This post is absolutely amazing. It's funny how even in today we, as black people, are still trying to dig ourselves out of the hole that we have been stomped into. We are still trying to, as you say "swim upstream," against a river that has only ever pushed us downstream. Like Lil Wayne stated,
We probably only selling the crack cocaine
Just because we in the hood
And it's not like the suburbs
We don't have the things that you have
-Misunderstood
Or like Lil Baby rapped in his song The Bigger Picture
We just some products of our environment
How the f*** they gon' blame us?
Instead of trying to understand why the crime rate is higher, they just increased the beds in the prisons to house us. Yet, we swim upstream.
Instead of instituting better recreational programs and educational programs, they throw up a hoop in a cement park and say "either you rap or you ball." Yet, we swim upstream.
Instead of promoting us when we have put in the work, we get the diversity position... Yet, we swim upstream.