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Lamar and the Kids

Lamar tells me this story about his cousin. She’s 19 and pregnant again. This baby will be her fourth. Last night she moved her stuff into Lamar’s mother’s apartment. She couldn’t take her mother telling her what to do anymore.


Lamar’s mother’s place literally has no furniture. But, there is a big ass flat screen in the corner replaying Saints winning the Super Bowl. A group of man boys stand in front of it drinking Big Shots. When the Saints score, they cheer like they haven’t seen this game before.The two bedrooms are afloat with air mattresses. Six, seven of them. So many people are staying with Lamar’s mother right now. She’s on disability, so she gets this apartment for free from the government. Lamar is trying to convince his young cousin to get an abortion. But, talking baby killing in this culture is taboo. Lamar’s mother shushes him silent.He whispers to me that these girls are too ghetto these days. They have babies they can’t take care of. They get depressed. Drink. Do drugs. By the time they are 25, they’re dead. He doesn’t want to see his cousin end up like that. It’s no life for the children, he says.