A Lesson on the Hood

"Let's say you had $1,000, and you needed to double it as quickly as possible. What would you do with the money?"
The question came up in a casual conversartion with a couple of boys who stayed behind to work in the art studio, rather than go to an afternoon dance fundraiser in the gym.

"Hmmm...I would buy an old car and fix it up a little. There's not much difference between an old one thousand dollar car and an old two thousand dollar car." The seventeen year old thought for a moment and added, "I would have to make sure it didn't need expensive parts. The labor is where I would make the money, I work fast."

"If I had a thousand dollars, I would flip it." His classmate jumped on the challenge.

"What do you mean by 'flip it'?" I asked.

"You know, on the street...Buy low sell high."

"What are you buying and selling?"

"Whatever makes money the fastest. You have to sell a lot of weed to make that thousand. Crack is faster."

I raised my eyebrows, and the expression on my face must have asked "Why are you telling this to me?" because he explained, "My brother is in the business, not me...I'm going to graduate."

"In any investment stategy there are going to be risks. What do you see as the risks here?"

The kid from the auto shop answered first. "You might not see all the problems an old car has when you first buy it, and it may cost more money to fix it than you first thought."

The second young man's eyes narrowed, "When you sell rocks, your customers are crackheads. They're crazy...that's a risk. Then there's always the police. Cops and crackheads, they'll both kill you. If you start doing the crack, that will kill you too. There is some nasty dirty stuff out there. Bin Laden will 'F' you up. You have to know names. You get ripped off if you're not street smart."

I had to smile. "Street smart?"

The role revesal brought an immediate authority to his tone. "Street smart means you have survival skills. Someone can be educated in school, but not know how to take care of himself. There are things you can never learn in a classroom, you only learn them in the street. Only if you're out there."

"Like what?"

"Like hoods and territories. How deep the streets are. Names and tags."

My brow, again furrowed, brought forth further explaination.

"Street gangs. You won't survive in the hoods unless you understand how things are organized on the street. Some streets are weak and some are deep. You need to know who is selling and where. If you pay attention and keep your eyes open you will see things. You have to listen, the street has it's own language. There are signs. You can learn." My student-turned-teacher smiled condescendingly.

"Can learning about the street make me a better teacher?"

"Of course, you can't fix something or make it better if you don't know how it works. How can you teach kids if you don't know where they're coming from? It's just common sense."

"So what do your street smarts tell you about making a good investment?"

"Now that I think about it, the car is the better choice. It might take longer, but the risks won't kill you."

There was a long pause, then he asked,
"You have to pay taxes on that car don't you?"