Project Fatherhood by Jorja Leap

Author:Jorja Leap
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780807014530
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC (Publisher Services)
Published: 2015-05-05T04:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Checkmated

We are all gonna have to change—our attitudes, our beliefs, even what we do as our behaviors. But change takes time.

—Michael “Big Mike” Cummings

I have tried to keep tabs on Matt, but he remains elusive. Big Mike has seen him leaving school and checked in with him, but he rarely sees Matt around Jordan Downs. Matt seems to spend most of the time indoors with his girlfriend. When Matt first joined the group, I had been concerned that he could be at risk for gang involvement. My fears were unfounded. Even now, he is not in the least bit interested in Grape Street or any of its cliques. Matt lives at Jordan Downs at a remove. I catch word that he likes to party, mainly to drink and hang out.

“Listen, he’s not interested in dope at all. He’s not interested in money. The only thing he’s interested in is school,” Big Mike tells me. With his soft eyes and gentle manner, Matt is not assigned the role of potential gangster. Everyone is protective of him. Even when I ask some of the local gangbangers why they never went after Matt—neither recruiting nor rejecting him—they all tell me the same thing.

“Nah, we leave Chicago alone,” one offered, calling Matt by his nickname. “He’s smart.”

“He’s does good at Jordan, so we let him be.”

“He’s too soft, and he’s good at school,” Buddha elaborated. Buddha was one gangster whose name fit, intellectually as well as physically. Large and thoughtful, he offered a new spin on the hood code of ethics. “Someone’s good at school, we leave ’em alone. They’ll do something good for the community, we support ’em. That’s all. We don’t wanna jack them up. Y’know, some of these youngsters, they’re gonna go to college. I figure we gotta do what we can for them.”

As usual, gang culture never ceases to surprise me. Evidently there was some sort of neighborhood waiver that operated when someone was smart and—the key words—in school. This somehow differed from someone who was intelligent yet useful to gang life. I had seen too many youngsters with good business sense and street smarts snapped up by one of the neighborhoods—black or brown—because gangsters were good talent scouts. I knew multiple wannabe MBAs at work in gang life right now. But Matt was left alone. The local cliques recognized an intellectual.

Among the fathers, Matt is the example the men hold up to their children. I hear Debois tell his twin sons, “See, you can be like Matt. He is getting ready to go to college.” When Matt returns to Project Fatherhood after missing several sessions, the men are happy to see him. They all openly express their collective pride and welcome him with open arms. He listens quietly during the meeting but tells the group he has an announcement to make near the end of the session.

“My girlfriend is pregnant.”

The men listen to him in silence. They are stunned.

“You sure, man?”

“Yeah.”

“You know we’re here for you.”

“Yeah.”

“You reach out if you need something.

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