No, I Am No Longer Angry, Just Painfully Disappointed . . .

No, I am No Longer Angry, Just Painfully Disappointed:The Mis-Education, Lack-of-Mentoring, and the False-Concept-of-Nurturing Today’s Black and Latino Youths

By d v brooks

“The paradox of education is precisely this –

that as one begins to become conscious,

one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

– James Baldwin

Dear No More Anger for You Readers/Supporters,

As you could have read from my last submission, Cancer and Anger

. . . the past year has been a test of my faith!

I had originally wanted to title this essay, No, I am No Longer Angry About the Mis-Education, Lack-of-Mentoring, and False-Nurturing of Today’s Youth, Just Painfully Disappointed, butdecided to re-word it for more effect.I hope I had managed to do just that. . . have, I?

After a year of recession, fare increases, and stimulus packages, I am learning to do with much less, and surviving off the kindness of family, friends, and a few strangers, I have managed to keep my head, JUST ABOVE WATER!I am also getting back to my creative sources and inspiration; and looking forward to becoming more involved with No More Anger for You, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other on-line modes of communicating to a larger audience.

Hell, if “blogging” as built the careers of Perez Hilton, and that screaming Intern from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, then I do believe there is a place for me, too. I truly believe that the true picture of what is happening with today’s youth is not being told truthfully, especially when it comes to “our” African-American and Latino inner cities young men and women.

 In James Baldwin’s, Last Essay, whose Harlem is it, anyway?(1987), he wrote the following:

Still, I am in distress – but not despair – and I will tell you why.I think, for one thing, that the white youth of this country are in a far more dangerous and desperate place – given the moral choices and divorce form reality bequeathed them by what they have been led to believe is their history, as concerns Black (and Latino) youths, apart from the elders now, there is really nothing new about them.

Each generation has had to look out on this dangerous and lonely place and try to invest it with coherence – striving to make it my home . . . Or, in other words, it can be said that Black (and Latino) people have managed to survive White sympathy.Now White people must learn to live without the reassurance of Black rage.

James Baldwin, often called the 20^th Century’s, Prophet-Saint-Artist, wrote the above words over twenty-two years ago.Mr. Baldwin would be celebrating his 85^th birthday this coming August 2, and yet, unfortunately, his words are [still] true . . . “[as concerning] Black (and Latino) youths, apart from the elders now, there is really nothing new about them . . .” with the exception of the advancement in today’s technology.

I am actually doing what I love to do, and that is writing and teaching.

 I am teaching Financial Management to teenagers throughout the NYC Public High Schools, as a volunteer for an organization founded by two Harvard School graduate students.Moreover, who is a better candidate to teach others about financial pitfalls, and getting out of a financial mess, then someone who has been there all ready?

Although, the NYC Teachers Fellows has turned me down, not once, twice, but five times, I have managed to obtain a substitute-teaching certificate.While attending a graduate program from a local university (IVY LEAGUE mind you), with a Master’s in Public Policy and Advanced Finance, I have yet to be called for any assignments, nor can I find employment that I would not have to sell my soul in order to keep. 

I am still mentoring for two local programs here in Manhattan, but I am having a few issues with mentoring today’s youth.

It is with the labeling of “At-Risk-Youth”, which more and more agencies are putting in their Mission, and/or Vision Statements in order to obtain the “white sympathy” of local, state, federal, and, most often private donors.And, what is more dis-heartening is the newly, created term “dis-connected”, when it comes to labeling today’s youth in policies geared towards assisting youths and their families.Another one is the expression, “MEET THEM WHERE THEIR AT . . .”

For example, the social workers, directors, case managers and other volunteers keep telling me to meet “our” mentees, young men, and women WHERE THEIR ARE. In addition, the majority of these individuals are usually, white, and female, with a few Black women who should know better (but that is a whole other essay . . . in and of itself).

 Yet where they ARE/IS . . . homeless, without a high school education, or G.E.D., no marketable skills, a large majority of them have police records, mental and behavior issues, and some are into prostituting themselves for sex, drugs, iphone, wwII, and even a Happy Meal, and I'm suppose to met them were there are/at!

Now, do not get me wrong, for I am no angel.But at the age of 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16, 17 and beyond, I knew what a money order was, and I knew what a checking/savings account was, too!And, I was working at the age of 16, and I had managed to graduate from high school on time, without children, and I had no girlfriend/or boyfriend (folks, you see, times have changed), since the days of the Flintstones and Happy Days!

And, yes, I had NO FATHER in the household.  There was no church going-on in my household.  The closest we came to religion or spirituality, was hearing, the Hawkins Family and choir singing, OH Happy Days, on the airwaves.

