Essence Magazine Ad.... says....
Scared for Our Boys? Join Our #He Is Not A Suspect Campaign...
This is a campaign that essence has recently started. I just don't believe a campaign like this is going to work. I think the best thing we can do for our young men is to get REAL fathers in their lives, who will teach them how to carry, conduct, and become men, and not little boys in grown bodies...
Essence magazine says: Stop profiling our boys!
The Zimmerman verdict disappointed and enraged millions this weekend—but perhaps no group of people was more struck than Black mothers, who worry daily about the dangers their sons face because they are profiled without consequence. These are women that ESSENCE seeks to serve and support every day.
In response to the Not Guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder case, ESSENCE is launching a powerful movement aimed at stopping the racial profiling of our sons.
Starting Tuesday, July 16, we’re launching #HeIsNotASuspect, a counter-stereotyping campaign designed to challenge negative images of young African American men.
We're inviting readers to post on Instagram and Facebook photos of themselves and a young Black man they care about—a son, brother, nephew, cousin, neighbor or grandson—with a few words explaining why he's so much more than a stereotype, using the hashtag #HeIsNotASuspect.
For example: "This is me with my brilliant son Christopher. He's a freshman in high school who wants to be an architect. He loves to draw and play soccer. #HeIsNotASuspect"
This kind of affirmation is a simple yet proven approach to counter the dangerous stereotypes that put our children at risk. “Discrimination reflects the cultural messages that people are getting, so we need to alter those messages at the source,” says Dr. David Williams, Ph.D., professor of public health, African American studies and sociology at Harvard University. At ESSENCE we believe we can change the message. We can move a nation steeped in racial stereotypes about Black boys to learn the truth of who our sons really are.
It’s time to celebrate our young men, not profile them. Help our campaign go viral. Our sons’ lives depend on it.
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As much as it hurts me to say it, the discrimination that many bright, industrious, and ambitious young men are encountering is due in part to their racial peers conducting themselves like thugs. Unfortunately, there are so many young bm out there acting like damn fools, that one you have a few who don't and never would, they are cast in the guilt by association pool.
In my family (A very large family) we have some thugs and fools too, but most of the men in my family are hard working, dedicated, and thriving (we have a good amt. of very, very wealthy ppl )members of society. like most blk Americans, we are all mixed up-mainly due in part to an old white grandmother who ran off with her INDIAN slave (Yes Indians were slaves too, at one or another almost ALL races were slaves) The very term slave comes from the word Slavic, which was originally a WHITE race of slaves in the 15-16th century. Many of them were owned by BLACK people -study your history-so you will not be deceived. That's anther topic but my point is we consider ourselves black and are proud to be so. But most of the older men in the family encourage the young men to:
- Pull their pants up-what kind of fool walks around with his butt hanging out!
- Go to either college or trade school. Get some kind of schooling that will enable you to care for yourself and your family
- Take care of your children. If men have children in my family either in or out of wedlock (obviously in is preferred) the other men will encourage, push, and demand if nec. that they take care of their responsibilities-as a result, almost all do.
- Leave drugs alone. The only thing most of the men in my family will tolerate is occasional weed or light drinking, and as a result we have less than a handful of drug addicts in a very large family. (that I know of) The younger men in my family are afraid of the older ones because they have been RAISED not just allowed to grow up and do whatever they pleased.
Now please understand, I am in no way claiming my family is perfect. But it's a very good, close, loving family. And most of the children in our family HAVE FATHERS! This is critical because do you think for one moment that if we females were to try to raise these boys by ourselves we could have achieved half this much success? I think we all know that answer. The first step in raising productive sons is the have a productive father in his life. The reason these boys are growing into untamed fools is because there are so many missing fathers in black homes! One thing we have to face is that when boys get to a certain age, they are NOT going to listen to you! They are going to emulate, imitate, and follow the men in their immediate surroundings. So if you are trying to raise your son in the hood by yourself-heaven help you! Because when he gets to that age, and starts imitating some of the monsters in the hood, you may find yourself having to run from him! Now please hear me, raising your sons in nice places is NOT a guarantee of a loving, productive, member of society. There are no guarantees. However, raising him in an impoverished wasteland (esp. alone-with no loving father to counter balance the negativity) almost guarantees him life long problems such as
- poverty mindset
- resentment that easily escalates into violence
- misogyny accompanied by violence against women
- learning difficulties (as some of these schools in the hood are only interment camps, not learning institutions
- limited thinking, limited opptys, limited lives
- glorification of violence and drugs
- glorification of sexual indiscretion, and corresponding high stds.
