Quote:
Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.
Where do young people turn if those we should look to for guidance look back at us with contempt?
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Where young people usually turn to... Each other--like minded individuals--that may be unsavory.
Mentoring and mentorship have fallen by the wayside.
Quote:
Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.
When I do well in school, activism, speaking or whatever I am praised, but I am considered abnormal. Many older black people see me as someone who is beating the odds; not as someone who is realizing her God given potential with the help of strong men and women to guide me. I been to many events where I am the only young person (these are black events) and I get ignored. I remember one reception where I was going around "networking" and 90% of the people I met and told about my work blew me off. At the dinner I made an awesome speech and then all of them wanted to shake my hand and get my card.
God knows and I know that I am NOT that special! Everything that I do each child born is able to do. The difference is in the support system that they (dont) have and the opportunities available to them.
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I wonder what city do you reside? Or what region? Because it is a "crabs in a barrel mentality that is killing us. My city thinks similarly and takes each other down without hesitation. What I have determined that part of this is because most kneegrows work for a corporate structure that has a culture of vulture. And they get so ingrained into it because of the money, when none of it is ours or matters in the end-game. I find it sad and another shackle we have to release ourselves. But it is doubtful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.
If no matter where you go no one believes in and supports you what do you do?
I am motivated by negativity. If you don't believe in me that makes me work so hard that your only choices are to believe in me or turn your back on the truth because that is what I am; The Truth. But every person has their limit. At some point you stop trying to prove people wrong. At some point you just don't care anymore. Young Black People usually get to that point very quickly because they are being pushed and pulled to that point by so many forces.
As much as I know about how we are failing each other as a community and what ways we know of that can fix this......
I honestly don't see the necessary changes happening in the near future (and by near future I mean the next century).
I have faith; I have hope; I have a desire to work, but even with all of this i feel helpless at times!
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Some of us older folks feel similarly
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That is why many of us say: keep yourself "educated" and always under study... The reason why we say this because you must NEVER stop learning because the Truth sets you free. Long time ago, all we had was faith and our ability to read the Bible. Now, things have changed and it is a brave new world out there. The internet keeps us connected and it has changed the way humans interact forever. Soon our governments are going to change into a new one with new and different challenges. Either we grow into a differrent kind of understanding or we rot, wither and die as we are young.
That haplessness you and many other feel is normal when times are tough. And for some reason we have to be keep striving. Because:
Quote:
Mother To Son
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor –
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
- Langston Hughes, 1922
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