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Everything is going swell for Malo, A young high school African american, having a fantastic life, and hanging with his brother, who he gave the nickname. Uzi. Like the gun. His mother is an African dancer, and his father is a hard worker who has lived and fought white supremacy, as he was an african american activist. This memoir takes place around the 1980s-1990s, Arkansas, in a city called Philly. When Malo, was 12 he hung out mostly with uzi’s friends, who were all older than him, around 15 years old. This was seen as a pact, like a gang, where Malo was an honorary member. Uzi’s friends wouldn’t seem like a good influence for people like Malo. As they were bad ghetto people, who liked doing illegal stuff. But this really didn’t effect Malo, as he always passed on being included int these type of scandals they did. Mostly Malo sits and chills when Uzi and his friends, mostly Uzi’s best friend, to do something illegal like steal a car or go over the speed limit. Sadly, it did bite them in the butt.

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As uzi and Ted both come running in the house and climbing the stairs. They got themselves in deep trouble where the police got involved, not just one of them. But an Army of them. They bust down the door and look everywhere. Malo caught in the middle tries to run away. “Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit!’ they gasped, (Uzi and Ted) jetting right by me. ‘Get in your room Malo’ Uzi yells. They bolt upstairs… I hit the stairs three at a time. I’m almost at the top, but then an earthquake hits the house. I spin to see the front door fly off like a draft….’Police get down!” (Asante 8).  After what happened. Uzi’s step dad, or Malo’s father. Following through a fight of Uzi’s illegal act, and how he needs to act like an adult, with an argument. Malo’s Dad, kicked uzi out, and was going to send him to Arizona to live with his uncle. Who is a well known boxer. This shocked Malo and even though he agreed with his father, he didn’t want to ruin the relationship with him and his brother. Uzi sat Malo down and gave him all of his belongings, to show a sign of respect and pass off on some kind of culture. After Uzi left, this is where Malo’s path and his innocence falls, it's like a coming of age moment, because this is how his story begins.

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After Malo’s mother returns home from the hospital, she isn’t planning on staying because Uzi got himself in big trouble. He was accused of rape. Shocking was to all of them. Except Malo’s father, he didn’t care, but as for Malo and his mother, they booked a ticket to Arizona. It turns out Uzi was told by the girl he slept in bed with was his age, but it turns out she lied and was younger. Causing Uzi to get arrested. Malo’s mother hires a lawyer in secret, secretly spending money from her husband. Malo really isn’t to thrilled tho. Everyone in arizona might seem nice, but Malo feels the negativity towards black people here. How racism is still fond of the white people in arizona’s culture. He even distrust the lawyer mom bought do to Malo seeing through his act. That he doesn’t care about Uzi or his situation. The lawyer just sees their family as another cash grab so he can head home for the night and do whatever.

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After the trial, Uzi’s sentence gets lifted from 50 years to 25 years. “Twenty five years!’ she cries out (Malo’s mom cries out) What the fuck twenty five years of what?! I hear Uzi’s voice over the prison static. Get me out of here! ‘Oh god’ mom says ‘what?’ she can’t stop shaking her head. Weary lids. She tries to say something to me but can’t get it out. She’s melting right in front of me” (Asante 65-66). This greatly affected Malo, as now he probably won’t be able to see uzi for a long while. That's not all tho. Mr roach is on Malo’s tail and suspended him for cussing so many times. In Malos mind all he was doing was speaking out. This takes a heavy toll on him as theirs too much stress in his mind. So he goes and hangs out with his friends and Uzi’s old friends. Where he informs them in Uzi’s situation.

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While Malo’s having a hard time at school. Mr Roach, the principal of Malo’s private school. Always having Malo in his office accusing him for things he did wrong. Uzi got himself in trouble in arizona. Apparently he was kicked out of his uncle's place and is living with a gang. Wildfully. Malo hopes Uzi doesn’t get himself into much trouble. Everything seems to be going bad for the both of them. Malo’s mother is in the hospital right now due to her depression. Malo blames himself for his mother's suffering as he believes he's the one who caused all of this for not being with her all the time. Especially when she needed comfort after arguing his parents were arguing. Malo’s mother has had it rough. When she was married with Uzi’s father. Uzi’s father would always abuse her and spend their money. When she was able to leave Uzi’s father and take her son with him, she then married Malos dad. This made her happy, for a while. Malo’s father was a businessman always working late and only coming home when both Malo and Malo’s mom where asleep. This made it worse as now she felt that Malo’s father didn’t want to see her, she overate to deal with her stress and feels so self conscious about it she's scared to leave the house sometimes.  .

