Rick Ross Informative Speech

It has almost become the norm, but it was difficult to read the posts, and peruse the pictures on social media of students gathering around a former convict and infamous drug dealer for a photo opp. The featured speaker is now famous for his name not for his past transgressions in the crack cocaine drug game that began in the early 1980’s. A well-known rap artist, whose real name is William Roberts II, had stolen Rick Ross’s government name to become famous in the rap game as “Freeway Rick Ross”.
On the day of the assembly, only a handful of students had been invited to hear the featured speaker, the real Rick Ross recant his life story. His story contained how he grew up in a single family home in South Central L.A. where gangs—two in particular--had gained notoriety, and as a product of his environment, got caught up running a multimillion dollar drug trafficking operation. He also spoke of working in conjunction with a CIA operative. He was now a recovered drug dealer, who once trafficked drugs; served time in prison; implemented the government’s role in literally delivering” boat loads” of cocaine to America’s poorest neighborhoods, but now he is an author and motivational speaker promoting his book.
I’m sitting in the audience thinking that I had a tough childhood, minus a few particulars, but I chose another path.
I attended college, my major was Deviant Behavior and Social Control. I chose to attend John Jay College of Criminal Justice, because I wanted to understand the urban struggle. When I graduated from college, I became a probation officer. Yes, I had a difficult time listening to the presenter tell his story because I know the students did not have the background knowledge of the 1980’s crack cocaine epidemic, and the trickle down effects of it. The curriculum of American history is limited. If the educator is creative enough in their lesson planning, by the fourth marking period, they may be able to cover the Civil Rights
movement.
So you can imagine my anguish sitting among students in grades 7-12th listening to the speaker cover sensitive information. It made me feel like a child having to excuse themselves from the room while grown folk talked. The students had not been prepared to question the speaker other than the monetary or the materialist gains from the drug trade business. I, and other staff asked questions to shift the tone. Then I had a moment when I reflected upon my educational experience in the same school as student. My history teacher had brought the same type of guest speaker to our classroom. His stories helped shape my future career decisions.
As a former Criminology instructor, and now a substitute teacher covering a criminology class, I felt that the class would benefit from hearing from the primary source. To prepare the criminology students prior to the assembly, I gave them a brief background of “the worst of times” of the 1980’s. I didn’t want them to judge him solely on his lack of education or self-admittance of being illiterate or only hear the speaker talk of delivering cocaine for the pure sake of making money. That by design, cocaine was delivered to the most impoverished neighborhoods in America for reasons so egregious its unfathomable.
The speaker made a good point about being an addict. As the drug dealer has just as much a habit of gaining a thrill from making a lot of money as the consumer of the illicit drug has for seeking the thrill of being high. Both are addicts. The students heard the speaker talk of the rapper who became famous by the nostalgia of an era in history that our community would rather forget. I felt, as the organizers had, that the students needed to hear that no matter how difficult a situation, they have a choice.