I recently just read an article on how black males, especially young black males, are treated in this country. It really sparked something in me that I would like to elaborate on.
I am a 39 year old black man, and I have seen and experienced some of the struggles of the black male. I regularly go to the prisons and homeless shelters throughout the state of Florida, and most of the places that I go are us: Black Men.
There are various reasons why they end up where they are, but in most cases, it was from the lack of a positive male role model in their lives. It's time for us to be who we are supposed to be. I'm not saying that we don't take care of our kids, but we can do a better job. Too many of our children are being raised by BET, MTV, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. Our kids are taking on the images of the hip hop culture, who's selling nothing but an image and not reality.
When men take their rightful place, then our women and children can feel protected and safe. No professional athlete or entertainer should be the role model for our young men, but fathers, grandfathers, teachers, preachers, etc.
I was in the same boat, meaning my father was in the house, but he wasn't. If it had not been for my grandfather and my Sunday school teacher, I might have ended up on the same road. There's only so much that we can blame on society before we take personal responsibility for our lives. One thing I found out is that no matter how good or bad you are doing, somebody's going to have something negative to say, so why worry about what anyone thinks.
We have to teach our young men that regardless of the circumstances, I will not become a product of a negative environment. A lot of our young men have adopted the “thug” image because that's what they are around consistently, but in order for this to change, we need strong men to make a stand and take our youth back.
I recall back during the Civil Rights Movement, there was a unity amongst our people, and our young men were taught to walk, talk, dress, and behave with pride and have character. We just can't talk about it and expect it to happen, but they need to see more of an example from us older men.
They need to see us getting up going to work everyday to provide for the family. They need to see us loving the women in our lives. They need to see us take time to eat at the dinner table with he family. Most of they need to experience love coming from the father.
Men let's step it up and get our young black men back on the right path.
This is a great article. I concur with just about everything you wrote, but I particularly liked where you indicated that, "There's only so much that we can blame on society before we take personal responsibility for our lives". I took that to mean, "We" as in black men, but I also have to say that young black men need to take responsibiity as well. Although some may not necessarily have had a good male role model in the home such as father, grandfather, uncle, etc., they too can determine within themselves that they will not follow that negative road or image. They have the ability to change the generational curse and make a positive role model for others to come.