Dear Oakland ,
The place where I’m from. You are not half as bad as people make you out to be. People have an image of Oakland in their head and when they think of it, they view it as dirty, terrifying, and violent. There is some violence here and there but we are not the only city that has problems in this matter. Take a look at Chicago, Compton, Brooklyn, etc. I really don’t believe Oakland is that bad at all. There are some places in Oakland that’s actually beautiful. For example, Lake Merrit has a beautiful lake, people running around it to exercise, an amazing park that has lots of trees surrounding it. Another example is Downtown Oakland. There, it’s plenty of people walking around, many beautiful murals or paintings, and extremely nice buildings. Also, they portray us teenagers as “bad kids, troublemakers, gangbangers, killers or just a terrible society in general” when really it’s only a few teenagers that fit into that category. Most of us actually do go to school everyday, and are looking for a better future for ourselves. All of these negative comments and slurs are really just trying to put us down although it won’t. Oakland , you’re actually at great town to grow up in regardless of what people say about us. We are not as tragic or terrible or “ratchet” as they believe we are. None the less, I love where I’m from and represent it everywhere I go.
D’Jhonnay