There were drug addicts in the household.There was drug dealers, too.There was drag-queen, drunkards, and ex-con’s in the household, too!There was homework.There were Christmases, and sometimes with, and without presents.There was eating cold cereal without milk, but water.There was ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard sandwiches in between the 1^st and the 16^th of months; and there were a host of single-women raising their children alone.

However, one thing the children of the 60s, and 70s had was a since of “community”.Yet, regardless of the junkies on “our” street corners, regardless of the wino’s with the half-empty bottles of Wild Irish Rose, or the dykes, of queens, there too, were the educators, doctors, lawyers, and musicians, living among “us”, too.Often people who created a sense of “community”, and/or what we called “our” extended family members.

Yet somewhere along the line, “we” allowed the local, state, and federal government to mandate that the “spanking of a child,” was illegal; and therefore, parents, and that extended family, that community left “our” children alone.

The 80s, and 90s, came, and the “Village”, “community” was over powered with AIDS, Crack, and unfair Drug Laws, and then “our” youth started telling their parents, “I’m not going to school”, “I’m going to smoke, and do hard drugs”, “I’m going to have a baby at 12, 13, 14”, and if you touch me, I’m going to dial 911”.

So as parents, that Village, that community started to get sick, started to escape, themselves from the strong-arm of the law, we lost over thirty-years of three generations of babies, raising babies and themselves.And, what do we have today in the year 2009?We have most programs that are just "warehousing our children”, for six months to a full year, and then letting them back out into the Real-world, unprepared; and as a mentor, I'm just suppose to MET THEM WHERE THEIR AT.

Yet on any given school day, I have witness young men and women, banging school walls at 9:00 AM, with their fist, and sometimes their heads, because they are angry about something, and/or someone . . . and the teachers just walk pass them. I come across a few of them who are angry at 9:00 AM, and I asked over what?

There is an entire nation being laid off, people are standing on breadlines on 116^th Street, between 7^th and 8^th Avenues (between two historical figures, who must be rolling in their graves, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Frederick Douglass).AIDS is still here after thirty-plus years, and our youths are more visibility engaging in “unprotected sex” and “bi-sexuality” then ever before (which should be decision made as an adult, and not age the age of 12, 13, 14 years-of-age, but if we continue to “throw away” our children, where else should their learn these life changing lesson?).

Yet Black and Latino parents are throwing their sons/daughters out into the streets for being gay, lesbian, bi, or transgender, or for just causing problems for their comfortable lives.Nevertheless, white America is embracing and making Sonny and Cher’s daughter, Charisty, now wanting to be called “Chaz” a poster-child for change.On the other hand, “we” are watching American Idol, and voting for white boys, who were surely “out” from the very beginning (Clay and Adam just to name a few . . .).

Yet, we are watching our Black and Latino youth wasting away in shelters for being “different”.

We allow the media to put up posters of hits reality shows, with titles like, HO, PIMPS, and HUNG!And, then we turn around and ask what is happening to the morality/values of America.We are paying Hollywood and sport figures millions and millions of dollars.And, then allowing them to curse and call each other bitches and ho’s.While we sit in our living rooms, with remote controls in hand, while grandma, and our 3, 4 and 6 years old are within earshot.And, when that very same 3, 4 and 6 years get to school, and calls, a teacher, or principal a bitch, or ho, we “spank” them at home.And, the same teacher and principal who will never see a millions dollars, or walk the red carpet, attend a White House dinner, will call the authorities on us, and the local, state, federal government now gets involved, and the children are placed in foster care.

The vicivious cycle continues, once again.

Yet, the million dollars Hollywood A-Lister, are privilege to travel around the world, adopting babies, heading foundations to save rape victims in the Congo, yet, NY1 is reporting starving, murdered, and raped babies and women right here in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and/or throughout America period!Yet, Hollywood, finds a need to travel across the ocean, and once again, there goes that “white sympathy”, James Baldwin’s mention early.

As a performing artist, I do not suggest censoring, but rather becoming socially responsible.I rather miss the innocence of discovering a Playboy, Oui, Hustler, or Penthouse, even Screw magazines -- showing my age -- under an uncle, or other brothers, or family members mattress of yes-ter-year.Now today, I can reach for a pack of M&M’s and or Bottle water, and see tits and ass in my face from any newsstand.

Yet we are asking why our young men and women are sitting on a crown subway kissing, and grabbing placing that only a doctor should touch in a public venue at 8:30 AM (when they should be in homeroom). Or what are they looking at on there IPOD, IPHONE, and Blackberries?Where are the parents who are paying their gadgets invoices at the end of the month?

