“It’s not regular”
Jahmal Cole
Martin Luther King Interfaith Breakfast
Chicago, Illinois
January 22, 2019
“So last night I couldn't sleep, and it wasn't because we don't have heat. We just heat the
house with the oven. Not having heat on my block, that's regular stuff. I still couldn't
sleep last night.
And it wasn't because I heard gunshots. I hear gun shots all the time. I tell myself they're
firecrackers, I go back to sleep. Hearing gunshots on my block, that's regular stuff.
I still couldn't sleep last night.
It wasn't even because I saw helicopters. Helicopters fly above my house all the time.
They fly in threes. When they go up and down, they float like dragonflies. Rattle the
house. It still wasn't why I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't sleep because the lights from the helicopters were shining through my window
at 3:00 AM. They had the whole block lit up. You could see every bullet casing on the
ground at 3:00 AM, and I couldn't sleep because of it.
I live in a house with my aunt and her husband. Both of them are drug addicts. Nobody
says that where I'm from, that's regular stuff.
The last time I seen my aunt, she came into the house. She had a black T-shirt on with a
Batman logo on her chest. Actually half of her ear was missing. She got into a fight with
a drug addict outside and she laid on the kitchen floor bleeding. It's the last time I've seen
her, a couple of weeks back.
My house is ran by my older cousins, both of them are in gangs. They sell drugs, but
that's regular stuff. We don't say we're in gangs where I'm from. We say ‘this is my set,
these are my friends. I'm a product of my environment. I'm a victim of my circumstances.
I'm in the trenches’, it's regular stuff.
I don't care what none of you all say though. I love my cousins. I love my older cousins,
and I love them because they tell me I'm smart! They say I would be the next Nino
Brown and my teachers don't say I was smart. My cousins, they say I'm smart because
I'm the lookout. I know every car that's supposed to be on my block.
There's nine of them. I know it's a Chevy with a black 10, baby blue Cadillac, van with
the curtains in it, the man with the motorcycle, the royal blue Acura. There's a Toyota
Camry with a city college bumper sticker, there's a lady with a Cherokee, there's all black
Charger with silver rims, and there's a brown Honda minivan. Any car pulls up that not
one of those nine I say, "Look out, there's danger."
They say I'm smart because I'm the look out on the block.
I order my breakfast every morning at the corner store. I order it through three inch
bulletproof glass windows that has mugshots of black faces on it. The windows are so
thick I got to yell my order. I said, "Hey man, I want the Doritos. No, I don't want the
spicy Nacho. I want the Cool Ranch, the blue bag, the blue bag, the blue bag!." And the
guy goes to get it, drops my Doritos in a bulletproof glass jar and he slides it out to me
like I'm an inmate in solitary confinement. I'm in the real world though. ShotSpotter sit
on top of holes listening to gunshots, blue lights are flashing, boarded up businesses for
blocks? Man, if society was a person I wouldn't think society trusted me, so I steal
anyway.
I'm looking forward to going to school today, I guess, because I'm a part of the
afterschool program. It's ran by this guy named Jahmal Cole. Jahmal is always telling us
that he can't afford to take us to China, so he takes us to Chinatown. He can't afford to
take us to Poland, so he takes us to Jefferson Park. He can't afford to take us to India, so
he takes us to Divine Avenue. Jahmal is always saying we can travel the world without
leaving Chicago. And just last week, Jahmal took us downtown and we went to a
museum. But the coolest part wasn't the museum, no. The coolest part was I've never
seen anybody wait for a taxi before. And Jahmal let us all get out, we're waiting for a taxi
and got to ride a few blocks. I thought that was pretty dope.
Hey, I was telling Jahmal, I don't like to go see my dad. He just got out of jail, he's on
house arrest. Every time I see him, he's sending me on errands. But I noticed when my
mom posted a picture of her new boyfriend on Facebook, my dad liked that picture. But
when my mom posted a picture on Facebook of me having a 3.5 GPA, my dad never
liked that picture. That bothered me.”
Hello, my name is Jahmal Cole. I thought it was important to start off and tell that story
because the more we're separated as a city, the less empathy we have for each other.
And that when most people hear about something negative happening in another Chicago
community, especially where people are a lot different from them, it might as well
happen in another country. Well, when you visit different communities and you interact
with the residents, it could change all that.
I grew up in a household where all three of my older cousins and brothers, one doing 80
years in Statesville, 40 years, 20 years, same house, man.
