Look at me as
your son and not
the person you
see on the
five o'clock
news feed...
A G Adehmela
Black Youth is Drowning in A Sea of Neglect, Illicit Drugs, Police Brutality and
Gun Violence.
As fathers and adult men, we are collectively responsible for
these lost youth. They have been seeking our attention for far too long, and
it is now time for action before it’s too late!
By Bruce T. Osborne, Sr., Publisher | October 18, 2023
STORY BY BRUCE T. OSBORNE, SR. | PUBLISHED: October 18, 2023
Stormkeeper
bLack men your attention is needed! many of our youth are drowning under a sea of despair. They are caught-up in illegal drugs, tribal wars, MENTAL Health DISORDERS, AND ARE undereducateD, etc. THESE PROBLEMS ARE OFTEN beyond their control. this is not a plea for money, only your personal commitment to community support. many of you are contributing, it's those who for ligitimate reasons have fell behind that i'm respectfully requesting you try to do more. we can't lose this battle.
Black adult men across the United States, you are in immediate demand. Black youth are undergoing a tremendous loss and require a helping hand. They desperately need a “Lifeline,” as they are being misdirected, lied to, and brainwashed by self-centered, capitalist individuals — both “Black and White.” These individuals couldn’t care less about the Black community, [especially Black boys].
In 2020, there was 19.91 million Black males in the U.S., that’s down from 21 million in 2018. The median age for Black Americans is 33 years old. As of recent data, the college rate for Black men is significantly lower than that of white men in the United States. Approximately 24% of Black men completed a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting college, compared to about 40% for white men. According to: the National Center for Education (NCES).
The life expectancy of Black males in the United States since 2021, has dropped significantly, with a reported decrease of nearly 4 years, bringing their average life expectancy to around 67.9 years. This decline is attributed to multiple factors, including systemic health disparities, the COVID-19 pandemic, increased violence, in particular, illegal police shootings, and Black-on-Black homicides — a major cause of death among young Black males according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Census Bureau, coupled with absent fathers during Black boys adolescent years due to a lack of nurturing. At this rate, Black males, “your legacy” is moving toward extinction.
In addition, other situations contributing to the death of Black males are: poor health choices, high incarceration rates, negative associations, lack of a “good” education, capital denial, and believe-it-or-not; “Some” Mothers that become vengeful, and manipulate boys to become a weapon against their fathers after a divorce or separation. [Men have also employed similar techniques against mothers, both using unorthodox and outright devious techniques as a result of a disorder called “Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS).”]
Photo by Brian Lundguist
The media and society tends to portray most Black males as menacing, violent, and having larceny inherently embedded their soul. But that is far from the truth. As a result of mainstream news media and society’s negative branding: police, educators and businesses appears to have lumped all young Black males into the same category. Unfortunately, it has caused a massive discounting of Black boys as viable members of their community or society. It is ugly, unfair, and outright discriminatory. As it is based solely on skin color. It’s a norm that needs to be vacated, and a new and more robust as well as equitable system installed.
Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a mental condition and a strategy where a parent (female or male) intentionally tells the child untruthful negative stories aimed at the other parent. It’s selfish, wicked and extremely harmful to the child in question. Its overall purpose is to wreak the child’s relationship with the opposing parent without regard to their [the child’s] development.
The primary goal of this act is to turn the child’s emotions against the other parent as punishment for the separation or divorce. Of course, this behavior will lessen the targeted parent’s hands-on guidance, support and direction of their adolescent during an important time in their life. It often leads a child toward low self-esteem, drugs, destructive and nonproductive behavior, gang membership, and extreme violence.
“The government, society, corporations, mainstream media, and other institutions are sending the wrong message to Black boys suggesting that, “Not only do Black boys not belong in their community but they will never belong or become viable active members of the broader American society.”
When a parent involves their child in their marital disputes—using them as pawns or intermediaries to help ameliorate their marital problems, it can cause irreversible damage to that child. And that’s whether they are a child or a young adult. Why? Because it pressures them to take sides, cause unwarranted stress, anxiety, worry, inability to stay focused, and a severe loss of emotions. As a result, they may become distraught, angry, violent, and more likely to develop a high propensity to partake in illicit drug, smoking, and alcohol abuse.
Many of these youths have been found to resent authority and show a diminished ability to adapt to new people or social hierarchy, such as work bosses, co-workers, teacher, different ethnicities, and even peers. Reducing any chances of obtaining a decent education or employment opportunities due to their inability to relate to others in a socially driven environment.