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you know what they say, once you hit rock bottom, you gotta go back up. No matter the cost (9)

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you know what they say, once you hit rock bottom, you gotta go back up. No matter the cost (9)

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Malo’s now forced to go to a new school and a new apartment, one his mother could handle financially. This new school was the opposite of the school that Malo used to attend, this one is public, while the other is private. He decided to name the public school friends, while the private school foes. Malo hangs out with even more people that have a bad influence on him. Its to the point that he’s taking all 4 lunches of this school! Because he doesn’t even know what class he has. He even tricked the school to having his mother’s phone number to his phone, as a secret way to not get caught skipping. Fights always breaks out during lunch, and Malo isn’t afraid to jump in them and start fighting. Especially this one time where a guy in Malo’s class made fun of him, and Malo showed him who he was. “What the fuck is a Malo’ (Lamont, the guy making fun of Malo) everbody laughs. Lamont is strong but he’s slower than a tar drip, too slow to see it coming. I show him what a Malo is, right their in the middle of class, hit him with the punch my uncle jabbar showed me. Make him spit and swallow at the same damn time” (Asante 155).

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He starts stealing his mother's car for multiple times, hanging out with his friends. Even more to the path where he gets a tattoo on his name, of an acronym of his name. This action and behavior has a downfall effect, at school he gets detention from messing around in class. Or messing around was taught by the teachers. His mother was bankrupt meaning they stole everything, even Mom’s car. Malo just tried asking for how to make money but got thrown into detention for talking back and disrupting the class. He decided to escape and ran down the halls. But someone was chasing after him. Mr. Roach. “I kept running. In the hallway… at the end of the hallway, the end of the road, a dead end. My back against the big brown doors that sound like trucks when they open. Roach a few feet away, I push the door open with my butt. ‘If you leave, don’t come back’ he says. The brown trucks give me one last honk as I burst out into daylight and keep running” (Asante 122). After that Malo leaves and doesn’t attend school for the whole week. Instead he hangs out with the gang, where trouble is lurking in every corner for Malo.

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Now all that Malo does while his mother is in the hospital and fathers at work, is stay home or hang out with friends. It does seem that life was harsh on him with him being alone. But when he went to go meet his friends, at the subway station. His eyes caught on a girl, and he wasn’t gonna let her escape without Malo having her number. “As I approach. We catch eyes and suddenly I’m nervous,’hey whats up’ … ‘Hi… and bye’ she says … ‘this is my train. She swipes her transpass and keeps moving. I see the boys laughing, pointing at me… what if I never see her again, I flash my homies the peace sign and hop the turnstile. ‘This is my train too’ I say sitting next to her” (Asante 55-56). Malo made the risk and jumped on her train. He finds out the girls name is Nia, and she's from African Hispanic descent. Malo is unfortunate as he could not get her number, but Nia wanted his, Malo quickly got off at the next stop and walked back home in accomplishment and joy. Now he has something to rub on Uzi

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Things are not looking good for Malo. Two major events happened that held each other backs that could bring Malo’s dream goals down. One was the devorce of his parents. As Malo was sitting in his couch. His father was home for once. He heard arguing from his parents, but to him it all seems normal, as they have argued before. He just never gets into it as he knows it would get worse. It all stops tho when Malo’s father walks toward the door. Malo joined in and yelled fiercely, it looks like dad was about to leave mom. Malo’s mother was sobbing and yelling. This frustrated Malo, he curses at his father while he walks away. This begins the grudge Malo has against his father. Anger with no sign of regret. This leaves Malo in aching pain.

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Illegal might be the way to get out  (10)

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Illegal might be the way to get out  (10)

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Not only is Malo being bad at school, but he decides to make money to help his mother, not in the legal way tho. With the help of his new friends he manages to get weed off them and sells it. To support his mother, his mother is in shock when ever she hands some to Malo, but Malo says he already has some. Through this he gains a strong relationship with his gang, and even gets a gun from them for protection, showing the image of the hood. In the world, this is one of the biggest reasons some kids resolve to selling drugs, to support their family, Anaheim  light house states,"Environmental factors like family, stress, poverty, and depression all play a very large role in both drug abuse and drug dealing. Selling drugs represents a fast way to earn money in the USA, often more quickly than any other legal profession. Nearly everyone has seen TV shows like Breaking Bad where the hero/villain is forced into difficult decisions and begins manufacturing methamphetamine to pay his medical bills and provide for his family." ( Anaheim lighthouse, paragraph 3).

