Slipping Read online

  If you think I'm playing, go to your local municipal court. Have someone point you to drug court and watch the steady procession of dealers and users.

  I used to get high. It started off innocently enough at the age of twelve with a puff off a joint and a swig of beer. By the time I quit at the age of twenty, I was smoking crack on weed (premos) in near-lethal doses on a regular basis. I can remember swearing I would never smoke crack in any way, shape, or form. I'll always remember that tweaking, paranoid, exhilarating, nauseating, heart-pounding, guilty feeling that premos would give me, and I pray to Heaven that I never experience that again. I was fortunate never to have grown into a full-fledged rock star, but many of my peers weren't that lucky. Even now, after close to a decade and a half of sobriety, I know I'm always in a precarious position when it comes to chemicals—just one drink or drug away from going back down that road.

  I often hear non-users swear up and down that it's simply a mind thing. I don't dispute that, but that's not the whole drug phenomenon. It's a soul thing, too. My uneducated guess is that our individual psychological makeup makes many of us susceptible to drug addiction. We spend countless dollars, hours, and energy trying to self-medicate. As a teenager I often felt lonely, awkward, maladjusted, or unloved. If I had a big bag of weed, some cocaine, raw or cooked, and some champagne with pineapple orange juice, I was good to go. This is not to say that average, everyday, normal people don't get addicted, but I think we fabulously unbalanced people have a greater chance of becoming slaves to narcotics.

  I often think about the famous “War on Drugs” and the effect it's had on people. Since the influx of crack cocaine into urban, and later, suburban America, millions, even billions of dollars have been spent on this fictitious war. Once again, politicians spent the taxpayers’ dollars to treat the symptoms, not the disease. Those funds would have been better spent building treatment centers, educating our nation about the seriousness and pervasiveness of addiction, bringing affordable mental health care to our communities, and fighting the social and economic conditions in which the crack culture flourished. Utopian-thinking, silly me.

  Actually, I support the legalization of narcotics. Don't be taken aback. In certain communities, the stuff is treated like it's legal anyway. If it's legalized it will have the same drawing power as alcohol, and the government could regulate its use (if they don't already). That would remove some of the dangers associated with its use and purchase. Translation: That Fortune 500 vice president will be less likely to walk into Walgreen's and buy an eightball. Bringing a problem like this to light would give society a truthful picture of the American addict and his counterpart, the dealer. This will not happen, because it would bring our legal system to a grinding halt. We wouldn't need half as many judges, lawyers, prisons, prison guards, and police.

  When I was still in the streets, every time an addict would walk up to me selling his child's diapers, his aunt's television, or whatever, I would think about the power that drugs have over people. It also made me think about where I would be now if I hadn't gotten some help. While chasing that crack, there's no telling how many people I would have hurt, directly or indirectly. I have to thank my higher power that that isn't my life today.

  It seems that the novelty of crack is finally beginning to wear off in our communities, whether because of people getting help to get their lives back, going to prison, or dying. It's not over. I'm not saying that. We have a decade-plus of hard knocks to learn from. The effort to rebuild our communities will have to be like Reconstruction after the Civil War, but it can and must be done. And if another cheap, plentiful, easily accessible drug comes along in this new millennium, I would like to think that we have learned from our mistakes and are better equipped to deal with it. Until next time, y'all.

  Peace,

  Y. Blak Moore

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always I acknowledge the Creator, the beauty and wonder of our universe, and pray for an end to our depravity and insensitivity.

  Tebby, I wish you would gone head and write that book. To my nephews, Dwight, Devin, and Darius.

