Preparing Our Sons for the Game of Life

FYI.  Applies to sons and daughters.
 
Preparing our sons for the game of life.(Executive Memo)(Essay)
Black Enterprise – June 1, 2009
Earl G., Jr. Graves

I have often been amazed by the amount of time and energy many parents invest in their sons’ athletic careers. They attend all the games, travel hundreds of miles to take them to tournaments, and scold them if they slack off during practice drills. However, those same parental cheerleaders are often missing in action when it comes to educational oversight. They may spend hundreds of hours in the bleachers, but they don’t take 60 minutes to review their children’s academic standing.

Too many have become consumed by what I call the "ESPN culture," focusing on athletic highlights 24/7. Our young black men have been filled with hoop dreams of NBA glory and, worse, their parents are caught up in the same grand delusion. This viewpoint comes at a time when an entire generation of African American males is at risk. A 2008 report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education concludes that "black males have consistently low educational attainment levels, are more chronically unemployed and underemployed, are less healthy and have access to fewer healthcare resources, die much younger, and are many times more likely to be sent to jail for periods significantly longer than males of other racial/ethnic groups." The same study reported that more than 50% of black males do not graduate with their high school class and the 10 states with the lowest graduation rates–including New York, Georgia, Illinois, and Michigan–enroll more than 1.6 million black male public school students, roughly 40% of that population. Other reports have revealed that 75% of college-age African American men are not registered at any institution of higher education, and that one in nine black males ages 20-34 is incarcerated.

We can ill afford to throw up our hands and justify such poor performance as a consequence of economic, cultural, and societal factors: a declining public education system, a widening technology chasm, an ever-expanding income gap as more and more U.S. industries relocate overseas, and an increasingly vulgar popular culture that devalues scholarship and glorifies gangersterism. Despite the fact that the nation has entered the age of Obama, more and more black men are being shut out of the promise of opportunity and pushed into society’s margins. Simply put, we are in a state of emergency.

I am not talking about having black males completely abandon the basketball court or football field. In fact, I was a student athlete who played basketball during my high school and collegiate years. My involvement with sports was helpful in my personal and professional development. I learned the importance of discipline, teamwork, competition, and leadership. But my academic career never took a backseat to dunking a basketball. That’s why today I place athletics in its proper context and use it as a means to build self-esteem, instill values, and spur academic achievement among young people. Beyond being engaged in my own sons’ extracurricular activities, I spend a considerable amount of time coaching a group of predominantly African American males as part of an AAU basketball team. Of course, I want them to be dexterous, competitive players, but it is far more important to me that they grow into educated, productive, and successful citizens in the game of life. In fact, my No. I rule is that all of them must achieve academically before gaining consideration for team membership, and throughout the season, they must maintain or improve above-average GPAs.

Solving the problems facing young black men requires us to be vigilant and committed at all levels. I urge you–whether you’re a parent or not–to apply your own expertise to the cultivation of excellence among our young people. Look for opportunities to inspire and encourage young minds and stoke their ambitions. Promote education, entrepreneurial skills, and smart money management as vital tools they need to achieve life goals. Help lay the foundation for stable communities that allow them to flourish.

When they’ve been able to apply their talent and reach their full potential in the classroom and workplace then we’ll all have something to cheer about.

What did you think about it? Speak up on the HEF – Hudlin Entertainment Forum

The White Crime Crisis

Mike Huckabee Speaks On White Crime and Racism
by Dr. Edward Rhymes

"Whites almost never put themselves under the same microscope that Blacks and Latinos are routinely subjected to."

Republican Party darling Mike Huckabee, during a recent speech, decided to dispense some tough love to a predominantly white audience when he voiced his concerns about the state of affairs in American white communities. "The epidemic of whites involved in drunk-driving fatality accidents is deplorable," Huckabee said. He cited the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’ s 2000 statistics that showed that white male drivers between the ages of 21-34 constituted the largest percentage of drunk (or impaired) drivers in fatal crashes, and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Prevention Research Center’s 1999 findings that of the 91,248 alcohol-related driving fatalities, 65,309 were committed by whites.

Huckabee also took aim at the violence perpetrated by whites in school: "White school children killing other school children must stop. The senseless and barbaric school shootings in Pearl, Miss., Paducah, Ky., Jonesboro, Ark., Edinboro, Pa., Springfield, Ore., and Littleton, Colo. serve as chilling reminders of what happens when there is a failure of leadership in the white family."

"White school children killing other school children must stop." Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, referred to his speech as a wake-up call: "We can’t hide behind the stereotypical image of the Black and Hispanic violent criminal anymore. Before there was ‘gangsta’ rap you had Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Francis Ford Coppola winning award after award and Oscar after Oscar for their films filled with whites committing brutal acts of violence. What type of message does that send if we reward movies that depict such brutality? The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Scarface, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction. These movies have all contributed to a culture of white violence."

FBI statistics also state that from 2007, of the 57 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, 35 of the assailants were white." These statistics signal an alarming trend," said Huckabee. "White politicians don’t want to discuss these issues, but somebody has to speak up."

