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The Foundation Is Set; It's Time To Build On It

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 21, 2008

Updated: 01/20/2008 09:45 pm

As we mark the 79th anniversary of Dr. King's birth, it's time to sound the alarm, as Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes did in calling black Americans to oppose discrimination in "A Dream Deferred."

If our dream is to have children who are prepared to lead the world, then we must put action to our words.

In his poem, Hughes questioned what happens to a dream deferred: "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Maybe not, but youth who are not properly prepared to live in a competitive world are potential victims of all that is wrong with society - political fodder for the criminal justice system and lifetime captives of government's insensitivity to the poor and disenfranchised.

Capitalizing On Role Models

Young people need role models to show them what's possible, such as Ephren Taylor II, who, at 27, is the country's youngest black chief executive officer of a publicly traded company. Speaking at Pasco-Hernando Community College's Martin Luther King Jr. lecture series last week, the City Capital Corporation CEO talked about how he started programming video games and building Web sites as a teenager. Today, he's redeveloping real estate in inner cities.

Though there are still remnants of the old Jim Crow practices that need to be addressed, fostering the growth and development of black children tops the agenda for activists today. Black student achievement likely will continue to lag unless corrective action is taken.

Despite the many programs available to help students, the black child is being left behind socially, academically, technologically, economically and emotionally. This is not a pretty picture, but it's not hopeless.

"I start with the belief that all parents dream of a good life for their children," said Malinda Jackson, director of equity and diversity for Leon County schools and a member of the National Alliance of Black School Educators. "As educators, we must reach out and help the parents. It is about more than teaching the three R's but to bond and build bridges to parents."

Breaking The Covenant

This is a hot subject. Four years ago, the plight of many black families caused Bill Cosby to lecture young black parents for not holding up the promise of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In accusing parents of breaking the covenant with those who fought and risked their lives for a better democracy and opportunities for today's youth, Cosby caused a firestorm of debate.

The late psychologist Asa G. Hilliard III spent an entire career addressing alternative ways of educating and socializing black children. In "The State of African Education," a paper presented in 2000 to the American Educational Research Association, Hilliard argues that blacks have delegated many of their child-rearing duties to other ethnic groups. He says it's the duty of black people to nurture the genius in every black child, wherever the child is found.

I was encouraged to see members of PHCC's basketball team at Taylor's presentation. Many times, only the athletic needs of black athletes are nurtured. Coaches and school officials must search for positive teaching moments to fuel their player's development.

Even movies such as "The Great Debaters," "Remember the Titans" and "Akeelah and the Bee" are instructive. They tell black children about a long history of achievement and that it's not their fight to be the first black person to do this or that. It's their job to build on the foundation Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall and King laid for them.

As painful as it was for many blacks to hear, I think Cosby was saying that King and others didn't fight for people to act hopelessly and helplessly in advancing their causes. We need to look beyond whether children have the material resources needed to succeed. Many black children have those today, thanks to the progress made during the civil rights movement, and still fall behind. Something else is amiss.

A little more that 100 years ago, scholar W. E. B. DuBois identified the color line as the greatest challenge of the last century. For all practical purpose, legalized discrimination has been defeated, but not all social injustices. So, for all of those who are quick to ask the rhetorical question, "Are blacks better off today?" the answer is "yes" and also "yes" as to whether we can hold to the dream of better preparing our children.

When the celebrations come to an end, we must ask ourselves, "What did we do to make our communities, children and nation better?" If marching, singing and preaching will get us there, let's do them more abundantly. Some of us hunger for more, though.

I'm reminded of a new twist I've heard to an old saying: "If you do what you've always done, you will get what you always got." The new spin is: "If you do what you've always done, there is no guarantee that you will get what you always got. You could get less." I think we are getting less. It's time to move beyond simply memorializing King and become stronger advocates for our children as well. There's a place for both.

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