Kemba Smith: Crime and Disproportionate PunishmentBy Faith A. McGlown
Sojourner’s Truth Reporter
Locked up, seven-months pregnant and the drug-dealing boyfriend that you’ve been protecting is dead. Now, you are left holding the bag for a $4 million drug-ring facing a 24 and a half-year sentence in federal prison—hard time.
It could happen. It happened to Kemba Niambi Smith.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and The University of Toledo Africana Studies Program presented Kemba Smith and her profound story to a full auditorium at UT Law School on Sunday, October 26. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion and audience questions and answers session.
It began 1989 when the naïve, college-sophomore Kemba hooked up with big-time, drug dealer Peter Hall at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia at a campus party. Kemba admitted that she was attracted to his ‘swag’ and status on campus. She was flattered that he noticed her.
Growing up in a predominantly white suburb, Kemba was raised by strict parents, Gus and Odessa Smith, and she was their only child. Hitting the all-black college campus was like culture shock. She had self-esteem issues and wanted badly to fit-in. She started hanging with the wrong crowd who were smoking weed and having sex.
“I thought I knew everything,” Kemba told the audience about rebelling against her parents’ protective upbringing. With Hall, Kemba was enjoying the ghetto-fabulous lifestyle—shopping sprees, cars, bling—but as she pointed out, “nothing in life is free.”
The relationship turned mentally and physically abusive. Hall became controlling, began to threaten and beat her and isolated her from her family.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and The University of Toledo Africana Studies Program presented Kemba Smith and her profound story to a full auditorium at UT Law School on Sunday, October 26. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion and audience questions and answers session.It began 1989 when the naïve, college-sophomore Kemba hooked up with big-time, drug dealer Peter Hall at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia at a campus party. Kemba admitted that she was attracted to his ‘swag’ and status on campus. She was flattered that he noticed her.
Growing up in a predominantly white suburb, Kemba was raised by strict parents, Gus and Odessa Smith, and she was their only child. Hitting the all-black college campus was like culture shock. She had self-esteem issues and wanted badly to fit-in. She started hanging with the wrong crowd who were smoking weed and having sex.
“I thought I knew everything,” Kemba told the audience about rebelling against her parents’ protective upbringing. With Hall, Kemba was enjoying the ghetto-fabulous lifestyle—shopping sprees, cars, bling—but as she pointed out, “nothing in life is free.”
The relationship turned mentally and physically abusive. Hall became controlling, began to threaten and beat her and isolated her from her family.
Still Kemba didn’t leave Hall; even after law officials began to question her. She feared for her and her family’s life. She didn’t snitch, not a word, not even for immunity. Hall had already killed his best friend, Derrick "D" Taylor, because he thought he had cooperated with federal agents.
“I thought I was protecting my family,” Kemba said. “Cooperation [with police] wasn’t an option.”
After turning herself in to police, Kemba finally told officials about Hall’s dealings and whereabouts hoping for a lighter sentence but it was too late. He was dead by a single gunshot to the head.
She gave birth to her son, William Armani Smith, two months later in jail. 
Kemba Smith: Poor Choices
Producer Will Packer to film "The Kemba Smith Story"
Kemba Smith speaks about the importance of self love.
Producer Will Packer to film "The Kemba Smith Story"
Kemba Smith speaks about the importance of self love.
I posted both of these stories because so often we hear/read about how "dumb" these women are and how many of us simply "want nothing but 'bad boys."
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in case management with level three and four adolescent, runaway youth and later, domestic violence victims I learned that not all women who end up with "bad" men were out looking for the proverbial thug.
Just like not all men who have had bad relationships with ungrateful women were out looking for gold diggers and users.
Yes, many of us have made poor decisions as described in these two stories, but no one wakes up one morning, stretches and yawns and says, "My life is too dull....I think I'll go out today and find myself a thug to liven things up."
Many of us end up with people who use and mistreat us because we don't love ourselves enough to expect and demand the best treatment. We feel less than so we accept less than. And this is true for men AND women.
The women in the stories were not drug addicts, mentally ill persons, convicted felons nor were there inner city living women with several children and no hope.
No, they were educated, intelligent, beautiful women who came from good families. There commonality?
A lack of self-love and self-esteem. Many wonder how these women, with so much going for them could end up with such "bums," "thugs" and "slickesters."
Easy.
When we do not love ourselves or have healthy amounts of self esteem, we are vulnerable to meeting people who do not have our best interests at heart.
Men and women with ulterior or less-than honorable motives are keen at finding your weaknesses and honing in on them. They learn to use your weaknesses against you.
They become manipulative and abusive - be it physically, emotionally or verbally. Soon enough you fall deeper and deeper into despair and before you know it, things have escalated.
Some of us are fortunate enough to break these trauma bonds and get away, others are not so fortunate.
Fathers: be there for your daughters and set a healthy, stable example for them about how a man loves, nurtures and cherishes a woman. Love them. Tell them. Show them.
YOU are the first and most important male figure in their life. You are the mold by which she will measure other men by.
Mothers: Lead your girls by example. Dress them like little girls, nurture their femininity. Provide them with structure and strict guidelines on how women behave, carry and present themselves.
Teach them to articulate themselves with elegance and maturity. Monitor what they listen to, view; monitor their friends and the young men that attempt to court them. Instill in them self-love by showing them love.
And if neither of you have a blueprint for any of this, find it. There are parenting classes to help guide you. Ask your minister, Priest or a counselor. And it takes no money to reach out to the Holy Father.
If you have no children now, prepare YOURSELF now so that when that time comes you will have begun preparing yourself emotionally and mentally. There are no parent-handbooks. And we get no "do-over’s."
Good luck, God bless and I wish each of you my kind of happiness.