Summer School

Currently: On my lunch break :-) listening to the Paths to Success: A Forum on Young African-American Men webcast.

It's summer and I am being schooled, schooled in the reality of life. How? I am being schooled by looking,listening, and feeling. Through observation and experience of course.

So over the course of the last few weeks I've been reading the series "Being A Black Man" in The Washington Post. In my estimation it has been a thought prevoking series for me an aspiring journalist and a wannabe sociologist. The series as I have noted before talks about the so-called "plight of black men". More and more I am thinking about whether or not too often we refer to the everyday struggles, and pervasive challenges facing African-American men as "their plight". Yes, it is a struggle for us black men, but shouldn't the existence of these problesm be reognized as evidence of difficulties which need to be addressed by our communities meaning the black community specifically, and the community at large. Also there are struggles for other groups as well, I have since turned my attention to the plight of black women. I was spurred in part by the series. I just finished reading "Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues".

Anytime I am on summer break from school I find myself better able to be schooled in the game of life. Schooled not just in ways which will allow me to develop as an academic or a professional, but just as a person who is conscious. I do more reading, researching, and thinking, cause finally my life isn't on preset due to the academic hustle. I love learning, but the textbooks don't teach all.

Before I go let me pose a question. Why is Dr. Bill Cosby (God bless him cause I loved "The Cosby Show", I'm waiting for my copy of "A Different World" season two on DVD to arrive at mi casa, and I respect his generosity as a philanthropist). Why is Dr. Cosby being looked at as "the voice" when it comes to blackness, masculinity, and black masculinity? Hasn't one problem in the African-American community been too much reliance on too few leaders? Yes, we've seen dynamic individuals who have been pillars in our community, but isn't it time for a multitude of leaders to rise up, stand up, speak out, and act out. Yes, respect Bill Cosby for what he has accomplished, but really and truly is he doing anything to help the young black children who as he puts it, are calling out to be heard, and not being heard.

Check out a word delivered by Dr. Cosby:

"The Washington Post ran a clip and then they edited it and they had in what they wanted us to see these men saying," he said. "Unless I missed it, I heard not one black man say anything about being a father. I heard not one black man say, 'my responsibility,' not one. The edited version of these people with a camera on a drive-by – I'm looking to media. I don't like people who see and can't tell the truth. . . . A man tells me, 'It's not as bad as it seems.' I don't want to hear that shit."
-Bill Cosby as quoted in Richard Prince's Journalisms

I'm just saying. Shouldn't this same dialogue be happening in communities all across the country with people pledging action, with people making a commitment? I myself am thinking about mentoring a group at the elementary school where I graduated from nearly a decade ago. So much of what needs to happen needs to be meaningful relationships built with young people.