Selling drugs on the corner...

After school today, Nicole and I walked to the bus stop to head home. Little did we know we were in for an adventure. BG, BJ, Kevin, and Aaron were conducting their business on the corner. I had always been curious about how exactly being on the corner works, and found myself very curious about this group of boys. BG is currently attending high school, and got kicked out of Collins recently for fighting. BJ is still in school and heads to the corner after he gets out at the end of the school day. Kevin was very quite and pretty much stood on the side. Aaron graduated high school and wants to be a business man when he grows up. I kept talking to them, in the back of my mind thinking about Big M (he's told me before that he stands on the corner with his uncles frequently). It was very clear what they were doing out there, yet Nicole and I still wanted to take the time and effort to talk to them and get to know them a little bit rather than just ignoring them. Hopefully we'll run into them again in the future and maybe even spark just a little bit of an interest in doing more than just dealing. In the 10 mins that we were waiting for the bus, there was at least 6 dealings, one with a mom and her young daughter. "Keep walking, baby girl, keep walking," she tells her daughter as they walk by. We locked eyes for a moment and I thought she was trying to walk away from the boys and protecting her daughter from the smoke, but as she passed by me, she pushes her daughter to continue walking as she hands money to Aaron and he in turn hands 2 baggies of weed. The little girl just kept staring in confusion. The most interesting part to me was how obvious it was. Instead of saying hello to people passing by, Aaron says "Weed?" and as quickly as that, the person accepts or declines. Most of them waiting until they pass back again to hand over the money and receive their product. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed talking to these boys, I liked them. It's just unfortunate that they feel they can only do that to get ahead. "Why did you get kicked out of Collins?" "Because of fighting?" "Why were you fighting?!" "Well, because I'm black! You know how it is!" In some way, I really hope having a normal conversation with them can in a way make them realize people aren't against them, there are other ways. We'll see. All I know is that I'm trying my best to remember their names, so next time I see them, I can show them that there are people that care about them and how they are doing, what they aspire to do, their past, their present, their future,...anything really, I want to have some sort of positive connection to them, something they may not have with too many people.