Today’s young people have enormous challenges in a convoluted and morally bankrupted society, both in America and around the world. It is not the same place in which I grew up. Yes, we had our issues, but they were nowhere close to what we are witnessing today. Inner cities in America are overwhelmed with drive by shootings, gang violence, drugs, and murders, particularly among Black youth and at staggering rates. Mass shootings in schools, churches, supermarkets, medical facilities, and other public places are leaving no one safe. What makes things even more complex and extreme is the trauma associated with this level of violence on the average “innocent” citizen.
The carnage left by gun-wielding individuals affect all facets of society—from the elderly to the noticeably young, and from those directly involved to those exposed indirectly through incidents like robberies, violent encounters, protest, and outright murders. Many of those who experience violence or have family members engaged in these disturbances will face long-lasting health related difficulties. Their emotional, spiritual, and social well-being, as well as their psychological health, will be compromised at a time when there is a significant reduction in mental health facilities and funding, both nationally and regionally, with limited recovery mechanisms to aid in the nurturing process for affected individuals.
Young urban Black individuals whose brains have not fully developed, are finding life extremely difficult to explore alone. Unfortunately, many Black boys in the community seek refuge by joining gangs and engage with others of ill repute due to the perceived social support from gang members and their hierarchy that provide them direction, excitement, financial gain, and the feeling of being valued.
This is especially true given the lack of alternatives like recreational activities, life-coaching, or mentoring opportunities from loving, educated, knowledgeable, and responsible “Black males who look like them.” Falsely constructed, gangs appear to provide a sense of power and reduced fears of being marginalized in almost every area of Black boys lives as well as providing them a sense of identity (vigil and long – 1990).
Gangs create a “false” sense of protection from bullying and loneliness, by providing the perception of having a real family—someone who loves you, and whom you can depend on in the absence of one’s own family structure. Contrary to this belief, gangs are thoroughly disloyal in their support for young adults.
The love of real family members and friends are unconditional, as opposed to gang membership which is extremely conditional as well as a terrible alternative to family or any other positive structure for Black boys. The gangs existence, in itself, is called chicanery, characterized by manipulation and deceitful rhetoric which leads young Black boys to antisocial and extreme violent behavior. Once a young person become part of a gang, it becomes a laborious process to get them out. Therefore, it is better to prevent them from joining a gang in the first place.
As the “Dove” was given to John who baptized Jesus Crist to signify the truth of one’s good deed to another. I am requesting that you — Black fathers and community leaders — be someone’s faithful life support and Angel! These young Black boy’s today need it more than ever, and before the system lock arms with them, placing lost Black boys in the unjust and violent penal system.
No one want to see another dead Black boy (or girl) laying in the streets dead because of their skin color. A crime repeatedly occurring as result of unjust police shootings, senseless gang violence, youth having no positive direction from a father or mentor, or father and mother squabbling, separation, or a nasty divorce: a situation that ultimately involves weaponizing children against the other parent. It never ends well!
Black boys are at their tipping point. They see no options for themselves other than an early death, self-destruction or time in jail. It is very difficult, if not impossible to stop a fully loaded Mack truck descending down a mountain. Hence, it is much better to stop it before it gets out-of-hand. So, what can the U.S. government and Black males do to help support Black youth? Primarily, the U.S. government factors into this mix when it lackluster and the ingenuity to support families in need with vital, meaningful, and long-range resources to uplift those in distress.
The government must do a better job of “creating and monitoring” community-based programs for Black youth. Rather than throwing money at unregulated organizations —“especially those which have no connection to the Black community” — where most of the government funding gets absorbed into administrative cost (their personal pockets).
The government needs to have “watchful eyes” when they entrust individuals or non-profit groups to dispense government monies and resources to support community programs targeting Black youth and children. Why? Because many unscrupulous individuals and organizations see the Black community as their personal “piggy bank,” rather than a viable community with valuable citizens.
Additionally, “the government” can create appropriate housing which provides stability for struggling families (absent the wordage “Low Income” — a stigma which gives individuals the feeling of being less than others). They can also provide “temporary” financial assistance for underdeveloped families with a clearly defined cut-off time, and a significant job training programs that leads to a career as opposed to a job.
“In particular, a job that is moving toward obsolescence and has a low pay scale is increasingly concerning. This is especially true during these alarming times where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Computing is threating job security by redefining the way America conducts business and work.”
Young Black men want and need to work in a position where they can feel their efforts are contributing towards a better life for themselves, their families, and society. As stated above, they want to be compensated a fair wage for their work efforts so they can support themselves and their families. Program dependency fosters complacency, and no one desire to see individuals be devalued by these lifelong governmental social programs.
By supporting families with resources, clearly defined goals, real job training, and offering today’s young Black boys a good education and responsible careers with good salaries, they can and will feel they are prepared and can contribute to something bigger than themselves.
