When i need you11/2/2022 ![]() ![]() The research has already proven that programs like this, executed properly, lead to success for our youth. Translation: Creating possibility models and alternative environments for youth in their community is more productive than prioritizing law-and-order tactics that don’t actually work. Programs like this kept them off the streets and shielded their impressionable minds from being lured into misconduct. As a result, most of the students who were once considered “at-risk” weren’t getting in trouble as often, and I was glad to see several of my mentees graduate on time. They ate snacks, got a chance to unpack the typical stresses of the classroom, caught up on homework, and found non-teacher mentors in the coordinators there. Society’s judgmental question of “Where are the parents?” ignores the true root of the problem: They’re often busy trying to ensure their families’ economic survival in a world still plagued with inequity.Īfter-school programs like the one I worked with in West Philly provide a necessary buffer between school and home life for these kids. In a city like Philadelphia, with a high poverty rate, these dynamics shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Many parents were working overnight shifts, incarcerated, and/or sharing custody of their children with other family members. When I was an after-school programing coordinator/mentor at West Philly High School via the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, I saw up close the barriers and issues facing a generation of kids who feel ignored. As someone who’s been volunteering and engaging Black youth in Philly for years, I can tell you from firsthand experience that blaming parents and treating at-risk kids as super-predators isn’t the answer. We need those who are actually investing their time, money and/or resources to step up and speak out on it. Right now, we don’t need any more doomsayers on the crisis we’re facing. What you’re doing is not only misleading - it’s racist as hell and doing more harm. Something needs to change, but it’s not what you seem to think. No, seriously, I need you to knock it off immediately. ![]() To summarize all of the propaganda in one sentence: Today’s most powerful media and political institutions would like you to believe that we are currently living in a city of unlawfulness that allows Black youth to commit senseless crimes because their parents either aren’t around or don’t care to intervene.įor all of those who hold public office and/or are in media and are pushing this type of messaging, please shut up. This behavior exacerbates a culture of over-criminalizing Black youth. ![]() When people aren’t blaming the district attorney’s office or demanding more law and order, they are further treating at-risk youth as common criminals. Anyone remember how we got the myth of “super-predators?” Yeah, that was from the same institutions that are now complaining about crime. Here come the lock-them-all-up-and-throw-away-the-key pleas.įor decades, we’ve seen the media and public officials lazily project harmful stereotypes and incite panic every time Black and brown young people act out. ![]()
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