Survival of the Fittest: A Newark Story as Told by Tahgee – Part One

While sitting in my home in the city of Newark, NJ, I reflect on the way I grew up, the challenges and struggles I’ve faced up until now in my young adult life. In my opinion the things I had to endure are insane. No child should ever have to go through the hardships I went through, especially at the ages I went through them. I have been in and out of the Essex County Juvenile Detention System from the ages of 15 through 18, for carjackings, to various gun charges, etc. 

This personal essay, “Survival of the Fittest,” records the early stages of my surviving the streets of Newark, New Jersey, where it’s nothing but death, violence, jail, dysfunctional families, negativity, and much more. 

Before I started indulging in the street life, I used to live in Philadelphia with my cousins, aunts, uncles, mom, and siblings. I was generally a good kid. When I was seven years old, I moved from Philadelphia back to Newark at the age of eight. Once I came back and started to grasp whatever understanding of life I had in my mind at that age, I started to indulge in fights, destruction of private property, vandalism, getting suspended from school every other week, not doing my homework, etc. 

My mother, Sameerah, was always on my behind, but it was only so much a mother could do with her son in an environment like this, especially once they get into their teenage years and start growing. I’ve never really listened to anybody, but that was because no one took the time out to try and understand me and why I was the way I was. I understood that Pops being in jail meant that she was all alone and doing the best she could, and I respected it.

Still, I got up in the street life to get some money to gain my freedom, as I was doing what I was doing, my mother kept putting me out for days, weeks, even months at a time. My mother is my best friend, no doubt about it at all, through thick and thin. My father was in jail throughout his entire childhood. When he found out I was in the streets after he came home, and he couldn’t get through to me, he just ended up abandoning me.

The gun violence in Newark is crazy. It happens too often. This past summer, I was shot twice in my upper right arm at the age of seventeen. I have multiple friends who were shot in the year of 2024 alone. Many of them are now in jail for guns they got caught with after being shot. Even I went right to jail for a gun after getting shot. The gun violence in Newark is so traumatizing that the youth believe they have to walk around with all types of weapons on their person and risk going to jail because they don’t feel safe.

This is Part One of a powerful personal reflection by Tahgee, a young voice from Newark, NJ.
As a current Community Media Fellow with the Newark News & Story Collaborative, Tahgee shares raw and honest insights about growing up in the city, navigating violence, survival, and the search for understanding.

Stay tuned for more in this ongoing series.