  Since this was an old school joint, I've got to acknowledge some of my old school fools: Tony Cleveland, Billy Will, my cuzo Bre, my cuzo Tanya, my little cuzos (well not so little anymore) Chad and David, Rube, Rajon, Ced, Abdullah, Junior, Vance, Brian and Pokey Peace, Scoots, Boo-Boo, Kwami, Insane Wayne, Jimmy D the King of Sig, Black Keith, Tito (RIP), Big Jerry, Anthony, Mad Max, Big Brew, Morris, Earl, Pooh Dog (RIP), Howard (RIP), Crucial, Rob Base, Big-Bank Hank, Big Martini, P-Funk, Slo-Kid, G-Craps, Square Biz, Crackdaddy, Leroy, Pete Rose, Big Ray, Lil Essie (RIP Sleeze, love yo punk ass), King Gatty, Keno (Nolan Ryan, much love), Mickey (Mookie), Tanya (Apple-lo), Poobie (Big Al), Toya (Puffy Face), Squirrel, Boogie, Cujo (Nose), Jay, Pooh Man (Thirsty), Lil Bryan (RIP), Plucky Duck, Lil Man, Lil G (both of y'all 510 & 511), T-Man, Bubble-Yum, Chevy (RIP), Gus, Mack, Rat, Pat, Pooh (PG-Slime Thug), Thick Mick, Zonnie (Scoody Woody), Vicky Ma, Nicky Nu, Shahidah, Mary, Keisha, Jermaine (Herm), Terrell (Grimeski, shut up punk), Reggie Clark, Toke, Mike Ski, D-Low, E-ric, Shoemouth (RIP), Ice Dolen, DC, Magic Juan, Mase, Face, Bleek (Mr. Neal), Geo, 50Bill (RIP, I still owe you from that last egg/water fight), Skitback (that what you on?), Biggie, Eddie Delaney, Chill (RIP), Geno (RIP), Cocky Ed, Joe Cool, Big Shorty, Tywan, Shock Diesel, Lil Willis, Big Goon, Rachel (gray-eyed rat, you know I love you), CK, Chickaboo, Marcus Jefferson, Killa Cali, Cheesecake (RIP), Charlie Hines (RIP), Toby Blue, Big Tobe, Big Ant, Super Lou, Dwight, Hunky B, Lawrence, J-Ball, Black Jamie (RIP), Rashawn, Gigolo, Barbeque (Rapping Rodney), Tical, Smallhead, Tubby (RIP), Kemo (RIP), Marty Boo (RIP), Marly Fraud (Fraud Jenkins), D-Mike (Debo), Chuck, Floyd, Whitey (RIP), Murder Mike, Vonnie (I'll still knock you out), Punkin (Got to stay away from your hugs), Talibah (Tally what's up, pimp) Noni (Dimepiece) … Whew, that's enough.

  If I missed you, I'm sorry. If you can't accept that KMA.

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Y. Blak Moore's Slipping. We hope they will provide new ways of looking at this insightful novel.

  The overarching theme of Slipping seems to be that using crack is a one-way road to destruction. Do you think Don-Don's story is realistic? Why or why not?

  Juanita enters Don-Don's life during a basketball game, by chance. And eventually she is the person who convinces Don-Don to smoke crack. Do you think that if he had never met her that he would probably not have ever tried that particular drug? If you think he would have become a crackhead anyway, discuss why. If you think it was entirely her fault, explain why.

  Dre is Don-Don's oldest friend and he is the last person who wants to believe that Don-Don is becoming a tweaker. When Don-Don goes after his old crew to get some help hustling, they reject him—and so does Dre. Is this an example of the worst kind of betrayal? Or is there anything wrong with Don-Don's predicament at this point?

  Rhonda, Don-Don's sister, seems to sense that something is wrong with her baby brother, and Mrs. Haskill, Don-Don's mother, also gets worried when her son disappears for long stretches of time. But neither of the two women ever catch on to how bad things get for Don-Don and what his and Juanita's life is like cooped up in his bedroom. Do you think Don-Don's family should have, or could have, intervened sooner to steer him away from his tragic path? If yes, what could they have done differently?

  Growing up in the hood is challenging for all of the kids in Slipping, and most of the characters in the book make their living off of selling drugs or selling stolen goods. A few people, however, like Rhonda, Don-Don's sister, are determined to get degrees and get jobs and move out. How is it that two kids from the same family (Don-Don and Rhonda) could lead such drastically different lives, with entirely different goals?

  Slipping demonstrates with violent clarity how vicious a street thug has to be in order to survive, but it also shows how the influx of crack use inside the African American commu
nity might have introduced a new kind of desperation for addicts. Do you think the author convincingly portrays what new problems this drug might have produced? How does the author paint the “before-crack” and “after-crack” picture of the hood?

  Don-Don seems to have little remorse for how he treats Juanita, and doesn't have many qualms about killing any obstacle in his way by the end of the novel. Is this part of Don-Don's innate personality or did the crack do this to him? If you think it's the crack, explain why you think crack motivates Don-Don. If you think he would have turned out like that anyway, explain what motivates Don-Don.

  In a couple places in the novel, the author states that a Black man is standing on the corner doing what Black men everywhere do: stand on the corner and wait for a hustle. Is this true, and if so, what does it imply about urban African American men? Discuss who is responsible for this situation. If false, explain why the author would make this apparent exaggeration.

  Is how Don-Don leads his life wrong? If yes, explain why. If no, explain why his actions are justified.

  Why is it that Don-Don fell victim to crack abuse while his closest friends did not? Does the fact that they didn't become tweakers suggest that crack use didn't sweep the African American community as strongly as the author wants us to believe?

  A CONVERSATION WITH

  Y. BLAK MOORE

  Why did you decide to write about crack use in your third novel?