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Malo is stuck in his own classic angsty teenager ways, Every time his father tries to message him, he ignores it, after one encounter he swore never to go speak with his father. He was forever with the hood. Or so he thought, Malo’s best friend, a friend he made during his time in the hood. Amir, got shot, in a crossfire between the cops, and two different gangs shooting back. When Malo arrived at his funeral, this definitely opened up Malo’s eyes. Malo out of despiration, started smoking weed and drinking, and having sex. All to distract himself from the pain of the loss of his best friend was. One of the biggest reasons, teens like Malo act out like this, is due to family problems, just on like how Malo's divorced parents effected him, OEL says "If the parents can't work out their problems and wind up separating or divorcing, the teenagers world is further rocked and thrown off balance as everything in their lives changes." (OEL, Paragraph 6).

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Another thing he did was to continue reading his mother’s diary. Their he could see how his mother felt about him and what she was dealing with. He’s been doing that for weeks. It was until his mother caught him. And she was furious. “I wear these marks with pride. They are symbols of a terrible beauty that speaks to life. Malo is- ‘what are you doing!’ I slam the journal closed but it’s too late, I’m caught. My mom studies her secret words between my palms .’why are you reading my journal?’ she’s standing in the doorway to my room, eyes glassy from meds, staring at me like I broke her heart…’How could you violate me like that!” (Asante 165-166). Malo’s mom proceeds then too scream. In a fit of rage and emotion she throws Malo’s gun, weed, and stuff he had on his bed to the trash. Then she kicks him out for good, just like Uzi.

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A week passes by, and he still hasn’t gotten the money. Malo makes a run for it and decides the smart thing to do is to keep moving, he goes from friends to a friends house, never staying in one place. He hears Bone and Damien are still looking for him. So he makes on decision on getting away from philly by driving. He takes one of his good close friends. Ryan with him. Together they drive all the way too FT worth all the way in texas.  A thing in the real world that relates with Malo, especially his debt. The national family support network is noting of kids in drugs being threatened due to their debt of money. CHILDREN AS YOUNG as 12 are being threatened by drug dealers over debts they have built up because of their cannabis use.

Sadie Grace, CEO of the National Family Support Network (NFSN), said drug-related intimidation has always been a problem but the people affected by it are getting younger. 'The threats were always violent, always . The amounts of money are probably very similar. But the age of people being intimidated has changed, we are hearing more about very young people accruing debts for weed, which is not something we were seeing before,' she told TheJournal.ie. “And they would be well into their drug use or their drug dealing before their parents know about the debt. When they can’t contain it anymore, that’s when their parents would know.” (The journal.ie, paragraphs 1-4).

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This is bad. Really bad. Ever since Malo’s mother dumped his stuff in the trash. Someone’s been chasing him. Malo’s weed dealers, or to say, weed partners, Bone and Damien. Malo needed to pay them back on some weed because, Bone and Damien where running low on it, that they need to sell it to pay off somebody. This was really bad because, Malo lost all that weed due to his mom. He goes to one of their houses. Bones house, and tries explaining what happened but he couldn’t take no for an answer, so they just asked for money from him. Unfortunately Malo had so little that he was only saving it up for food and gas for his new car that he stole. Bone gave him a week. “In his dark dirty basement, with his pitbulls barking non-stop and his goons palming pistols on the couch, he tells me cold:’I’ll give you until the end of the week” (Asante 175).

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Malo Makes it to his cousins house who lives in FT Worth. Ryan and him sit down and chill. Malo’s cousin offers him some condoms if he wanted to go flirt with some girls. But Malo’s not feeling it at all. He misses Nia. Nia broke up with him because of Malo selling weed. Malo turns for real love like it was with Nia. A kid named Alberto, feels the same way about Malo, especially how they both are cutting off their gang/ghetto ties."It was "almost like a drug, an addiction, like a lifestyle," he says. "Once you’re in there you know nothing more, you know nothing less. I didn’t know why my mom didn’t want to let me go out when my friends were there. It was like, oh they’re my friends, but she saw it as oh they’re all the gang members, they’re taking my child away. But as the years passed and the more my mother cried, I kind of realized what I was doing." (State of opportunity, paragraph 7).

