View Full Version : Memo to young black men: Please grow up
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/473178p-397971c.html
ClevelandBronco
11-22-2006, 12:58 AM
You understand, of course, that you're just asking for someone to play the "Michael Richards/Cosmo Kramer" card.
ClevelandBronco
11-22-2006, 01:00 AM
Then again, if you're African-American you hold trump.
ClevelandBronco
11-22-2006, 01:18 AM
From the article:
"The way she understood it was that these young black men do not see growing up as having any advantages to it. One is either current or old-fashioned and outdated. The only success they think they can believe in is had by either athletes or rappers. Young black men. So they hold on to adolescence and adolescent ways as long as they can.
The writer also said, "I am sure many knew of Ed Bradley but they did not identify with him. He was too sophisticated. They identify with the overgrown boy, who is everywhere and who is getting over. He's got a lot of cash, plenty of girls, lots of jewelry, an expensive car. To them, that's the world. Or it's the world they want to be a part of."
So what can be done to make adulthood seem attractive to these young black men?"
Another related question: So what can be done to make real adulthood seem like a certainty to these young black men?
The gangsta culture came up around the idea that none of those guys were going to even get the chance to "grow up." They were going to go out young, and they'd die fighting for their crew and for their hood.
That coupled with too many absent fathers in our society virtually assured that many of these kids had no resources available to help them acquire the skills to help them become men.
It's not so much that it's an unattractive option to "grow up" for some of these guys, it's just that it's not an option that's even been presented to them.
BroncoBuff
11-22-2006, 07:23 AM
So what can be done to make these young black men grow up?
What you talkin' bout young black men not growin' up?
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2232/garycolemanjl4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
-Slap-
11-22-2006, 08:52 AM
This message will be as well received in the black community as Bill Cosby's comments were a few years ago.
defenseman
11-22-2006, 09:01 AM
Pretty scary, and possibly in a majority of circles pretty true....dman
epicSocialism4tw
11-22-2006, 11:47 AM
This message will be as well received in the black community as Bill Cosby's comments were a few years ago.
That whole situation was unsettling. Cosby had the opportunity to be one of the most influential people of his generation in the black community. He decided to take a risk and make an attempt to invest in the social development of the people in that community. In turn, they ostracized him.
Cosby was expelled from the cave.
Rohirrim
11-22-2006, 11:56 AM
And this is primarily a black issue? I don't think so. Last time I looked, Mick Jagger is still singing, "I can't get no satisfaction." ;D
You understand, of course, that you're just asking for someone to play the "Michael Richards/Cosmo Kramer" card.
They can try, but considering this man:
http://www.nydailynews.com/images/columnists/crouch_s.gif
is the author, they'd be stupid and foolish. Won't keep 'em from doing it, however.
Barry Ramey
11-22-2006, 04:54 PM
You won't hear Jesse Jackson saying these things. This has been the problem. The supposed black leaders not saying enough about personal responsibility and focusing on the breakdown of the family. It's not just the black community that has fallen, but I think it's the one that has fallen the farthest with at this point, no end in sight.
Garcia Bronco
11-23-2006, 02:13 PM
White men...hispanic men....asian men can all be like this. This is the problem with people that view the world through their own color of skin. That's how they see the world. And that's why any one who calls another a racist is a racist themselves because they are thinking in those terms.
Hogan11
11-23-2006, 02:22 PM
Our culture has been overwhelmed by the adolescent cult of rebellion that emerges in a particularly stunted way from the world of rock 'n' roll. That simpleminded sense of rebelling against authority descended even further when hip hop fell upon us from the bottom of the cultural slop bucket in which punk rock curdled.
OOooooohhhh, that devil music is the root of all evil. WTF is this from? The 1950's? ???
I packed up shop right there...DISMISSED.