MILWAUKEE — “Selling narcotics to a neighborhood for 30-plus years, that’s terrible.”
Brother Rice Bey, 50, knows that many of the things he did while growing up and as an adult in Milwaukee were wrong.
“This neighborhood was a hot spot for a lot of gang violence, and I was kind of a part of that.”
Until he was 42, Bey was selling drugs out of houses just a few feet away from where he lives now in the Amani neighborhood. But now, instead of selling drugs, Bey is cleaning up his neighborhood just like he cleaned himself up.
“Either I can play a part in it and watch it decay, or we got to start bringing it back to life," he said.
To give back to the community he took from, he dedicates himself to literally cleaning the neighborhood whenever he has free time. He goes around cleaning alleys and sidewalks.
While some might say it’s just picking up trash, Rice sees it as something else entirely.
“So the outside of your community is a reflection of your inside.”
If people see a dirty neighborhood, they won't treat it as well as if they see a clean one. If someone is disrespecting their neighbors, they will disrespect the community overall. That is why Rice hopes each street he cleans, also changes someone's mind just a little.
"It's the few people that I have inspired to give them the courage you can turn around. Especially a lot of people in my family, because they basically see me, like, as a long-term drug dealer, and then just seen me quit it cold turkey."
He also offers free home repair services. However, Bey can't change the community all by himself. He can spark the change, but he needs help. On Thursday, he was especially grateful that his friend Rickey Thomas joined him.
“We can’t keep it clean if we don’t have the cooperation of the neighbors, so we have to take it upon ourselves just like (Bey) did," Thomas said.
Bey changed his life around when he discovered The Moorish Science Temple of America which is a national and religious organization that is a sect of Islam.
According to the organization's national website: "We are teaching that our people are Asiatics (Moorish Americans), thereby removing those marks of “negro, black and colored”, which by law are unconstitutional and cannot be found in any of the True and Divine Records of the Human Race."
While discovering his heritage he also adopted practices that helped change his mind.
“Start practicing being a good citizen. Practicing principles.”
If it hadn't been for the discovery of his nationality and faith, he doesn't think he'd be cleaning up his neighborhood.
"I hate to say no doubt, I would still be doing it. I would still be doing it. Because I didn't see a way out," he said.
But he found a way out and hopes to encourage others to do the same.
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