Social Security and why I'll Never See It

(Originally Posted on April 19, 2005)

I've been working for a good 14, 15 years now and I've been paying my dues to Uncle Sam. Being a descendent of slaves, I believe that I shouldn't be held responsible for taxes because of the unpaid labor that my ancestors were forced to do during slavery. But, I have no say so in the law (damned electoral college), so I have to fulfill my "American duty." Unfortunately, I (being an African born American) have been faithful in paying my taxes, giving (well more like it has been taken from my check) my FICA, Federal and State taxes, as well as my Social Security taxes. But, since the Social Security fund that I've been paying too all of these years has all but been depleted, I will not see a dime of my money when I am ready to retire at the age of 65.

Why is it that I have to be the one who suffers, thirty-five years prior to my retirement, the loss of my social security benefits? Why is it that I have to now put my future social security benefits in a private account that will probably be enforced, ruled, and given all of its laws by the federal government and just wave my other benefits goodbye? The answer to these questions I dedicate to the trifling people on my block, in my schools, and other events that happen in the hood.

Let me first start off with the school systems and the parents who are so "concerned" about their students and their education. (Disclaimer: I do not believe that all parents are this way in the black community, however, I have been witness to situations like this more often than not.) We have been bombarded with enough acronyms about the mental deficiencies of our children that even Big Bird, Elmo, and Cookie Monster are unable to decipher what they all mean EVEN with the letters of the day. ED, LD, ADHD, ADD, MR, MMR, CD, and the list can go on and on. Now, these acronyms not only mean what disability that child has, but it also means how much of my social security money they are going to get from me. I remember the first year that I taught, I encountered my first social security benefits form from one of my student's parents. This wasn't the first time that the parents tried to convince the teachers at this particular middle school that their child had some type of learning disability so that they could benefit from social security benefits. Veteran teachers even told me that there was nothing wrong with their child and that they were just trying to get some money. I ended up not filling out the form because I didn't see any evidence of that child being disabled, I just thought he wasn't being pushed to do anything.

Many times when you have to label a child with a disability, especially a learning disability, you have to sit in an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) session with the child's parents, teachers, psychologist/psychiatrists, social worker, and principle. We sit at this round table and we discuss what these children are and are not able to do in a classroom. It can be something as simple as they need to have their assignments blown up to a certain sized font if they are visually disabled to just coming to class and answering one question, which was the case for one of my students. This child was labeled ED (emotional disturbed/disabled), CD (cognitively disabled), and LD (learning disabled). All he had to do was really show up in class (he was part of the inclusion process that mainstreamed special education children with the regular population of students) and not really do anything. I had to automatically give him a "C" for showing up everyday (which was total and utter bullshit).

This is why I am so against labeling children. In our not so distant history, say 40 or 50 years ago, many children were probably LD (learning disabled) or CD (cognitively disabled) or some acronym or another and were able to come to class and excel in their work, didn't need IEP's or some social worker telling the teacher what he could and couldn't do academically in class. We did not allow our kids to use labels as a way of getting out of a spelling test because they were only allowed to show up. As a people, teaching and learning from each other, we helped each other overcome our so-called disabilities because there was no room for that. Africans born Americans in the 50s, 60, and even 70s did not allow us to fail within a system that was already set up for us to fail because we believed in ourselves and were already sick of the labels that were placed upon us by this system that encouraged their citizens to lack in the God give rights according to the constitution (Yes constitution is NOT capitalized...it already has the true big C in it: Capitalism).

So, fast forward to the 90s and the era of Y2K. Now, we have Ritalin helping our kids calm down. But if they are so hyper, why is it that they are able to fully relay to me in a very almost adult way that they are unable to control themselves and sit still because they are no longer on their medication? Because of my social security. More often than not, children these days can get social security benefits because they are learning disabled or have some type of "defect" going on in their heads. Then, since so many of their parents (note again I did NOT say "all") are able to profit from their child's "disability," they encourage these children to be less than what they are able to be so that they can keep their monthly payments every 3rd of the month.

Now, since some parents who do this have more than one child (seems like some of them have more than three children) they are able to play on those other children as well. Sometimes, and I wholeheartedly blame the system for this, it's the only way for some of these parents (unfortunately mostly single mothers) to survive. Since here in Wisconsin the new welfare to work system aka W-2 (which I am once again paying my hard earned money to) isn't really paying these recipients as much as they need to help support their families (or sometimes just their lifestyles) they have to sacrifice their children's futures for their present. So, instead of encouraging their children to excel, to not accept the labels that society has placed upon them because they are just words to further oppress them, and to want and desire more for themselves in the future instead of just settling for the present we wouldn't have people like myself and friends of mine that work hard everyday just making it bitching about how we will never see our social security.

And these people who do not encourage their children to be better are on my hit list. Everyday when I come home for lunch (because half of the time I can't afford to pick up some food on the go) I see dozens of homes with three, four...hell, sometimes up to ten people sitting on the porch, dressed (well the men, now since it's getting warm, the women are even more naked than last year) up, drinking beer, smoking weed, enjoying the weather, and as carefree as the day is long. At 11:43 a.m. Now, many of these people are adults who have taken advantage of the social security scheme that seems to be spreading across America. They don't go to work, they don't clean their yards, they have no respect for their neighbors (well at least the ones that go to work), they don't have respect for themselves, and they damn sure don't respect the fact that I'm (along with my other friends) sick and tired of working to keep their sorry asses in outfits that cost as much as my car note while I'm barely able to make car note payments each month. It disgusts me to see my people not trying to do SHIT with their lives or themselves. I see grown women walking down the street with the shortest hems on dresses that I have ever witnessed in real life while about 17 months pregnant. I am tired of looking at grown men who weigh about 130 lbs and wear pants big enough to fit Refrigerator Perry and he has them looped up several times around his middle thigh area while he walks down the street holding the crotch of them with a blunt in his mouth without a care in the motherfucking world. It irritates me to see their babies running around in the middle of the street, almost getting hit while they are on the other side trying to run some game on the opposite sex while your baby will never be able to enjoy his life because he might get hit by either a stray bullet OR run over by some 14 year old nitwit that sold enough dope to pimp his ride and drive all over the streets with it like he's brain dead. And these are the people that my hard earned tax dollars go to.

It would be nice to see that my people, my neighbors, my fellow Milwaukeeans, allow themselves sell their futures for a quick buck in the present. And, it's not even that MUCH money. Many of our people allow themselves to be sold short because many of us can be an impatient, needy, and desperate bunch. I can understand the need to get the things that you need for your children and yourself as well by any means necessary. And I can totally dig that; but instead of using it to keep yourself in the most expensive clothes and your house completely furnished, use the money to support yourself and your kids while you go out and get more education so that you can show your children that it is possible to remove yourself from the labels (of welfare queens). When you show your own children that it is possible to escape labels that follow you for life and allow yourself to be sold short and become someone that is a role model instead of a role in this life we call the hood, then we wouldn't have children who believe that a pill is the only way to improve their lives and destroy the labels that have been here by the (white) system to oppress an already oppressed people.

And, you can keep y'all asses OUT of my social security.