Gangster

I'm excited to see American Gangster. I don't think I've been this excited about a movie since Hustle & Flow. People who seek opportunity, entrepreneurs, hustlers, they're all suckers for movies about makin' it. I've said it before: there is something very American about it. America, land of the free to make as many chips as you want.

The post is really about gangsters. I was going to write about the The Wire's Avon Barksdale and his drug empire, but I'll save that for another post. To be honest, I have a lot of respect for real gangsters. It's the code they live by.

Denzel Washington: "Honesty. Integrity. Family."

Those are all things I live by. Gangsters, these are men who embraced who they are and decided to make something out of it. They did not wait for a handout or wait for Teri Hatcher to say the wrong thing, so they can force ABC to pay for "diversity scholarships." These are people who took the good and bad about themselves and did what they do. Especially the family part, they were only made better by sticking together. I really believe in that stuff. Sometimes, as I peace out some of my friends, I say "family." Some of them understand, some of them don't get it. I mean, how can they get it? If you're so ingrained in the system, how does it make sense to look out for anyone besides number 1? Can you put "honesty, integrity, family" on a resume? No! And for some reason, telling someone in an interview that you're honest and have integrity means that you're not. It has to be proven through some internship where you probably followed the same process of not being honest on your resume or interview in order to get the internship. It's good to have a nice house, nice car, some security, but in the end, we are what we live by.