And I'll write my brothers, I write my cousins. I always write them by hand, so they
know I still love them, you know what I mean? And I ask them, how is it in the
Statesville? My older cousin told me, he said, Jamal, you know what? On my block,
because in jails it's blocks, A block, B block, C block. He said on my block I'm not in jail
with any pedophiles. There's no rapist where I'm at. I'm in here with guys that have sold a
little drugs, racketeering, armed robbery, regular stuff. He really said regular shit, you
know what I mean? But man, it got me thinking.
It's not regular for German shepherds to be sniffing kids on 79th street.
It's not regular for helicopters to be landing on top of people's houses at night.
It's not regular to have to order your breakfast through bulletproof glass windows every
day.
If you all just ate your quiche through a bulletproof glass window right now, you'll be
traumatized..
It's not regular to walk inside of a Walgreens and all the costs [inaudible 00:07:06] be
locked up. It's not regular for all the billboards in my community to promote cheap
divorces and $6,000 tax advances.
All right? It's not regular, man. It's not regular for there to be 15 currency exchanges and
no banks. How am I supposed to save?
It's not regular for there to be a liquor store in every other corner. I might as well get
drunk!
It's not regular for there to be a holding cell in the basement of a funeral home.
It's not regular for there to be two petty wagons parked outside in front of my high
school. That's not regular.
It's not regular for 80% of the kids in my program to know somebody that's been
murdered, but only 10% of the kids in my program know somebody that's been to
college.
That stuff is not regular. And they say it's regular, they say that I work with at risk youth.
Man, the integrity of this city is at risk. If we're not supporting programs like My Block,
My Hood, My City.
I want to thank Mayor Emmanuel for the Champion of Freedom Award. I want to thank
you all for coming. I want to thank my board, but there aint no freedom on 79th and
Cottage, man. It's just the Happy's Liquors. There aint no freedom on Roosevelt and
Pulaski. It's just the Mitchell PCS and the bulletproof glass. Freedom without equity is
not freedom. That's just a struggle.
Oppression is super real you all. It's a structural part of this country in its history, it was
created intentionally. And nowadays it's cloaked up in trumped up laws and false media
and we have a hard time recognizing how injustice is being sustained.
It's not regular to see the cheap divorce signs, man. It's not regular.
So I want to thank you guys for coming out and I want to charge you with supporting
organizations like My Block, My Hood, My City, you can do that easily. You can text
message Explore to 55222 and you can sponsor one of our kids to go through our
program for a year. Again, that's Explore at 55222 because it's cool to say, "Oh great
speech, great speech." I need support! It's hard to take all these kids around the city. So I
charge you guys. If you really want to make a difference text message Explore to 55222
and see how you can get involved.
Dr. Martin Luther King said, "In a real sense all life is interrelated." He says, "All men
are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, bound by a single garment of destiny."
He says, "What affects one person directly affects all of us indirectly." He said, "I can't be
what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can't be what you ought to
be until I am what I ought to be." That's the interrelated structure of reality.
In this interconnected Chicago that I envision, all 77 community areas need to contribute
to the music in the city. The residents of Humboldt Park, they're going to play the
timpani, the residents of the Gold Coast, they going to play the cymbals. The residents of
Woodlawn will playing with xylophones and Chatham, you're going to play the bass
drums. We got the most bucket boys in the city. It just makes sense.
Hey, the point is all 77 community areas contributes to the music of the city. And if one
community is struggling and can't play their part, the entire piece is going to suffer and
we're all going to be concerned. Thank you guys.
Please complete the following to demonstrate your understanding and analysis.
1. Identify, by highlighting, Cole’s use of the following devices:
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Imagery
Description
Repetition
Simile
Pathos
Anecdote
Diction
2. Re-read the text.
A. Identify at least 3 areas in which Cole is developing his own ethos. When using ethos,
Cole is indirectly sharing his credibility and his characterization (his personality traits)
with the audience.
a. And that when most people hear about something negative happening in
another Chicago community, especially where people are a lot different from them, it
might as well happen in another country. Well, when you visit different communities and
you interact with the residents, it could change all that.
b. It's not regular for 80% of the kids in my program to know somebody that's
been murdered, but only 10% of the kids in my program know somebody that's been to
college.
c. Oppression is super real you all. It's a structural part of this country in its
history, it was created intentionally. And nowadays it's cloaked up in trumped up laws
and false media and we have a hard time recognizing how injustice is being sustained.
B. Why is it important that a speaker develop his/her/their credibility?
A speaker can Establish trust and build a relationship with the audience it can motivate the
audience to partake in the recommended action.