01 May NiteCap Journal: Why is Jamari Gumbs a Virgin Islands news headline?

Needless to say, I wish Jamari had made the news for his writing and not for being another poster child of violence in our islands. 

When I saw your face plastered across social media I was disappointed so consider this journal entry to be me grabbing you by your collar and taking you to the yard for a much-needed pep talk. 

I still wish my father never came down with Alzheimer’s while I was yet in high school so he could give me the same lecture. I lost my hero and mentor from an early age, leading me to seek guidance from older male peers in media, but I was often met by jealousy. They were too busy seeking validation from their masters by chasing their women in the workplace or trying to ensure that this young lion never grew his mane so he could pose no threat to their pride. 

They failed. 

As crazy as this sounds, I even had one drunken legendary Pulitzer Prize winning editor bang on my hotel room door late one night at a journalism convention, leaving the intern in my room whom he was infatuated by, scared and confused as we were both young interns. I could’ve avoided many hardships with a mentor present.

It’s why I came to visit you and the other teenagers during the Christmas holidays in 2020 while in lockdown after your counselor reached out to me. 

He told me:

“This alternative program is basically the end of the road for Jamari. If this doesn’t work who knows where he’ll end up.”

As a former high school classmate of mines, I could hear the concern in your counselor’s voice.

That night I figured you and the other boys had seen this drill before. Someone with a name comes in to speak to at risk youth, takes a few photo opps then uses your pain for their goodwill branding never to return. Not me, keeping my word has taken me far in life, many moons away from the Frydenhoj trailer I began life in. 

On that fateful night you explained the crime that landed you in handcuffs and ultimately in the alternative program and we even scratched our heads about it.

I thought it was the dumbest criminal caper ever and you agreed. 

You told me, “I needed money,” and I replied, “So does everybody else. Learn to work for it.”

However, after some probing we discussed your favorite rap artist NBA YoungBoy and how you relate to his pain, so much so he inspired you to write and perform. 

Then it happened. 

You won me over with this poem you shared:

Go above and beyond, because the sky’s the limit. Sing to yourself a song, that you’re destined to win it. 

Continue that next step and let for he or she to know it, that you won’t be shunned by good and welcomed by the evil.

The more you climb is the more the air gets thinner, making it more harder for you to breathe, but don’t stop climbing, just look up to God. 

Close your eyes and believe that not only you’ll make it to the top, to a place you yourself dreamed, and when you do make it to the top, you can look over and show the world what you’ve achieved. 

Witnessing my approval, you made your pitch being the natural born Tomian hustler you are:

“Mr. Bailey, would you invest in my business idea?”, you asked. You came up with a clothing line right there on the spot. I told you to take your time to develop the concept and I’ll circle back. 

Now, I see your name in the news for yet another criminal blunder. It’s as if the words “Stupid Criminal” is emblazoned across your forehead. 

I guess you couldn’t wait. Even though I myself and the many stars featured in the film trailer I showed you that night have had to wait two years to land a deal that’s yet to be finalized.

At first, I was upset with news outlets for publishing your picture, but if you’re foolish enough to provide them a hot topic to boost their readership and hence their advertising dollars then so be it. 

I even saw your story shared on several Facebook group pages, one of which deleted my recent journal entry on St. John a group member shared which I find hypocritical, but now I’ve come to understand their appetite for negativity. I wish our community was as excited to share critical and progressive thought as we are willing to promote dysfunction, hence making you Jamari famous for the wrong reasons.

Earlier that summer before we met in late December, I hosted several #DearUSVI virtual town-halls with lawmakers and civic leaders that ultimately helped to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention under the Office of the Governor with young brothers like you in mind. 

If you don’t change your life soon the prison system will also profit from not only your pain, but the pain your actions continue to inflict on our islands. Your behavior reinforces what people say about our native St. Thomas – once home to the Western Hemisphere’s most profitable and important harbor – now a burgeoning island metropolis overrun by crime. Use this time to reflect and reinvent yourself Jamari as greatness is harvested in the fields of desperation.

I rather the world get to know your brilliance as an artist, because I’m sure by now you know it’s time to retire from being a criminal. 

We welcome your feedback to our NiteCap Journal series so feel free to leave a comment below and read our previous entries.

Watch: Virgin Islander Jamari Gumbs shares an original Poem – YouTube