*DISCLAIMER*In Black in America 2 , we saw a lot. I'm not here to tell you how to think but since I have a blog, I can write what I think and you can agree/disagree with me but I am merely doing in words what I would have done if I was able to sit around in a forum session.
"[Community] Service is what you pay for the time that God has allowed you to be on this earth." In the first part of Black in America 2, Malaak Compton - wife of actor/comedian Chris Rock - attempts to teach children the value of service. She takes a group of students from a variety of backgrounds that in one way or another are dealing with issues in their life that we have seen to be fatally tragic for people all over the world (regardless of your race). From the comments that I've seen on Twitter and Facebook, a lot of people are not really big on this part of the show. Some have said, "why are you taking poor kids to Africa? That doesn't make sense." or "So what are the kids actually supposed to get out of this? Their grades still suck." Well, to those two comments and a lot of others, I saw this...when you think of under privileged youth in America, the first thing most of us think of is giving them money or donating clothes. Like Malaak said, money is not going to solve the problem. Once the money is gone, those children's lives are still left unchanged. The experience that HOPE Worldwide provided these children should (and likely will) encourage them to work harder with what few resources THEY DO have. I am a big advocate for community service/service learning. I believe that a lot of times, young people miss the boat on the idea that SOMEONE will have to help you...be it a black person or white person, male or female...people help do help people and pay it forward and at the end of my career, I view success as just this: My success will be defined, not by how big my house is or how much money I make. My success will be defined by the doors that I open for others. The experience that Malaak and her team gave those children will be one that will allow them to appreciate the things that they have in their lives while also instilling the intangibles that are needed more and more to succeed today.
In part 2, (people didn't Tweet/Facebook comment as much, lol) Dr. Steve Perry showed another major part of developing the youth of tomorrow: Education. Regardless of what color your skin is, a lot of us understand that education is the "Great Equalizer". Now before you attack me for that statement and say - "well I, a black man, have a MBA and I didn't get the job but they hired some other guy because his dad knew someone." - I understand that a lot of the time, its not WHAT you know but WHO you know but at the end of the day...if you KNOW NOTHING you can't even get the hook up. As a person who comes from a household that was on government assistance, I can completely relate to the statement, "This is my way out." A lot of the time, a community can be one of the biggest problems plaguing a student on the border of EXCEPTIONAL and UNDERACHIEVING. Dr. Steve Perry is also doing something that a lot of students parents aren't doing: holding them accountable...this is universal for everyone, not just those who are BLACK in AMERICA.
Finally in part 3, John Rice, founder of MLT, incorporates some of the most necessary keys to success in America. Knowledge, Network, and Ability. Rice grew up around successful people, not just black, who taught Rice the essential keys to success that are generally not taught in the classroom. Management Leadership for Tomorrow focuses on the skills that are necessary to yield a high performance in the high pressure atmosphere of business today. If you have ANY aspirations to work for (or hell, even own) a Fortune 500 company, it is highly likely that you will need more than your IVY League MBA and your "Bruhs"/"Sorors". This isn't the only program like this in the country but I encourage you to search for what drives you more than anything. If I could be described in word, 99.9% of the time, I want it to be DRIVEN. I have a friend who is DEFINITELY Driven. I think she is as successful as a person can be 1 year out of undergrad yet she is just as hungry if not MORE SO than some of my friends who are still waiting for the economy to pick up. So that tells me this: She WILL be successful because of her mindset and her hunger. That kind of stuff can't be taught...PERIOD. It may be refined but if you can not muster up the internal drive to do something you are passionate about, then you'll be STUCK in a job that pays you 6 figures that you hate...just some thoughts...
Overall, I liked the special...it made me think of a lot (as you can see)...PLEASE feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on Facebook/Twitter. I love intelligent debate more than anything so please share your comments...
