This weekend as I was celebrating the Day of Independence with my family and having conversations about the state of Black America I came to some interesting revelations. Later as I spoke with one of my friends from Seattle some of these revelations were echoed throughout our conversation as well. The resolution that I came to within myself was that those of us who advocate for, and do work within inner city, minority, and poverty stricken communities must begin to change the way that we engage with our work. We must begin to truly use language that will birth independence and stop preaching a gospel of dependence. We have to stop using terms like “Well school is for everyone” and instead begin putting old phrases like “Knowledge is power” to actual use. It does no good for us to go around communities that are typically producing excessive drop out rates, high pregnancy rates, high incarceration rates, low test scores and the like saying things like “school is not for everyone”. In doing so we are preaching a gospel of failure. Those of us from inner city surroundings all ready know that being smart is frowned upon most of the time. Getting good grades and studying hard is the exception and not rule, yet we still promote the false premise that somehow are kids can escape without accepting the idea that in more cases than not education is the gateway to a life lived to the fullest. Are there set backs? Yes! Is the road still tough? Of course! But what is the likely hood the inner city is going to be able to produce the drop out that becomes Bill Gates? Even if it is true that the inner city will produce some, that will still mean that so many will fall through the cracks. We have to stop embracing the minimum with self talk like “at least he/she graduated from high school.” Is it important to graduate? YES! Should graduation from high school be the benchmark? Absolutely not! High school graduation needs to become the rule not the exception. Some sort of post high school education needs to become the rule not the exception. Whether that education is College or a Vocational Program it must be done. I understand that success without some type of higher education is possible, but it is not very likely. We all know someone who is living real good with no education, yet we can point out many more who are living well because of their education. We also have to stop allowing stigma to prevent us from seizing opportunities that do exist. We have all had our run ins with over zealous often times racist police officers. However, how can we ever expect to change the judicial system or the way it treats persons of color and low economic standing unless more of us go into the fields of law enforcement and criminal justice? If we are ok with simply sitting on the outside hoping to revolutionize the philosophy of the inner status quo we should just quit now. There are tons of industries that we are actively recruiting minorities and we are denying ourselves economic empowerment because we are more concerned with keeping it real than with changing our circumstances. We actively choose to to go into certain fields yet cry about not having access to others. Many people worked their who lives to be able to see a day that we could be so selective as to not apply for a job that pays well, and has good benefits and good retirement because our “friends” may look at us different. If our personal enrichment, development, and economic independence is contingent upon the opinion of someone that we have fallen farther that we will ever be able to recover from. I don’t subscribe to the “have to be broke” school of activism. Economic power is crucial to everything. With more economic power you often times wield more political power, which in turn yields more concrete results for social change. It’s common sense that the bigger the wallet and the louder the voice, the easier you are heard. The power structure in this country is often times highly educated, politically connected, and economically powerful. The upper middle class doesn’t speak about education like it is a cancer. It is usually not a question of if they are going to go to college but rather where are they going to go to college, and in my humble opinion until we begin to position are self talk in the same fashion we will continue to be fighting the same problems. We might not all go to Harvard or Yale but if we shoot for Ivy League the worse that can happen is that we land at Community College for two years and transfer. Either way will over time usher in a new time of empowerment. We can not continue to say that we are held back if refuse to attempt to push forward! Don’t call yourself an activist if you are only active in keeping us active-less! Volunteering to be a victim is not the same thing as being victimized. Peace
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