| Yesterday I had a long talk with Jimmy. Jimmy's name | | | | level of social mobility, while not perfect, is better than |
| has been changed for this article. But, Jimmy is a real | | | | any other country you can name. Furthermore, the |
| American of African descent, teacher and basketball | | | | lack of mobility that exists is not all society's fault. It is in |
| coach in Harlem. He runs a program that is making a | | | | your interest and, due to our forefather's sacrifice, a |
| difference in young black men's lives. He said he had | | | | duty to strive to be productive; youth need positively |
| four students go to four year universities last year. | | | | contribute to the society that positively contributes to |
| When I asked, "On basketball scholarships?" Jimmy | | | | them. Different values emerge from this teaching than |
| replied, "No, on academic scholarships." His program is | | | | the ones that are currently fostering anger and |
| working and he is a great man. | | | | defiance. |
| Jimmy was alarmed, as all culturists should be, about | | | | Furthermore, the attitudinal and behavioral norms and |
| the state of young black American males. He threw | | | | guidance Jimmy and I discussed must be established |
| out the familiar statistics about more black men being | | | | early. Males confront for status. Being told that the |
| in prison than college. Woefully, he chalked this up to | | | | school is the top dog gives it authority. The school's |
| single motherhood. The mothers make them the | | | | having pretentions to this without it being backed up |
| center of attention and the difference between home | | | | invites challenge and disrespect. From an early age, the |
| life and school life sets them up for failure. | | | | school must be strict and announce what it will and will |
| My culturist contribution was to note that groups have | | | | not esteem. When we give pregnant teens jobs in the |
| philosophies. The idea that society is unfair, you have | | | | front office, when we allow boys to dress in a way |
| no hope and to do schoolwork is acting white are | | | | that disrespects the institution they are in, we set a |
| common thoughts in the black community that must be | | | | tone that informs attitudes. We need to differentiate |
| overtly confronted. Jimmy told me about his elderly | | | | good and bad behavior from an early age without |
| mother who would walk great distances to a | | | | regard to Freudian self-esteem issues. We are doing |
| segregated school in the South to get to school. Once | | | | culturist psychology, not individualist psychology. |
| there, she did not complain, she did not resist and rail; | | | | Jimmy applauded these ideas. He had been taught by |
| she did what her teachers said and got an education. | | | | educationists to think that more student relevant |
| That, I replied, around the time of Little Rock Arkansas | | | | thinking was needed. But he was convinced during our |
| battle for integration was, by-and-large, the default | | | | hour-long conversation, that institution relevant - culturist |
| attitude towards education among both races. | | | | - thinking was needed. He recognized the disconnect |
| The lesson here is not that one should accept | | | | between his fabulous program's constantly telling the |
| segregation, but one might. That is because our | | | | kids what to do and the education school's |
| attitudes are not pre-set by nature. Youth come into | | | | abandonment philosophy. This philosophy says the kid |
| this world keyed to absorb the cultural milieu in which | | | | fails to do their work due to a lack of interest. It then |
| they find themselves. This is a culturist fact. In tribal | | | | advocates letting them guide the curriculum or not |
| times 25 % of men died violent deaths. If you expect | | | | participate. This model puts too much pressure on the |
| to give no guidance and expect respectful, peaceful | | | | child to reinvent culture, gives them an excuse to fail, |
| males who respect women, you need to study more. | | | | and does not adequately give them the cultural |
| Western norms, all norms, are absorbed, not | | | | guidance they seek by nature. When the streets take |
| consciously thought out generation after generation. | | | | up the slack we should not be surprised. We need |
| If we do not provide covert guidance as to what we | | | | more program's like Jimmy's that guide youth from an |
| expect, esteem and don't tolerate, we should not | | | | early age; these need positive messages and strong |
| expect great behavior to emerge spontaneously. The | | | | values delineation; they need to be behaviorally |
| assumptions that inform the anger of young men need | | | | prescriptive; they need to go until 6 pm. We need to, |
| to be confronted overtly. We need to teach that our | | | | like Jimmy, be fathers to these kids. |