- survival mode instead of designing a life mode...
- The greatest danger of any environment is the one of ACCEPTANCE!
As the KKK once proclaimed, when you teach them well enough that they are inferior, ya won't have to send em to the back of the bus no more, they'll find their own way there...
The greatest danger of any child raised in a dilapidated, impoverished, and violent setting is that they begin to believe this is where they belong, This is ALL they can achieve, and this is as far as they can go. Once this failure transition takes place, then the chances of them being able to rise above their circumstances begins to plummet.
- Get the boys who can be saved, out of the hood. It kills me to say it but some of them are too far gone, and the time and energy would be better spent trying to save others.
- If you feel the school your child is attending is not up to par, and you cannot afford to send him to a better one, then take an hour or two per day and study with him. It makes a tremendous difference believe me. I have a cousin whose son was failing, and declared to be ineducable by a very racist teacher. She went to Barnes and Noble and got reading material. she studied with him 2 hours per night 5 nights per week. The following year, He tested in 2nd place for the ENTIRE SCHOOL! Never accept someone else's estimate of YOUR child, you know him much better than they do...
- Try to get him into some kind of sport, and keep him occupied. Studies show that kids who play sports are better off academically, socially, psychologically, and are usually in much better physical shape.
- Whatever his gifts are -encourage them. I cannot emphasize enough the need to find a strong MALE mentor for impressionable young boys. This does not take the place of a good father-mind you, but it's a heck of a lot better than allowing the fools in the hood to mentor him..
- Encourage him to think for himself and not be a slave to what is so called cool. Look around you the people who are too cool to follow the rules of society, are usually too broke, too high and too stupid to do much with their lives...
- Get him the hell out of the hood. It's a dangerous and deadly place...
As much as it's hard to hard, it's hard to say but the black community WILL have to undergo a schism if we are to survive. We will have to cut off the people (and most of them will be men) who have decided to turn our race into the black death, and ostracise them. I'm sure you all have people in your family whom you love, but have consciously or unconsciously decided to exclude from your life. Either they were into gangs, drugs, or other nefarious activity that you did not want in your life. That is what we as a collective need to do. We cannot allow any fool just because he shares a skin color to infiltrate our lives, and feel an obligation to take care of, and help him. Many bm not only look for bw to take care of them but expect them to. And many times will become violent when she refuses.
You know in the old times, the Vikings would throw dead bodies over the side of the boats. This kept the sharks happy and they were less likely to attack the boats. This is why they called it losing the dead weight. Many times today, you see bw bent over and breathing hard because she is carrying a lot of dead weight. Sometimes it's very precious weight to her because she gave birth to it. But even this fact does not necessarily make her safe....
If you have an older son whom you are afraid of, then by all means, take measures to protect yourself! Move away from him, do not give him a key to your house, don't hesitate to call the police if he threatens or hits you. Do NOT put yourself in peril trying to save the un-savable. When ppl are grown, and even when they are not quite there -you do NOT have to keep that child. If you fear for your life or the lives of your other children, then do something! Make arrangements for a strong man in your family to take your older un manageable son. If no one will, and he is doing drugs or threatening violence, have the police pick him up. I know women feel tremendous guilt over having their own child arrested, but MANY mothers are resting in their graves right now, because they refused to see the truth as it stood glaring before them. That their child was dangerous and out of control. And this applies to either sex. Girls can be just as deadly...
But that is off topic. All I want to say, and I welcome your input is that we need to come up with more productive ways to save our sons that a silly ad saying we value them....
