Raising Young Men, Not Thugs!

Culture greatly influences our development. Life experiences and culture shape who we are and who we will become. While many Black children go after educational experiences, the media still portrays them in a negative light, which contributes to a stigma that Black males are thugs or gangsters but this is a gross misrepresentation altogether. Recently I have come across a great deal of news stories about Black men who have overcome raving odds to become successful business owners with their own fortune five hundred companies. However, I only had access to this information because I show interest in the Black culture. If you are not seeking information of this kind, you will be less likely to find it. This is important because with so many things vying for our youth’s attention, it is important that stories of success can be easily accessible to them as is the information on gun violence, drug trade, etc. Another important proponent to consider is economic and social conditions of Black children. If you survey young black males who turn to the streets or to a life of crime, a few common scenarios and or patterns will emerge; single-parent households, absentee fathers, poor living conditions, the list goes on. Many males turn to the streets when they see their mothers struggling to feed their families as a way to lift the burden off of her back. Some turn to the streets when the individuals in their life fall short and fail to be a role model for what they want in life and therefore they turn to the streets to seek that emotional support. There is a lack of role models in the communities plagued by these economic and social conditions and as a result, young men turn to the streets or the individuals they perceive in the media as being successful. As a mother of two teenage black males, I notice that my boys tend towards associating money with fame; whether it be from the NBA, NFL, being a rapper and more recently, YouTube fame. But what happened to lawyers and doctors being a successful career path? In my youth, young men wanted to be police officers and fire fighters, but now with the negative connotation behind law enforcement and their treatment to blacks, many feel to go forward in that direction would be to sell out. 

What Can We Do About It? 

It is important that we begin to show our young men examples of success from their communities. Introduce them to individuals who have conquered some of the same situations they’ve found themselves in. Our adult black men need to be better represented in programs like Big Brother, Big Sister and other mentor programs where young men learn skills to grow into thriving members of society. Most importantly, we need to watch what they look up to and idolize. With much of the music centered at them talking about money, guns, and drugs, these things can become symbols of success to them and that starts the spiral downhill into the situations that lead them away from success and into trouble. We can begin to foster creativity and institute strong ethics in them while they are young and encourage them to be unique to their journey and process without compromising their integrity. We can also encourage our young men to seek after careers in technology. Gaming is big in our youth as is computers and being able to navigate. We could foster an interest in these fields as our people are underrepresented in these industries and we can begin to encourage them to break the barriers and break into these untapped markets. It is never out of the realm of possibilities to be able to go after what it is you take interest in and we need to encourage them that if they can think it, they can become it!