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Oct 07
2008
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THE BLACK MAN HAVE MADE BLACK BOYS EXTINCT - NOT THE PRISON SYSTEM.Posted by enochhasrisen in Untagged |
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Black organizations and black minister/leaders have failed to demonstrate any role model behaviors, intellectual evolution or progressive thoughts accumulating into action.
African American institutions, black politicians and black minister leaders are either missing in action or grandstanding behind empty rhetoric. The above mentioned entities do absolutely nothing to salvage our black boys but whine, moan, complain and wait for someone one else to fix the problem.
Grown black men such as Phillip Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Sen. James Meeks, Bishop Larry Trotter from Chicago, Bishop Eddie long from Georgia, Bishop Blake from California along with other faith based minister are the reason black boys have become violent and extinct. The leaders and institutions of today lack vision, insight and courage. They can't relate to the young black youth of today because they are old, obsolete, seriously out of touch and are afraid of young black boys.
I challenge black organizations to round up black men over 30 that are computer literate enough to entertain or capture the interest of today's black boys by operating and engaging a young black boy on a PlayStation or Xbox game console.
It can't be done because the young black boys I speak of were born in the era of MTV and computers while the leaders and leadership of today are still stuck on a dead, decayed and fossilized civil right vine. Our guardians and Shepard's out of fear have also sold the futures of young black boys in exchange for publicity, grandstanding and faith based government welfare.
African American Institutions such as The Black Star Project, Du Sable Museum, Operation Push, the National Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P are either in hiding or void of any progressive initiatives that can or will encourage young black boys to face life with the courage and confidence they need to feel secure within themselves.
African American Institutions such as The Black Star Project, Du Sable Museum, Operation Push, the National Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P believe that holding press conferences, seminars and charitable give aways will be publicly perceived and construed as evidence of a valid effort to salvage our young black boys.
CASE AND POINT
African American institutions, black politicians and black minister leaders cry out because the black youth have no role models but yet they don't exercise, read. nor do they present themselves as role models nor do they possess a commanding aura.
The Black Star Project seeks 100 men to read to young black boys but yet they themselves can't or don't read. The Black Star project heralded with fanfare their strategy to create role models for young boys by devising a "fathers walk your son to school day"
Senator/Rev.Sen James Meeks from Chicago announced in a televised speech that his church's mission was accomplished because they had created volunteer services and giveaways including creating a "basketball team" for young boys while lamenting in the same breath that young boys needs to know more than how to play basketball.
Bishop Eddie Long despite his mega church and enormous membership sits deathly quiet while the South targets young black boys for lock down.
In Chicago Bishop Larry trotter in his response to a black 16 year old boy getting shot to death on Chicago transit bus rides on the bus the next day protesting by singing slave songs along the bus route.
We have African American institutions, black politicians and black minister leaders blaming the government, parents, schools and anybody else they can point a finger for the extinction of black boys while they grandstand and perpetrate as role models behind their pulpits with their stomachs hanging out, slouching, limping and totally out of shape.
Sincerely, Enoch Mubarak
President/CEO Mubarak Inter-prizes
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Roger Madison Jr.
Dear brother Roger Madison
Whether an advocate or not we must make way for the young folks. It is not incumbent on us to teach them it is required that they now teach us. Even the smallest technology learned by the most unruly black boy is enough to send our heads spinning. Our young black girls and boys know math the way we have never seen equations displayed.
The technology of applied science utilized by young black boys will blow your mind and make your legs weak if you were to witness how young black boys use it prisons across this country to create amenities in their prison cells such as lights, matches or liquids.
In tyhe free world the first thing black young boys and girls do when they receive Ipods, cell phones, computers or cars is throw away the instruction manual because operating technological devices is inherent upon them, it is second nature whereas the first thing we older people look for is the instruction manual and even at that we discard the device long before we exhaust or use half of the technological advantages offered by the device.
How many cell phones and computers have we upgraded or traded in without using the device to its highest and best use? Black boys that are functioning illiterates are smarter than we are.
Our young black boys may not have mother wit or common sense but they are proficient in electronics, auto mechanics, art, music and countless other academic pursuits.
As parents, guardians and shepards we have failed black boys and girls by not providing the stability of food, shelter, clothing. Our young black boys are homeless because their parents are homeless. They are struggling because their parents are struggling. They are running the home because we have abandoned the home.
Their is no escaping the glaring indictment that our lack of evolution, progress and stability has cost us the benefit of having our children growing up to be a blessing to us.
Enoch Mubarak
President & CEO Mubarak Inter-prizes
www.mubarakinter-prizes.com
Sadly, we may have reached the bottom of the social ladder, when black men must learn from black boys. Especially if the Black men in question have nothing to teach the black boys. Perhaps "a child shall lead them."
When children are making babies, they have nothing to teach the babies -- after they have dropped out and become a part of the justice (just us) system. They return to their communities as physically grown men, but they have missed the intellectual development to function as men. They have to adapt to alternative means of learning. Unfortunately, these alternative means don't lead to upwardly mobile outcomes.
Finally, it hurts when bright young minds have not been channeled to learn traditional academic subjects in math and science. They may be able to "reverse engineer the exploitation of the technology" but they won't be inventors, producers, sellers, and creators of wealth. This is especially true of those who are behind bars.
I am still an advocate of education as the tool that enables upward mobility, escape, lifelong learning. I like your depiction of those who are "undercover smart," but they will remain undereducated, underemployed, and exposed to over-representation in our prisons and jails.
Roger Madison
www.izania.com
I have worked with individuals in many of the organizations that you mention, and I have observed that their basic intentions are good. Thy are doing their very best in most cases. You are correct about some of the methods, but I wouldn't necessarily blame them for the problem.
Here is a particularly interesting observation that you make:
I spend a lot of time mentoring young Black boys, and I try to assess what is different about the young boys of today and the time when my son was a young boy (he is 37 years old now). I saw the connection between his "view of the future" and my "view of the past" in your observation. However, there is a difference. And there was a difference when I was a boy.
All youth rebel against authority. However, in my youth, and during my son's youth (at least in my household), there was a built in "respect for authority" even though we disagreed. I recall thinking this about my father when I was young:
When I am an adult, I will do things differently -- I will have a different relationship with my children, I will have different rules in my home, I will spend my time differently."
The operative pre-condition was, "when I am an adult." I accepted that there were community norms, and family norms, and parenting norms that I disagreed with. But I also accepted that perhaps the wisdom of older folks had some value and wisdom that I needed to gain before setting out on my own.
I recall the quote from Mark Twain: "When I was 17, I thought my father to be the dumbest man in the world. I was surprised how much he learned by the the time I was 21."
Often times today, we turn the world over to the 17 year-olds, and the 14 year-olds, and the 10 year-olds. When we displayed disrespectful attitudes, or spoke disrespectfully, my grandmother would say, "I will slap the stupid out of your mouth."
So, the point is not whether an adult can play X-box or Playstation games. Sometimes, we need to slap these games out of the children's hands and send them back to school when they drop out. You may not be recommending this, but I am not an advocate of meeting them at the Playstation terminal to validate that they don't need to go to school. We have let the inmates take over the assylum, and we don't know anymore who is in charge. Or perhaps what has happened is that the inmates have escaped and now have more influence than strong community values.