Positive Black Potential
The Time is Now
They are closer than ever to having a black president. Their music is probably the most influential of all current genres.
Young black artists such as 50 Cent are business minded, strong and confident.
They are the leaders that black and even white youths look up to today.
I find it appalling, though, that they do not use this influence to shed a more positive light on young black women (note I did not say young black women of this generation have potential). They are degraded at every turn. They may have potential but they will have to work harder than their male counterparts.
Black youths in general are lead to believe that money and sex are their ultimate goals. What about education? What about civil rights? Politics? Music that doesn't degrade anyone or speak of violence. White America held the black people back for hundreds of years. Now they are holding themselves back. There is no limit to their potential.
Imagine the humanitarian efforts someone with as much money, power and influence as 50 Cent could sponsor. Imagine if efforts were made by these men to change laws and ideas BEFORE injustices like Jena 6 happened.
Martin Luther King, Jr. made one of the most powerful, prolific, perfect, positive speeches of all times. He inspired a nation to work towards peace. Today Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton lead by the examples of extra-marital affairs and racism. But these are not young, black men. They may be biased because of the more open, brutal, hatred towards blacks of their times. But this is a new generation. One that can turn that emotion into potential and that potential into action. The time is now.
Published by Compuwise
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17 Comments
Post a CommentThe point of that post is you and I form opinions based on the perspective of growing up in different generations and life experiences. Mine is and always will be "we are more alike than we are different" and skin color or other ethnicity is not an indicator of potential. Some people, however, have a tougher time reaching their potential. Cynthia Cooper would be a good example of someone who survived and thrived, despite not having the ideal environment to do so. "Freedom Writer's Diary" is an excellent book (I did not see the movie) of the types of barriors I am speaking about.
Okay, got it. I have lived in 3 states and many cities. In the city where I was born and lived through the 50s and 60s, black people were considered people by most of the people in the town. Many years later, I moved back to the town and my daughters attended my old high school. Through this experience I got to meet many "youth" that are from your generation. Having a bunch of relatives, nieces, nephews I am exposed to even more youth from vairous generations. Moving to CA has widened my exposure to youth from many ethnic backgrounds.
Example - The creation of a wireless phone is amazing but the invention of the phone itself was a bigger event.
Was your opinion based on research of demographics and the numbers of black youth of various generations that attend college, join the military and so on? Or is it an opinion based on sterotypes that you hold? On another note, I look forward to the day that a fair trial proves 3 teens innocent of any involvement with that "brutal beating" of Justin Barker.
I mean young adults. By young adult I mean 20-30, roughly. Also, I actually don't have as many facts to print for you. Being on this earth myself for 35 years, I went by what I have seen. And I know that blacks in the 50's and 60's who were not even considered people had far less of a "chance" (that might be a better word) to follow their dreams. The part about this generation having more potential than the future is a little tricky. Once you have succeeded in something then it is no longer "potential" but reality. So if this generation meets its potential then they will have made a huge jump. The next generation may do great things but compared to the ones before them, those things may be marginalized.
Or, my opinion is that your opinion is too much of a generalization, which may be why their is a lack of comments on it. Unless you are physic, I do not get how you can judge "the next generation". Is that those unborn or are you an elementary school teacher teaching to only black students? Is your opinion based on your family members, like "my older cousins did thus and such" and "my younger cousins did thus and such" so that means ALL black skinned youth are the same?
What facts are you basing your opinion on? I base generations on families. Parents generation #1, children #2, grandchildren #3. 21 was the average age of marriage among "my generation". My siblings span 19 years, so that the 2nd generation (as my criteria to label them) is closer in age to the 3rd generation. Would that mean my youngest sibling's potential is the same as the oldest, or would it be compared to the 3rd generation's potential. And would the "future generation" be his children?
oops, I forgot to say, you complainied about lack of comments, because this subject was not controvesial enough, and I promised to read it. I did not come to "argue" either side of an issue, just my comments on what I read. What I read is that you are an expert on black potential. Thanks for claryifying what you meant about women in (remark). On to thoughts I had regarding the article.
whatever to that comment about your judgement of what I do, I will have to think about it but I truly do not have time to go back, reread my words and analyze them.
compuwise: Alyce you seem to argue both sides of every discussion. Don't get mad. I'm just stating what I see. ANYWAY, Shamontiel got the same impression that you did because of the way I worded my article. I need to edit that part I guess. My mistake. I just meant that because of the degrading stereotyping from today's males, that women will STILL have to work harder to attain their goals. Did I mean that men stereotype women MORE today than in the past? NO. I just meant that men's potential has increased more so than women's.