the ones who is.  I’m hyping her set.

“You’re…so what is that, like, you’re gonna spit while she does her thing?”

“Eh, not really.  Just kinda like…its like if Fat Man was one person and Scoop was another person.”

“So you’re a DJ who hypes another DJ?”

“Yes, and we do this all the time.”

“And people are about it?”

“Yeah bro, I have like a really big personality and people totally love it.”

“Okay, well maybe you should talk to Aria because -”

“Yeah, I totally talked to Aria – she was like “eeeehhh” but its cool.  We’re good.”

“Ummm…yeah, well, alright…”

*STAMP UNLOCKED*

“Hey thanks, bro.  Ey that’s a really dope shirt.  I hella like that shit.”

Seven.  That’s seven lies.

It was somewhere around 10 minutes after this exchange that I was informed this event was a benefit show for the Washington Neighborhood Center, which made me pretty much a complete asshole for looking a fat grown man in his face and feigning honesty and likeability to get in for free.
The mission of the Washing Neighborhood Center is:

“to provide a safe and positive environment for youth and young adults and to assist them in developing healthy minds, bodies, and spirits. The Center’s staff and volunteers embrace these values and are committed to serving as positive role models and mentors.”

Pretty dope, pretty dope.  So of course its being closed down.  You know, funding, right?  Budget cuts.  Right?

This situation bothers me more than a little bit, these really clumsy and constant reminders of ‘priority’ and ‘disposable’.  Moreover, when I’m in a room packed with hella young people having hella fun with no type of negative shit poppin off, I really wonder about the types of ideologies, ways of seeing, and decision-making structures that frame the understanding of the two.

I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen hella public officials rollin through anybody’s hood on the regular, tryna talk to people who live there to see what’s good.  So how are decisions like this getting evaluated – what’s worthy  of being funded and what isn’t?  Statistics?  Well, then, what’s being measured and according to what criterion?

I see about 75 smiles, let’s say 42 laughs (13 of them full-belly ones), 20 conversations happening and hella people dancing.  What is that worth, statistically?  If 45-66 percent of folks here tonight, or any given night, are being kept away from some potentially dangerous situations, what then?  Are there hard numbers for this?  The value of the number of young people being kept outta harm’s way?  Sorry – Gettin’ a little emotional, sounds like…

But when looking at these problems we abide by data, and reason from a safe objective distance and speak in safe, objective language because that’s neutral.  Emotionality will of course bias conversations, studies, research, etc and when it comes to discussing matters of public policy, that is  – we need the rationale of neutrality.  The smart distance of objectivity.

Nevermind this fact that access and inculcation into this language usually hinges upon a set of factors that aren’t themselves neutral (like your education, for one), which throws the whole idea of ‘neutrality’ into jeopardy.  Also nevermind the fact that everyone accrues an untold number of biases/perspectives and pretending that adopting a different idiomatic structure and using hard math is going to rid you of that all by themselves is kinduv a retarded idea.  So what the fuck is objectivity, for one?  For two, since its deployment in our social/political/educational structures seems obviously problemed and flawed, can we maybe think of other ways to deal with issues?  Why can’t you stand in a room of hella young people and have it matter when they tell you of the things they believe, or the things they’ve seen or fear or come to know – to actually put stock in what they’re telling you about their own lives?  I’m not saying give everyone keys to the city, but…just have it count.  And count for a lot more than it does now.

I know that coming to the table with people you don’t really know and exercising compassion renders making the hard decisions that much harder.  But I also know its possible.  And I also know (or believe, anyway) that the current methodology to decision making just fucking isn’t working.

Most importantly, I know that not listening to eachother is fucking killing us.   Our voices are more than non-empirical, skewed and disposable data.  They’re the life stories and small histories of this entire planet.

…Oh, but my fault, right?  Got a lil’ emotional there again.

What’s good, fammo?  Catch me peacockin in space.  Until the next time, its D. Scott – aka Kevin Spacesick.  Hit me:

young.d.scott@gmail.com

www.twitter.com/youngdscott