To African American Families:
As
an African American community, we must give our children, especially our young African
American boys, something to strive for, something to believe in, and someone to
look up to. First and foremost we must rebuild and restructure the black family
as a unit which is the first principle of Nguzo Saba, Umoja-Unity “To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community,
nation and race”. According to John Hope Franklin’s article, A Historical Note, “75% of black
families included husband and wife”. Then, this modeled to young men the proper
way to provide for their family, how to treat women, and most importantly to
grow into stand up men. If we are not there for our children and leading them
in the correct direction where do we think they will end up?
Black fathers are
extremely important in raising successful young black men. In the Dynamic Duo article by Jamal E. Watson,
Lawrence Otis Graham was taught and ordered by his father to send a portion of
the money he earned to an African American charity, (United Negro College
Fund). Therefore, he learned how to work for the money he earned and the things
that he desired, he learned how to save, as well as give back to his community.
Eventually giving back became second nature to him and he was present in his
children’s life to teach them these life lessons alongside his wife. Although,
these may seem like small aspects of growing up, many African American boys don’t
have positive male figures present and active in their lives. According to the
film we watched in class, Urban Prep Academy, many of the young men were
appreciative of successful grown black men that believed in them.
We also must help our
young black men to believe in themselves and know that they have a purpose in
life. Nia-Purpose, “To make our
collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to
restore our people to their traditional greatness.” Unfortunately, the
downfall of young black men today is that they don’t believe they can strive
for better. With societal stereotypes, teachers not really caring about the
young men, and the young men thinking that masculinity means being “hard” in
their community, it seems as if they have no choice, but to do what is expected
of them; which is not much. If we refer to the Africentric Theory and as a
community push our young men to Quandrant 1, high in the person/self-worth
while low in environmental distress, from Quandrant 4, high in environmental
distress while low in person/self-worth, I believe we can change these aspects
of building up the black man instead of tearing him down.
The Empowerment Theory is also important for black
families to utilize in the household. “People must see themselves as competent,
valuable as individuals and members of a cultural group.” Once black families
begin to start practicing this within the family, then I believe society will
see a new black man, because although Barak Obama, the president provides an
alternative image to the stereotypical black man, the majority of the images
are still not good. In the article, Being
A Man About It: Manhood Meaning Among African American Men, the top response
that black men provided to a question about personal definitions of masculinity,
was responsibility/accountability.
Therefore, not just black men, but black families, if we begin to become
responsible for our young men, accountable for their actions, knowledgeable of
their downfalls, and receptive to their silent cries for help we can take back
and alter the image of the young black male. We have to start with change in
the home first and build them up from there.
Loved how you emphasized the empowerment of african american males. As we mentioned in class society often helps women in terms of food stamps and schooling but always forgets men. In addition women are put forth to strive more and be successful leaving males to strive for usually unattainable dreams such as a world class athlete. Having Purpose and Empowerment as you stated are two essental components that can make impacts on the lives of african american males but also for the african american community.
ReplyDeleteI like how you tied together the Urban Prep Movement with the importance of a father or male figure's role in a young man's life. What first occurred to me in the video and stayed with me was the importance of resources in making the black community successful, not that anyone isn't capable but you really brought their purpose full circle because they did all seem to be very appreciative.
ReplyDeleteI like how your article is focused towards our young black men. I feel like they are so caught in the "hype" and media that they have to live their lives in those ways. It does take a family to raise a good strong black man of the community but it is still that young man's decision to use what he has been taught. I can completely relate to this because my own brother tries to act like he's had this hard life in grew up in the "streets" when in reality we've lived in the suburbs all of lives and have both of our parents who provided us with almost anything that we wanted.
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