Huckabee continued his assault on what he called the "white crime epidemic." "The average serial killer is usually male, between the ages of 25-35, and he is usually white. The majority of the time, he will kill victims of his own race. The ages of his victims will vary greatly, depending on his particular ‘interests.’ His intellect ranges from below average to above average. He doesn’t usually know his victims or have any particular hatred for them personally (though they might be symbolic to him in some way) most of the time… His victims never did anything to hurt him in any way…they are normally strangers to him. He doesn’t come from one social class or another; he can come from skid row or Park Avenue. The typical child abductor-murderer is, likewise, usually a white male. They are single and about 27 years old. They are either unemployed or work in unskilled jobs, live alone or with parents, while their victims are typically 11-year-old white females from middle class neighborhoods. "

"These movies have all contributed to a culture of white violence." The explosion of white criminality has been breathtaking. Child sex offenses are among the fastest growing offenses of the federal criminal caseload from 1994 to 2006 and during 2006, 3,661 suspects were referred to U.S. Attorneys for child sex exploitation offenses. Child pornography constituted 69% of referrals, followed by sex abuse (16%) and sex transportation (14%). Most suspects charged with sex exploitation were white, male, U.S. citizens, and had attended some college. "Where do we point the finger for this?" asked Huckabee, citing statistics from a December 2007 report of the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice.

Huckabee lashed out at those he called "social and moral vampires." "Child pornography or kiddie porn is a crime whose perpetrators are overwhelmingly white and whose victims are disproportionately white," he said. "This too must stop. Even in our sacred institutions such as our churches, specifically in far too many Roman Catholic churches, our innocent white children are being preyed upon."

"Most suspects charged with sex exploitation were white, male, U.S. Citizens." "Do you realize that nearly 70 percent of those serving time for violent crimes against children are white?" Huckabee said, this time citing figures from the Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics. "And white inmates were nearly three times more likely to have victimized a child than black inmates. What are we doing to ourselves?" he wondered. "Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Deanna Laney represent a frightening pattern of murder and neglect of white children by white mothers…. And do they take responsibility? No. They either blame it on some phantom black man or say God made them do it." Huckabee also referenced reports over recent years of white female teachers sexually exploiting their minor students.

Huckabee, who was a Republican Party presidential candidate in 2008, also raised the issue of fiscal irresponsibility. "Our current economic crisis can also be traced to a pandemic of greed perpetrated by the predominantly white male old-boys-network. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimate the annual cost of white collar crime as being between $300 and $660 billion as of 2005." The preacher-politician paused for effect. "While you’re looking for the Black or Hispanic with the ski-mask and gun, the Bernie Madoff’s are ‘making-off’ with our economic fortunes. How many more Enron’s, Worldcom’s, Tyco’s, HealthSouth’ s, and ImClone’s do we have to endure before we get the message?"

"Our current economic crisis can also be traced to a pandemic of greed perpetrated by the predominantly white male old-boys-network. " Huckabee then turned his focus on white youth and drugs: "It’s the same story for young adults. Whites are 66 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds and 70 percent of drug users that age. Blacks are 13.5 percent of persons in that age group and only 13 percent of young adult users, while Hispanics are nearly 15 percent of that age group, but yet comprise only 12 percent of drug users 18-25. According to the Justice Department, drug users tend to buy from same-race dealers. So the nearly three-quarters of users who are white, mainly rely on white drug dealers, not the Blacks or Hispanics of accepted imagery. When it comes to drugs like Ecstasy and crystal meth – a hot product in suburban America – the dealers and users have long been known to be mostly white, middle-class males between 14 and 32. American society doesn’t want to face the fact that white kids deal and use drugs. They simply can’t look in their faces and see that a nice-looking white kid is selling drugs to their kids, because that would mean that their kids could do this too." "When will it end?" lamented Huckabee.

Author’s confession: Dear reader, this article is only an invention. Mike Huckabee never delivered a speech such as this. However, the statistics cited are very real. As a matter of fact, this piece was first published back in 2005 and has been tweaked to add some more up-to-date stats and a new main character (instead of George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee).

No leading white political or religious leader has ever, to my knowledge, come close to expressing the thoughts and views outlined in this composition. Whites almost never put themselves under the same microscope that Blacks and Latinos are routinely subjected to.

Let’s think about it, when the tragedy at Columbine occurred there were literally hundreds of news stories asking the question: "Why are our kids becoming so violent?" Not, "Why are white kids becoming so violent, but "our" kids. Now let’s contrast that with what happens when a black child is killed in a predominantly black community. The newspaper accounts more often than not refer to "the problem of black-on-black crime" or "violence amongst black youth."

"The face of white crime is at least as ugly as its Black and Latino counterparts. " There are two scenarios unfolding here: 1) De-emphasizing or minimizing ethnicity. When the crime is perpetrated by whites, color is not the issue; the issue is "our" children and violence. 2) Emphatic emphasizing and alienation when blacks are deemed the culprits. It is no longer "our" kids; it is "black" kids or youth. There’s a big difference.

The raw numbers speak eloquently and the narrative regarding the "deracialization" of offenses committed predominantly by whites, couldn’t be more clear. The face of white crime is at least as ugly as its Black and Latino counterparts. The case can be made that the broad scope of white multi-collar anti-social behavior penetrates even more deeply than that of non-whites into the very fabric of American society (given their historical and current control of the U.S. power structure). Yet, in the USA, one must concoct a fictitious speech, such as mine, to convey, in part, the extent of white criminal behavior. For too many whites, the facts of actual white misdeeds are unbearable truths.