but when i'm walking on tha street, kid, my name rings bells
and I never fell, n****r, I stand too tall.
I'm just a thug motherf****r who was born to brawl.
-- deceased rapper Stretch, on Tupac Shakur’s “Street Fame”
New Year’s Day 2007 in Denver was surreal. On January 1 I usually rise early in the morning to a quiet home, review my appointments from the previous year, and meditate on the coming year. This time, the radio announced the death of a young Denver Broncos player, Darrrent Williams, killed in a drive-by shooting as he left a private New Year’s Eve party.
It’s not hard to imagine the hair-trigger tempers that could have led to this shooting. The Denver Post quoted the city’s gang expert, the Rev. Leon Kelly of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives. “In the gang world, respect is a major issue," Kelly said. "Someone may have felt disrespected. The shooting wasn't random."
Another young black man is dead, killed most likely by another young black man. It put the year into perspective. While the broader society presents many challenges to our young men, too often, we are our own worst enemy.
Education, job opportunities, housing, health, crime, the church that’s losing influence – these areas stack up against our young men like giant dominoes leaning over to crush them. But the biggest weight of all, the gravitational push that presses tha brothas into a muddy hopelessness is the breakdown of the family, specifically the loss of the father.
That’s the feeder system for gangs that are ravaging our cities, boys without dads. That’s the motivation for a young man to sacrifice his mother and sisters, and present his body a living (dying) sacrifice for the gang system. He will make a bid for power by submitting to a beating, or beating others. He will abuse women in a twisted attempt to gain self-worth, and call it playin.’ He will fill his lungs with toxic pipe-fulls of mind-erasing drugs, just to find a little peace.
And in a world-class move to justify his crimes against his own family and community, he will promote an insane campaign to “Stop Snitchin,’” painting it as a stand for justice in a corrupt system. (Denver is particulary sensitive on this point, with two witnesses – innocent bystanders - murdered in the past two years.)
Like a time-bomb winding down, our community faces utter desolation (see New Orleans) if we, as individuals do not pull together, and re-build the essential, elemental unit of peace, harmony and prosperity, the family.
Rather than just cursing the darkness in the hearts of my young brothers who are hell-bent on gangsta livin,’ let’s offer some ways to bring light to our young men’s choices. The life and health of our community are in the balance, tipped one way or the other by our men.1- GET THEM YOUNG. Make a commitment to young boys. The younger they are, the better our chances of righting their course. This includes encouraging boys at an early age toward courage, heroism and responsibility.
2 – PARENT THEM TOGETHER. As parents (together, separated or divorced), both father and mother must commit to hands-on parenting of boys. In John Singleton’s debut film, “Boyz N the Hood,” Tre’s single mom called the father, saying in effect, “He’s 13 now. I can’t handle him. You better come get this boy.”
3 – MENTORING IS A MUST. Yes, even a father “figure” will do quite well. In fact, there are so many fatherless youth, that only an all-out revival of mentorship can save many of our young men from hardship and failure. This is a clear call for every single man to find a boy and invest yourself in his life. The statistics are imposing. There is no way out of the gang mess without every decent, straight young man to build up at least one boy.
LINKS
Originally published in Glory Christian Magazine.
Denver Post reports “gang takedown” Apr. 27, 2007
(photo: Fishburne and Gooding as father and son in "Boyz N the Hood" - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
No comments:
Post a Comment