Grill, Baby, Grill!

Ahhite, yo, it's gettin' bad, dog. The brothers is shoppin' dey grills. Fo real.
-Tyrone the Barber

I'm not being racist or cute; that's what the man said.

Tyrone's barber shop is usually a place of much levity and talk of families, jobs, kids and whatnot. Today, however, the mood was more serious -- quite somber, actually.

Tyrone told me that some of his closest friends are really starting to feel squeezed. There is good reason for this; every single segment of our economy is shrinking drastically. Brothers and sisters are losing their jobs due to layoffs as demand for almost everything falls record-fast to record-low levels. Many of his friends have made a huge sacrifice within the last month or two that would have been inconceivable a short while ago: among these sacrifices, they have started converting their grills to cash. Words cannot describe how huge this is for them. To some this may sound trivial, but only to those who have no idea whatsoever what Tyrone's world is like. Minimize it at your peril, because although this does not concern you today, it will damn sight concern you tomorrow or the day after, metaphorically speaking with regard to time frame.

Keep in mind that most of these folks didn't qualify for traditional loans when money was flowing like wine, so they are forced to seek credit outside what you and I consider traditional channels. There is a whole nasty sub prime universe that preys on people of this ilk: pawn shops, payday loans, cash-for-titles stores and the like. The latter charge up to $300 percent interest, which should be illegal, but since the victims are willing it's OK for some reason. That world is transparent to the majority anyway; we see right through them such that they might as well not exist for us.

Some are pawning their grills hoping a bridge loan will tide them over, others are selling their grills outright for the value of the metal and bling. This adjustment is a very powerful statement; one that cannot be properly conveyed outside of the African American community. Grills are very personal items to them, they represent the individual's identity and personality in ways that I cannot imagine. It's a signal to me to kick preparations up a notch; the consequences of an economy reduced to rubble and rags is becoming astonishingly visible at deeper levels more quickly than I had thought possible... and I believed I was being pessimistic.

If the shit does hit the fan, you should know that the people who are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder are used to surviving in harsh conditions. I am not singling out any color here; poverty knows no boundaries and can jump almost anyone; soon many more will fall. Survivors at this level of existence are street-wise and savvy to the ways of the asphalt jungle of which we know virtually nothing. They are used to providing for themselves and their families in unusual and creative ways. They feed their families, no matter what.

NO MATTER WHAT.

We're worried about paying our cable bill. Should we quit Cinemax and TMC and just keep HBO and Starz? Their minds are otherwise occupied, and there are a lot of them, so treat them with civility. Already there are tent cities all over the USA; mainstream media reporting on them or the people who built them is incredibly rare. The people who got there first are probably still there, because once a person gets that far down on their luck, they then dwell in the world of predators... predators who prey on the unfortunate. It behooves the predators to keep the poor in poverty, since that is the only way the predators continue to profit from the less fortunate. It is wrong. It is evil. We allow this to continue because we fail to stop it so we, too, are evil. Once a person becomes part of that world, it is astonishingly difficult to escape. So their numbers will only grow; the predators will continue to feed.

If you and I woke up tomorrow morning and could not get cash out of the bank or at the ATM, our heads would first explode with confusion, then explode again with panic. Our day would be shot to complete hell and the loss would be unfathomable as the sickening reality that our lives had changed forever slowly begins to sink in. But to the homeless and the people who live in the woods and the rest of the Culture of the Invisible, it would just be... Friday. Friday, right?

Yes. Friday.

How's your Plan-B coming? At least get something that would be handy in keeping the sun, rain, and/or snow off of you. Just in case.

Thanks be to Brad for the killer photo. To find out why this is funny, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLuq0lW50k