Throughout my life I was hoodwinked by South Central’s terminal conditions, its broad and deadly template for failure. From the beginning I was spoon-fed negative stereotypes that covertly positioned black people as genetic criminals -- inferior, illiterate, shiftless, promiscuous, and ultimately “three-fifths” of a human being, as stated in the Constitution of the United States. Having bought into this myth, I was shackled to the lowest socioeconomic rung where underprivileged citizens compete ruthlessly for morsels of the American pie -- a pie theoretically served proportionately to all, based on their ambition, intelligence, and perseverance.