The people of Baltimore and other major cities across the U.S. have been expressing their frustrations with the nation's social injustices. In the wake of the protests and riots that have ensued this week, The Game stepped forward to share his thoughts. In an editorial written for Billboard, the West Coast rapper discusses the riots, the disenfranchisement of Black men and what impact the protests will have in a piece titled Young Black Men Are Targets. Read an excerpt below:

I'm not there [in Baltimore] to gauge the BALANCE between now and the '92 riots, but I understand the anger. I understand people wanting to be heard and being tired and fed up. I feel what happened to Freddie Gray was just another reminder of the neglect of the African-American youth in America and us as people. Look at how long we've been victims of the world. From slavery, from not being able to vote, up until our children. Young black men in general are targets. People [are] using unlawful force to take our lives. We've seen kids shot [and] beaten. We've seen everything. At the end of the day, we get fed up.

I've watched CNN the last few days, and they’ve called those kids "thugs" and "animals." Everybody's not a thug, man. We're calling these young black kids and our youth "animals" and "thugs," and it makes them more angry. We're doing that when you've got thugs and animals that are police officers, firemen [and] congressmen. In Jeezy's voice, you'd call that "corporate thuggin'."

The last time there were riots in Baltimore were in 1968 when Dr. King was killed. It's not like people are walking out of their houses on a regular Tuesday or Wednesday and setting buildings or cars on fire. It's always in a state of unrest and people are tired. I'm not taking away from any other race, white or Latino, but I'm talking African-Americans, just black people in general.  The struggle and strive of black people just to get to an equal level. I'm not talking about Obama being in office [because] that's amazing. That's great. It's another item we've accomplished; it’s something we can put on the walls and in the HISTORY books. But that's minute compared to the struggle we've fought just to be looked at as an equal race for hundreds of years.

Game goes on to express his understanding of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's position and decisions over the last week. He also says that not much has changed for African Americans over the last forty years, from the L.A riots in 1992, to the unrest in Baltimore in 1968, to Ferguson eight months ago and today. In the Compton native's opinion, if society continues to ignore the social injustices and refer to and treat Black men as "thugs," what is there to be expected? Black people have the support of the NAACP and other similar organizations, but as Game points out, "After a while… when that doesn't work, things get crazy." Despite this however, he realizes that violence doesn't help either because in the end it's the Black communities that are left destroyed.

Read the full piece here.

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