(ThyBlackMan.com) More and more African American young men are in need of compassion, guidance, mentoring and nurturing. There are too many shootings that are claiming the lives of those who should have promising futures ahead of them. Too much violence is seen at a young age with our young men and young women of color and culture. Fathers should be setting a positive example for their children, their communities, they should be involved in their churches and schools. Men should be hard pressed to teach young men skills to keep them from being just sperm donors, career convicts and school dropouts. President Barack Obama has challenged fathers not just minority fathers to step up and take their responsibility in the lives of their children, but fathers of color and culture where there is the most challenge.
Life Timelines
African American youth timelines are diminishing; life is shortening to a point where lives are extinguished like candle flames. Across this nation more young men are being gunned down by those w
ho look like them. Fathers, the teachings to your sons must go beyond how to ride a bike, catch a football, having SWAG, hooking up with women, it must include being respectful to women, the importance of obtaining an education, going to church, the lessons of survival for their families and how to stay alive when there are those who do not value them nor respect them as human beings. These are battlefronts to prepare youth of color and culture.
What if fathers were more involved?
Father’s day is more than a celebration, it is a continued expectation to sacrifice for your family, to set high expectations for everyone to be successful, to have goals and high aspirations and fathers to model these expectations. Many children want to be successful, how can this be if fathers are not there to teach, guide and model? I would take it one step further that if more men did their jobs at home and in their churches and communities our young men would not have targets on their backs, tomb stones over them, dropping out of school or incarcerated in record numbers. Maybe girls of color and culture would love themselves more and have less hate and jealousy towards their sisters of color and culture. Maybe if fathers of color and culture complimented their dark skinned daughters on their inner and outer beauty they would not try to lighten their skins or straighten their hair or even seek whites to lighten their potential children. What is wrong with having beautiful dark skinned babies?
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Malcolm X
African Americans are being fooled, duped, lied to and brainwashed by a media that shows whiteness and lightness as pure, successful and better, but if African Americans understood their color and culture of the past they would know that Europeans learned from Africans and others of color and culture then took their resources to better themselves.
Incarceration
The act of being incarcerated is an act of slavery, but if African American men and women are incarcerated in the jails and prisons of this land that should not stop them from learning.
The opportunity to build knowledge from the free resources of books that can help African American men and women develop their skills. There are many men and women that have been incarcerated for years and come out of the prison system better than when they went in. Malcolm X himself was incarcerated, but his transformative statement has built men and women up past their past mistakes.
“To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace.” Malcolm X
Expectations
African American men and women should be earning degrees to find cures for cancer, diabetes, heart defects, fighting poverty and hunger. They should not be fighting over living in poverty and the bread crumbs of EBT handouts. Fathers need to step up and make sure their children are doing the right things to make their homes, communities, schools and churches stronger.
The value and empowerment of education in and out of school, “without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.” Malcolm X Not everyone will be an athlete and not everyone will be an entertainer, but everyone can be a scholar and learn their potential through reading,
“People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.” Malcolm X
Evidence is seen
The evidence is visible in communities, in schools, in churches and on streets for African Americans. Putting our young men’s lives at risk and others when fathers and grandfathers do not take the time or the opportunity to teach young men and women how to act in public, to pull up their pants, to talk respectfully to women and elders, to respect authority and act with intelligence and pride.
If young African American men act like thugs and gansta’s then many will be treated as such and subjected to actions that prove deadly as is being witnessed on televisions and social media. If our young ladies act out of character they will be treated by the reflection of their actions. Changing mentalities means changing priorities in life and goals, fathers should be the teachers, leaders, mentors that their children need. Teachers can’t teach it, the government can’t and won’t teach it, but will incarcerate whole generations, the media can’t teach it, fathers can and must teach necessary survival skills for everyday life.
Resources:
Inspirational Video via @wmjackson #MyQuestToTeach
https://youtu.be/goWvUjFnBBI
Daddy Don’t Go
Executive producers Omar Epps and Malik Yoba
Filmed by acclaimed filmmaker Emily Abt
Pureland Pictures
DOC NYC hit Daddy Don’t Go
Father’s Day, June 19th, 2016:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/daddydontgo
Staff Writer; William D. Jackson
Find out more about this talented writer over at; OCS For Education.