More importantly, it will help to solidify the family while endearing its relational bonds for a better life (financially, socially, and structurally). Furthermore, by helping to cement the family together via guided financial assistance with consistent monitoring, it will reduce the overall incarceration rate among today’s children, young adults, and that of parents who perform non-compliant illegal activities in order to feed and house their families. It will also make certain that funding is used in the appropriate manner as opposed to non-compliant means.
Healing the family structure will be a great start toward codifying America as well as the beginning steps toward reducing the need in the inner cities for guns, violence, drugs, and gang membership. Last, but most certainly not the least, is the “support of young Black boys by fathers and responsible adult [Black] men.”
It is you, Black men, that holds the most pressing keys to these young Black boys lives as the fathers and men in your past did for you. Far too many young Black boys are not getting positive direction from today’s Black adult men, finding themselves having to navigate and fight their own battles without the insight and wisdom of fathers, or elders. It’s not natural.
Some of today’s fathers and male adults are embroiled in “Narcissistic or Machiavellian” behavior (lacking empathy and support for others, and especially their off-spring). They are attempting to recapture their own youthful lives at the expense of the children—in particular— young Black boys. As a direct result of this behavior and the apparent void in the positive direction of today’s Black youth, coupled with the appearance of a lack of love, devotion and uplift, these adolescents as young as 12 years old are succumbing to joining gangs.
These Black boys are engaging in nefarious drug related activities and other violent behavior. This type of negative behavior is particularly dangerous for Black boy, as society has already assumed they are born with destructive and violent tendencies. Black boys need to know that parents and community members, especially fathers, have their backs.
Black boys need to believe they can count on their fathers for guidance and in the resolution of personal and pressing issues. These young, courageous, and bright minds require love, dedicated parental attention, and mentors — especially today! As responsible parents of Black children—we must learn how to work together for their benefit regardless of our own personal interest or disputes.
The children did not ask to be brought into this world — a world that is constantly changing for the worst, particularly for those who are disenfranchised. Due to systemic racism, Black boys face a lack of a proper education, employment opportunities, and economic stability. The neglect or absence of one or both parents exacerbated by an archaic and unjust criminal justice system, along with insufficient governmental and community support, has weighted heavily on the outcome of these youth. It’s now time for action through the involvement of the principal motivators in these boys lives — [Black Men]!
Black fathers, uncles, older siblings, cousins, and friends, it’s time to take responsibility, control, and a firm leadership role towards helping to redirect the choices of today’s future Kings. Stand behind them and support their efforts unconditionally, as long as it is positive and leading toward making our youth better educated, strong, and Global Citizens. Today’s youth must be able to stand-up to the injustices in a direct and meaningful fashion. They must do so absent the negative activity that will place them in a violent and revolving door institution — America’s most dangerous penal facilities. These institutions and houses of punishment do not provide Black youth with a meaningful structure. On the contrary, they make Black youth worst: more violent, mentally challenged, and isolated from the world.
Black men, keep in mind; for there to be any type of meaningful and long-lasting change in the lives of the young people you support, it must come from the heart. They must feel that you genuinely care for their existence. No money or things can replace that kind of love.
In fact, it is what has been missing in their lives which makes them act-out negatively in the first place. It is the feeling of being unloved, unworthy, despair, and isolation which creates that empty feeling. The feeling associated with hate, anger, resentment, rage, non-trusting, and the need to be apart-of-something—even a violent drug infested gang.
We can no longer require our young people to do that in which we didn’t do in our adolescence years, which is to raise themselves. No one can do it alone. It took a village then, and as cliché as it might sound now, it requires the same today. Even more so, as the winds have changed. Society and its complexities have made it more difficult to adapt.
The social media wave has caused monumental obstruction and isolation in the lives of young people. There is nothing more comforting and assuring for a [young Black man] than to have a caring, warm, and loving adult place his or her arms around them in support of their positive action(s), and utter those highly powerful and supportive words: “Good Job Son, I Love You!“
Gentlemen, your parental and supportive (Uncle) gesture will have a positive affect in the young male(s) you work with by altering their attitude toward life. They become responsible and make better life choices. It will for many — for the first time in their lives — see themselves as a viable source within their community and society.
Notwithstanding, what your effort to help a young person will do for you — the person who made a difference in someone other than yourself. Wow… how exciting. It is a great feeling and a win, win for all involved. Consequently, reach out to your sons, the youth in your neighborhood, who may be “Wading in Troubled Waters” requiring fathers, community leaders, relatives, and organizations, to help as they are drowning in a sea of confusion. It is never too late. I promise, it will change their lives as well as yours. Do not wait another moment and do it now!