A reader asked me the following question-
“I’m reading this blog and asking myself where do we begin. I went to support the Jena 6 and I will be more than willing to support the injustices in my home state. Where do we go to become more informed about what’s going on in our cities or what’s happening to our communities and youth?”
Good question. I responded like this-
You start by getting to know the kids in your neighborhood. Parents in the community can get together and sponsor something like a barbecue for the kids. Use this as a time to mix and mingle finding out their likes, dislikes, aspirations, etc. The key here is making it a point to know the kids in your area.
Another thing that can be done is spend some time volunteering with organizations that are reaching out to the kids in your community. When I lived in Atlanta, we were part of one of the largest churches in the city. Anyway, they put out a call for all the men to get involved in their mentorship program. Out of the hundreds that threw up their hands in support, only about 3 (including me) men showed up. Mind you, this was an organization that worked with hundreds of kids in the area and at the time was largely staffed by women.
Yes, you do have your exceptions out there like 100 Black Men, Black fraternities/sororities, etc., but there is only but so much they can do. This is why the role of YOU, the individual is so key.
Growing up, my parents also took me on regular visits to see the elderly and prison inmates. Also, since my parents were Sunday school teachers, every Saturday was spent going to the homes of students checking up on them and getting to know the parents. To this very day, these kids (now adults) still remember my parents.
Lastly, you don’t fight crime by holding vigils, marches or any other event that basically amounts to a media grab. Crime is largely fought successfully by taking the time to know these individuals and their families IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD. There are kids (now adults) that I can point to now that were prone to find trouble, but are now either happily married or responsible adults partly because I spent time with them.
The biggest misconception amongst the over-30 crowd is that one has to appear to be youthful or from “tha’ hood” in order to make a positive impact on the lives of our kids. This couldn’t be further from the truth. What many of these kids crave for isn’t another government-funded youth program where they are taught to jump certain hoops in order to qualify the program for addition funding. Kids will see right through that and leave. No, what many of these kids want is the attention of folks that are truly interested in them (what every kid wants when you think about it) where you are not looking at your watch every 10 minutes. Behind many of the hard faces of our wayward kids are….kids. All it requires is one of our greatest assets to reach them: Our personal time.
As I sat recently in the jury box for a case against two young black men who were gang members, I did not see hardened criminals who were beyond help. I saw two missed opportunities for folks to help steer these two young men into better life choices. One of them reminded me so much of one of the men I talk about in the links below. I said to myself “My God! That could have been Brian (not his real name)!” “He’s just a kid!”
Part of what saddens me about the whole Jena case is the same thing I predicted about Shaquanda Cotton. After all the marches and screaming for justice, who has stayed behind to help Shaquanda’s mom raise her daughter so that she does not become yet another sad Black statistic? Will she go to college? What about employment? Or will she end up on welfare? I would hope the organizers of the protests surrounding her case thought about all of this. The same can be said about the Jena 6. Give it about 6 months and I assure you that Mychal Bell (like Shaquanda Cotton) will become just another neglected Black face by both mainstream media and the folks who use them to gauge their moral outrage. Don’t believe me? Do a search for Shaquanda Cotton on both Google News and Technorati and see if you find any current news about her. At the time of this post I found nothing.
Using our kids as symbols to prove a point while abandoning their real needs is counterproductive and does more harm than good in the long run. These crime victims I post every week are more than just statistics we wave in front of Whitey in order to deepen the dagger of ‘the legacy of slavery’. These individuals are opportunities that are forever gone–opportunities that could have led to the solutions we have been crying for for years.
Related (these are some personal examples of what I have done in addition to what I mentioned earlier):
The importance of sowing good seeds
Sphere: Related Content
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:32 am
Here’s the last thing I saw on Cotton. OTOH, the scandal about abusing kids at Texas youth prisons, of which her story was just a part, has continued to receive much focus, FWIW, though many would like it to go away.
“Now what?” is a great question to ask, because a lot of momentum exists. But to me, your cynicism as to whether a movement built focused on one of these iconic cases ignores civil rights history, as social causes from Rosa Parks in the bus to the movement around the “Tulia” defendants in Texas have shown.
All the questions you’re asking need to be asked, but it’s a strategic and moral mistake, IMO, to insist there’s an either-or aspect to caring about Jena and caring about what happens in your hometown. Sure, some people are shallow, or scared, and won’t make the leap you’d like them to. But everyone at that rally was on their own journey, and many will play more productive roles in their own hometowns in the future because of things they learned and people who inspired them during the Jena campaign.