...part 2 will be up tomorrow night!!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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good recap, though, we should inquire about what constitutes a "good" education. it's the "great equalizer," but with whom are we seeking to be equal, and why? education, like the media, is an ideological state apparatus. it functions to keep those in power, in power, systematically. the poverty and low achievement and drug abuse and alcoholism and elitism and strictly material aspirations are all SYMPTOMS of what is wrong with the SYSTEM.
ReplyDeleteit's like, we want to treat hairloss in a cancer patient... but we never get around to treating the cancer.
now, we can simply do what's seemingly more sensible and aspire to seek inclusion amongst the powerful. but then we must evaluate if those aspirations for success and wealth come at a price to the health of our community? what should be of greater concern should not just be "getting out," but more importantly, coming back and rebuilding. i am because we are, right?
http://jebjd12.blogspot.com/2009/07/black-in-america-ii.html
Well put. A "good education" by socicety's new criteria is less about what you have learned and mroe about where you have learned it. Even in the days where the "Good Ol' Boy System" was MORE prevalent, candidatates were required to possess a level of skill to perform the job adequately (note, I did not say exceptionally). As we see that more and more of these positions are being open to the masses, adequate is no longer acceptable and exceptional is now the new norm. Example: How easy is it for an MBA to get a job now? Just as easy as it was for a BA/BS to get a job 7-10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThough the poverty line and the history of underachievers being moved on in education are no doubt major catalysts of negative change in our communities, the legal system (and OUR inability to understand it) is showing us more men 18-24 being jailed now than ever before which makes the gender gap between African Americans bigger and bigger...but I digress.
Your last point is perfectly right! I agree 100% Getting out is only important if you come back. Last night, as one girl cried, Soledad asked what was wrong. She was "helpless". Though she wanted to help invoke change, she could not - financially. Instead, she shared the resources she did have (time, energy, etc.) to help others. While I seek inclusion into the group of successful people in the world, at the end of the day, it will be useless if no one's path was made easier by my hardwork or no doors were left open.
Well I enjoyed this one way better then the one last year. Ok so the first part as most people know I was confused as to why she took them to South Africa to help kids poorer then them. I would have rather she took them to somewhere were they could have seen people that came from nothing to still did something great with their lives. Also, when she did the 6 month review not that much had changed as far as grade were concerned maybe there could have been some type of incentive or something.
ReplyDeleteNow on to the second part I felt like Dr. Perry was really doing something great for his community from picking kids up to making sure they learned things like science even thought the right resources weren't available to them. The thing that impressed me was the 100% of the kids getting accepted to college but it make me wonder has anyone checked those facts? If there are accurate that's very impressive, however, getting accepted doesn't mean they actually attend but I hope they do college is only the beginning of being successful.
The last part was interesting for me personally, as a college graduate I completly understand the competition out here to obtain a decent job, and we all understand that's it not about what you know it's about who you know which bring to the black tux affair or whatever it was called I'm kinda torn with the fact that only rich black student had the opportunity to attend but that should make other student work harder to get out there and make people remember who they are. Now I grow up with a lot of opportunities other people didn't have my daddy is a doctor my granddad's a surgeon but it was still up to me to NETWORK which is the most important part of being successful post college graduation, and I feel like MLT helped them so much. Ok that all I got lol
I definitely agree that this year was better than last years. On your first point, I agree that they could have probably been equally motivated to see people who came from nothing (like one of Tonight's highlights, Tyler Perry) and end up doing something with their life. It was definitely disappointing to see that their academic performance did not change.
ReplyDelete100% of ANYTHING is impressive. My roommate was talking about moving to Connecticut and signing her kids up for that school before she even has them. lol. No doubt, Dr. Perry is changing his community.
...and to Echo what you said T.Webb, networking is more important now. In professions like Medicine and Science, networking is not as easy to use. When it comes to inheriting your parent's business and your parent is a Dr., it doesn't help much but the contacts that a person can make just by being exposed to that lifestyle are immense. Not to mention the innate drive to succeed when you are around successful people.