We have allowed the local, state, and federal laws to “parent” our children, and we can see the fine mess that has gone on for over the past thirty-years.Hell, they cannot even get things together in Albany over the past two weeks.

We are throwing our children out into the streets, and they are entering the doors of social programs that for a majority of them are just a stepping-stone to future disappointments.

Yet as a mentor, I am suppose to MET THEM WHERE THEIR AT?

Or, there’s the public school teachers, who are so overwhelmed, and worked (well some of them), due to the Mayor’s control, and covertly placing two to four schools in one building (and even merging public schools with charters schools on top of one another).And, then “allowing our” young 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grade men/women to sleep in classrooms at nine or ten AM; or cursing teachers, and calling each other N-*****, B-****, and M-***********, and/or other derogatory expressions -- throughout the hallways of today’s public schools.

Since I have only been “volunteering” as a teacher for only a year, and among 11^th and 12^th Graders, I am sad to say that these are the young men and women entering the unsure-work-force, and colleges within the next three to six months.

I’ve had a few teenagers tell me, Mr. Brooks, I want to be a singer, a NBA player, a fashion designer, a musician, writing, actor . . . wherever . . . so I give them tickets to shows, books on the subject of their interest . . . they don't read it, or follow through with schedule appointments.

Or they are just happy with 55 and 60 grades.Or they have never joined a baseball, basketball or football team during their 9^th, or 10^th school years, and now in the 11^th and 12^th grades, they think a recruiter is going to pick them from out of the sky.

What are the school guidance counselors doing; hell, what are the parents, the Village, that community I spoke of early, doing?

 I have access to theatres, public cable television, radio stations, and financial and admission officers of several colleges and universities across NYC . . . and the 16, 17, 18 years old . . . don't follow through, and I am told once again to meet them WHERE THEY ARE?

Yet, while I am being held at bay, with both hands tied behind my back, as a result that the young men and women are minors; and with all the abuse cases surfacing on NY1 everyday, I and other concerned adults, are “sitting on the fence”, wanting to do more.But we are told to mentor, but to do this, and not do that . . . and to MET THEM WHERE THEY ARE!

In my opinion, the majority of today’s young men and women are crying out for just a comforting word, a hug, a shoulder to lean on, and/or a pat on their backs.But as a semi-educator, you are told not to “touch” . . . and that is the universal problem.We have lost touch with the “old way of experiencing a sense of community”; and therefore, we are unable to “heal” a hurting generation.

But my question is where are they?

Hey, maybe that is another essay, smile!

 For those of you who know, work, and know of supporting young men and women, who are excellent student, and respectful children, and know where they are, and where they are going, I say God bless you!

But I truly believe that Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Joel L. Klein, and the music and media industries has done, and are doing a dis-service to "our" young men/women, not to mention ACS, Foster Care, and local, state and federal policy makers – by operating programs with their eyes wide-shut!

If a young girl is with child at age of 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and living in a shelter, and she isn’t "pushed" to get her G.E.D., learn effective parenting, and/or social skills (which includes the babies father), then what?

Or if she, or he is not learning to work on themselves, and the needs of that child, or children she/he may have with them in the “shelter”, within a year, she/he must leave the shelter . . . and they end up back where they started (not all program, there are a few that are long-term).

If a young man is thugging, gang banging, and angry by the fact that his father isn’t in his life, yet he continues to having sex, and unprotected sex at that at the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and beyond.He ends up in a shelter/prison, and no program is "pushing" him to get his G.E.D., or learn a marketable skill, etc., etc..What’s next? After his time is up in the “system”, he is back to square one, still unprepared, and now an adult who is also UNPREPARED!

The vivacious cycle continues!

And, instead of finding mentors who would take a young men, or women from one place to another, most programs are instucturing mentors to meet THEM WHERE THERE ARE.

For me, I’ve been there all ready.

Woo, amazing!

Enuf . . . maybe I will work on this as another essay!For I am speaking from experience, when it comes to my involvement with a number of social service programs.And, all one has to do is just sit on the corner of the Harlem State Office Building, and just watch and take notes for one’s self.//DVB

Copyrighted, June 18, 2009

___________________________

d v brooks, EMPA, SSgt., B.A. & A.O.S., is an autobiographical essayist and solo performing artist living in Harlem, NYC, and the producer/host of BlAcKpOeMoLoGy:In Conversation on the Arts and Social Issues, MNN Cable Show.d v brooks an advocate for the Awareness/Prevention of Child Abuse, Prostate, Skin & Breast Cancer, and HIV/AIDS; and a local community elected official in East Harlem.He is also a mentor/tutor for several not-for-profit organizations in Manhattan, NYC.