Black on Black Crime
Understanding our Youth


Over the last couple months the state of life on the streets for our youth has been highlighted by the senseless murders of Adam Regis, Paul Erhahon and Kodjo Yenga to name just a few.
These murders have left many people in the black community horrified at the depths in which these youths are willing to go for what seems to be random acts of violence.

Meeting after meeting is being held, we talk as a community in groups and organizations and at home, but has anyone stopped for a second to understand what is going on in the streets, have we engaged our youth to get to the soul of the problem?

If we did you will find that many of our youths feel isolated, it’s a them and us culture, they have been left alone to make up their own rules on the streets and sadly this wanna B gang culture is what has developed.

Why has this isolation taken place? Their needs are not being met in school, black boys in particular are subject to exclusion for what in some cases are minor offences. The actual stats show that young black boys are 5 times more likely to be excluded from school than their Caucasian counterparts.

Why?

This stat we believe is partly due to the lack of understanding of our youth. We are very emotional people who express ourselves and feelings through the tones of our voice, facial expressions and the use of our hands which with out saying a lot can tell a whole story. Unfortunately teachers in today’s schools do not understand us nor do they even attempt to and in many cases are too quick to label our youth as trouble makers, and place them on the slippery slope to exclusion. If you tell someone they are bad, no good and not worthy after a time a person will stop trying and find it easier to simply be what’s accepted of them.

Another reason is the problem of children raising children. Absent fathers also play a major role in the emotional state of our youth.

So what is left for some of these youths?
They feel isolated, worthless and no one understands them. If you feel low about yourself and in the streets you find a band of persons who will make you feel good about yourself, hale your achievements, accepts you for who you are and in many cases give you the family love many have sought. Wouldn’t you want to be part of a group who gives you all you ever wanted?

Unfortunately Street gangs are the family from hell which is filling the void left by the absence of discipline, love, respect, morals and role models.

If we do not start to pay more attention to our youths, take time to understand them, show interest in their lives, help them work towards goals they have, nurture their talents and teach respect for life. There will be no hope for them; the issues we are now confronted with will only escalate.

In our community we tend to talk, talk ,talk but now its time for ACTION. There is no quick fix to this problem. But we have to start somewhere. We can all make a start by paying more attention to not only our children but our nieces and nephews and even those children in our neighborhood. We must show interest, show love, spend time and encourage, Hale their achievements but still discipline them. This will give them a feeling of success which is addictive and contagious. Teach them self worth by knowing there history. Arm them with information so when they go to school they know how to handle difficult teachers. They need to not only know but to understand where we come from, so that they can know where they going. They need to understand that ancestors worked to hard for them to bring us back down.

Brothers and sistahs we can do it, we cannot keep looking for the government to resolve our problems, they could be considered our biggest barrier. Lets put aside that slave mentality and take control of our own destiny as a community. If you think that this is beyond you there is help available, seek the help that is provided help from black organizations who can help through the mentoring programs, community groups, kids club sessions. Seek out organizations like the SPACE www.spacefda.com and many more.

Seek and you shall find.

We can cure this problem but 1st we must posses the appetite and drive to stay the course. Our youth are worth it.


By Lloyd Bedeau

It's very interesting what you say about the youth of today, especially the point about them finding an alternate family on the streets (Gangs). I think there are more contributing factors to why we are in the situation we are in but you have made some valid points and I agree we need to stop talking and take action.

Thank you for outlining the possible ways we can begin to tackle the problems withn our community. It is laudable to suggest we, quote, pay "more attention to not only our children but our nieces and nephews and even those children in our neighborhood. We must show interest, show love, spend time and encourage.... Teach them self worth by knowing there history." That advice assumes parents and older folks KNOW how to do those things, when they are likely to have been denied such love, affection, self-worth and attention themselves.

The first thing we need to do, as individuals, NOT as a community, is to begin the education process ourselves in dealing with each other. Parenting is a hand-me-down affair, with all negative things handed down as well. Which is why we have so many single parents, absent fathers, lack of self-love and self-worth within our community. For example, my mother beat us so much, she knocked out one of my sister's eyes! Yet she wasn't a wicked person. She herself was so abused, physically and emotionally, she thought that was the way parents acted. My sister, who lost her eye, also took to repeating my mother's lessons and beat her children mercilessly. The cycle stopped when she began to self-educate and to understand both her needs and that of her children.

We cannot give what we haven't got to others. It's like giving away money when we have none to give. So parents without self-esteem cannot instil esteem in their children. That is why so many parents internalise their racism and blame their children for a lot of things, telling them how 'ugly' they are and derogaing their 'bad hair' etc. Teachers have only so much responsibility for the outcome of our kids. The responsibility actually begins at home, the way a child is loved, wanted, encouraged and apreciated, and made to feel of value. Until parents begin the process of their own self-love, they will be unable to instil that in their kids, which will then perpetuate the cycle of emotional deficiency and low self-worth.

Its nice to know that someone wants to know what goes though the minds of our your children, but most of us only want to know, when they get effected.

Now i am not condeming any one.

Real action need to be done, and this action needs to be done with the same young people we are talking about, because most of them, if not all of them are just frighten, and the fear is what is causing the killings.

When talking to any of these young people of these crimes, after, they are sorry and will say there dont how it happen but it just happening, then we lost two lifes. One to death and one in the system.

We must build our training grounds, for our young people and then we can show them the right way to go, with all our love we have for them.
And i am willing to help.
we as a nation must teach our children.

I think parents these days are not taking enough responsibility in the up bringing of their children. I work in the youth service and can tell you that so many parents i come across are sadly bad roll models. The language they use is abusive, their attitude stinks and in many cases but not all, they don't want to work.
We try to do what we can to instil discipline and raise the bar of achievement for these kids as many don't see a real positive future for themselves. But it’s hard to change years of bad influence in just a few hours a day.
So when I saw your article I thought it was a great idea that we all as a community should be showing an interest in our young, and share in the parenting responsibilities. This will help install respect and a higher standard of morals.

If the strong black woman would stop giving it up to worthless, un-employed, gangster want-a-b's that have little or no home life themselves, we would not have this problem with black on black crime. We are raising children to look up to theor fathers, and my question would be WHY? 88 percent of all black babies born today have dad's who don't care if they live well, have clothes or food. All the black men today want is part of your goverment check. They live in your houses and eat your children's foods you get from food stamps. They live in the house or Apt. where you get your goverment rent paid, use your car or steal it, only to hang out with other "brothers" on the street. If black women would start having relationships with black men who care about the future, as opposed to worthless gang bums, we would all be better. They spend more on gold tooth than their children. We strong black women bring this on ourselves!!