Everybody Hates Secrets
After dropping outta school and getting a GED, I realised that although GED was a Good Enough Diploma to my standards, the rest of the world didn't seem to think so...
[Cut to wall street]
Bank manager on Wall Street: A GED? What you coming here for? Are we crooks? You think we hirin' ex-cons now?
Chris: I'm not an ex-con – I dropped outta high school.
Bank manager on Wall Street: Dropped out? You think we hirin' quitters?
The only jobs I seemed good for were either minimum wage, or jobs they really did give to ex-cons.
[Cut to McDonalds]
Mcdonalds boss/manager: you're hired! [shakes Chris's hand. Chris smiles].
[Cut to Chris wearing the McDonalds outfit, and behind the counter at McDonalds] you want fries with that?
Even though I was working a measly wage that proved that my boss didn't care about me, the quality of my holidays, or even whether I had shoes on my feet, my dad was still proud. After taxes, I had a sub-minimum wage, but I got to keep all of my father's respect.
Julius: my man! [smiling proudly] You working 3 jobs now! 3! You even out did your own father!
My mother on the other hand wasn't so pleased.
Rochelle: I can't believe this, spending all those years in Corleone don't count for nothing?
My mother never could understand that just because the school was "all white", didn't mean that things were alright.
Julius: we might as well have sent you to the school in the neighbourhood. I told you that fifty dollar bus pass was a waste of money.
[Rochelle raises one eyebrow at Julius as she changes posture from having a hand on her hip to crossing her arms]
That look meant, if you say 'I told you so' one more time, I'm a slap the shine off your head.
Rochelle: Mmm, like he needed to learn how to sell drugs and end up on crack at the neighbourhood school.
It was true – at the neighbour school in Bed-Sty, you could get an education in selling drugs, in fact, more people graduated carrying guns than a diploma. I had a GED in my back pocket, they had LSD in theirs.
That was no secret.
But other things the house was going on that certainly were...
My mother was always suspicious. Normally it was for no good reason...
Rochelle: It's late. Boy, where have you been.
Rochelle: it's early, girl, where are you goin?
Where have you been? You weren't at McDonalds...and docs closes at 8...so you better not be out there selling no damn drugs
But she wasn't always wrong. A woman's intuition can be sharper than a steel knife at a rap concert. And my mother certainly was sharp. I had a secret...