  I thought it was a relevant subject to write about, being that I write for and about the streets, and it wasn't too long ago that crack cocaine was taking us under at an alarming rate. It [the crack epidemic] still isn't over, but we're coming back from it.

  Who do you want to read this book and how do you wish them to think about it?

  Well, as a writer, I want anyone who wants to read it to pick it up, but mainly the young cats and girls out there who don't really understand what happened to a lot of us during this period in our struggle in America. Also, I don't think that we realize just how much a lot of today's adolescents in the inner city were affected by crack cocaine.

  You have three children. Do you discuss your books with them? What have you told them about your past history with drug abuse?

  I have two daughters, one fourteen years old, the other thirteen, and a three-year-old son. I talk with my daughters about my books and hope they get something out of them. I have talked with them at length about addiction and addictive personalities, which seem to run in my family.

  Some people might see Slippingas a cautionary tale while others might see it as an exploitation of a serious problem. What would you say to each of these judgments?

  If anyone can see this as being exploitation—simply put— they are a hater, and there's nothing I want to say to them. Slipping is purely a cautionary tale, but I couldn't just say, “Do drugs and die!” I had to give them something to latch on to.

  You mention in your author note that you think drugs should be legalized. What do you think that would accomplish and do you feel this way about all drugs? Also, you've been sober for many years. Does your desire to see drugs legalized conflict at all with your desire not to use them ever again?

  I've been clean and sober for fourteen years now. I know that legalizing drugs is an age-old argument, but I whole heartedly agree that it should be done, especially if the government can't seem to stem the manufacture, distribution, and sales of these illegal substances in our great country. As we saw in the old days, prohibition does not work, instead it spawns a black market for said prohibited substances. Along with these black markets, such things as wholesale violence and a certain degree of lawlessness accompany them hand-in-hand.

  If your children wanted to experiment with drugs, would you let them? If yes, at what age? And with what drugs?

  No, I would never condone any experimentation with drugs by them at any age. Though I know that one day they will become adults and have the right to make choices in their lives such as drug use, I will still never condone it and they can never do it around me.

  A lot of your fans are in prison and feel that you are particularly good at describing “the life” on the streets and in the joint. Do you think people who haven't experienced some of what you write about firsthand will be able to relate to your characters anyway?

  Hopefully so, I like to think that I break it down enough for anyone to catch on. I think that the inner city culture has always been sort of a phenomenon to outside cultures and they like to take a peek at the way some of us live. I mean there are billion-dollar examples of this such as hip-hop.

  How do you think crack changed the urban African American community? Do you think that if crack hadn't become popular that something else would have caused the same problems or is there something specific about the consequences of using/introducing this drug?

  Most definitely, yes. Crack changed the urban African American community. It divided us even more than we were. It turned kids into killers, and killers into kings for a short while. A countless number of my brethren languish behind bars and many a corpse grows moldy in its coffin because of crack cocaine. If it wasn't crack that struck us so hard, it would have been something else because the black race in urban America was waiting on something to assuage our existence. What better than something that could make you feel good or feel rich? As babies of the sixties and seventies our psychological makeup made us easy prey for crack cocaine, a potent mixture of problem-solving, mind-numbing escapism.

  Which character in Slipping do you relate to the most? Say a little about how you are creatively inspired.

  I like to think that I relate to them all because I created them, and that makes them all my children, be they good or bad. I'm usually inspired by the things that ail the people around me—my family, friends, neighborhood, community, city—and crack cocaine during the late eighties and the nineties affected so many of us, it was and is ridiculous.

  What is most important to you about Slipping? Getting across a message or providing a good, entertaining read? What do you want your readers to take away from this particular book?

  I wanted to do both. Like I mentioned before, it wasn't an ad for drug prevention; it's a novel, so it has to be entertaining to some degree. But it also has to have some imagination to make readers want to take the journey with you.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Y. BLAK MOORE is a poet and a former gang member who grew up in the Chicago housing projects. He is also the author of Triple Take and The Apostles. Blak has three children and lives in Chicago. You can reach him via e-mail at [email protected].

  Slipping is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the

  products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance

  to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2005 by Yanier Moore

  Reading group guide © copyright 2005 by The Random House Publishing

  Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by One World Books, an imprint of The Random

  House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  One World is a registered trademark and the One World colophon

  is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  Moore, Y. Blak (Yanier Blak)

  Slipping: a novel / by Y. Blak Moore.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-54668-5

  1. Teenage boys—Fiction. 2. Chicago (Ill.)—Fiction. 3. Drug addicts—Fiction.

  4. Fatherless families—Fiction. 5. Policewomen—Family relationships—Fiction. 6. Crack (Drug)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3613.O569S58 2005

  813'.6—dc22 2005040592

  www.oneworldbooks.net

  v3.0

 

 

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