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Mistakes happen, just gotta own up to them (17)

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Mistakes happen, just gotta own up to them (17)

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Malo made it to Philly. He settled down, and layed low. He didn’t get himself much into drugs, alcohol, or weed. He was still hiding from Bone and Damien, he also has a plan to go back with his mother and show how sorry he is. However his resting had to cut short, as one of his friends still stuck with their bad habits, they needed a ride to the other side of the city since they were being chased. Malo wanting to get away from Damien and Bone, agreed but he didn’t like it. It turns out while driving, both of them were drunk, and one stabbed in the chest due to both of them messing around. When Malo noticed one of them got stabbed, he drove over the speed limit. This led him to get arrested. While his friend was sent to a hospital. Malo was stuck in a police station for 4 days. Waiting for someone to pick him up. He called everybody except one person. That one person came to pick him up. It was his father. He didn’t understand how his father found him at the police station, but he was mad at his father. He wanted to tell him that he changed but it looks like he didn’t listen as it showed how his father viewed him at the police station only causing trouble. This led both of them to get outside of the road and to fight. But something very unexpected came to happen. “I swing… he grabs me under my arms, I feel his strength as he lifts me off the ground while I beat his back with the side of my fist….It feels like he’s looking right through my soul. All my strength leaves. I can’t leave. ‘I love you’ he says under his breath.” (Asante 221). Malo calms down and the fight is over, he feels really different inside. They went and ate at a local restaurant and made up. Malo was to live with his father, and he was sent to a new school. A private school, however, they were more open minded and understand this school.

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Everybody was diffrenet yet the same. Malo came to like this school. But peace wasn’t to come, Damien and Bone where still looking for Malo. But Malo came to an idea to paying them back, he’d do it legally this time. He sold snacks at his private school. After two weeks of selling, Malo found out that Bone and Damien got arrested, it showed on the news with headlines. “Two big crime drug selling teenagers finally caught and taken to jail.” Malo sighed in thankfulness, not that he’s no longer being chased anymore. But that he could’ve ended up like them, if he hadn’t changed.

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Malo decided to leave Ryan with his cousin as Malo moves in with his uncle, his cousin’s father, Howard. Howard was different from the rest of his family. He wasn’t all ghetto, he was wise and humble at best. He makes Malo read these books that Malo relates to. Malo turns back and looks in the mirror. He saw himself for the first time of what he became when Uzi got thrown in jail. When Dad left mom. When he left the private school. He’s gotten into so much trouble that he rarely sees a future for himself. He sits down and sighs that he has no hope of ever going back to who he was. He tells his uncle what has happened, but Howard finished half his story as he knew what Malo was going through, and he didn’t judge at all. Howard puts an arm around him and tells him a story, “There's a war between two wolves inside of everybody. One is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is good. It’s love, peace, beauty, happiness, truth, hope, joy, humility, kindness, and empathy’ (Howard says)..... I walk to my uncle, ‘in the story’ I ask, ‘who wins between the two wolves?’ ‘the one you feed’ (Howard says)” (Asante 187-188). After staying for a few weeks, Malo believes that he shouldn’t run away from his problems, that he should face them head on and help them be right.

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Hennessy, Michelle. “Dealers Make Violent Threats against 12-Year-Olds over Cannabis Debt.” TheJournal.ie,

Guerra, Jennifer. “How One Teen Escaped Gang Life and Lived to Tell about It.” State of Opportunity, stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/post/how-one-teen-escaped-gang-life-and-lived-tell-about-it.

“What Motivates Someone to Become a Drug Dealer?” Affordable Detox & Addiction Treatment Rehab Southern California -, 26 Feb. 2018, anaheimlighthouse.com/blog/what-motivates-someone-to-become-a-drug-dealer/.

Mayne, Debby. “Problems With Parents & Teen Relationships.” Our Everyday Life, 2 July 2019, oureverydaylife.com/problems-with-parents-teen-relationships-5168364.html.

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Dealers make violent threats against 12-year-olds over cannabis debt

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Parents of addicts have remortgaged their homes in some cases to pay off drug debts.

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A few months have hit, summer has arrived. It is now time for graduation. “Graduation. Birds crisscrossing above our heads. The audience is under a white tent. The graduates, we’re out baking in the loud june sun” (Asante 245). Malo’s mother and father were sitting next to each other for the first time since the fight. After graduation, Malo and his family head to Africa for vacation. Egypt and went to see the egyptian Pyramids, it is then their, malo felt complete, and at peace.

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Malo’s life started picking itself back up again. He made new friends, and in class everyone wrote some poems describing their parts of their lives. Malo would later use the poem he presented, to a blackish church. Nia’s church. It turns out Malo went to a face to face to see Nia and apologized for everything he has done. He promised to show Nia for proof he has changed by saying his poem. Everyone cheered on as they say how moving Malo’s poem was about. It was about black lives and how they up as well of black rights.
Back to the life of Alberto. He picked his life up again just like Malo, and made it his duty to help people who suffered like home. He says he’s thought about moving out of Detroit, starting a new life in a new city, but he doesn't want to turn his back on his hometown. "Why let the children after me suffer the same thing? Why not come back and help out the community? Like the saying goes, you want to have better for your children, and I see myself one day if I do have children, I don’t want them to live this. I want them to live a better life." (State of opportunity, paragraph  12).