{"id":104,"date":"2006-08-14T10:21:12","date_gmt":"2006-08-14T18:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/?p=104"},"modified":"2006-08-16T19:37:09","modified_gmt":"2006-08-17T03:37:09","slug":"whos-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/14\/whos-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s to Blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"

today’s post comes to you via bro. dwayne thomas. last week, he posted a comment<\/a> in which he included the following Crescent submission, which didn’t make the cut. i thought i’d pull it out of the comments and bring it up front and center to share with all. enjoy.<\/p>\n

I have witnessed African boys who at the age of 16 were at the top of their class maintaining A averages and excelling outside the classroom in sports, music and other extra curricula activities. While I have seen this up close, many within the African American community have never witnessed boys in their community excel to great heights. Achievement is replaced by despair.<\/em><\/p>\n

In five years of teaching and mentoring young men in the Sigma Beta Club, the youth affiliate group of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. I have seen young men literally change their lives from one of crime, drug abuse, and an overall menace to society to becoming law abiding young men in college studying education, social work, physics, english and physics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although this has been my experience, it would be an understatement to note that most African American boys remain underachievers. This remains a growing and depressing fact. African American boys continue to lead in categories like crime, drug abuse, gun possession, un-fathered, imprisonment, drop-outs, etc?<\/em><\/p>\n

As an African American man and future university professor, this discussion troubles me. How can a race of people one generation post Jim Crow allow the continued demise and destruction of its young men? One would think nearly 100% of all African American boys age 10 and older would embrace education to elevate their lives which ultimately change their community. Most often, this is not the situation. Rather they are inudated with negative music videos, television programs, movies, print material and men of poor character who give puny and beggared examples of manhood.<\/em><\/p>\n

What seperates the young men I have witnessed succeed and those that appear lost? One glaring answer is MENTORSHIP.<\/em><\/p>\n

All young men have the potential to succeed but need guidance. Mentors create an aura of self worth that when matched with inspiration and oness God given talents and abilities bring achievement. Through mentorship these young menbegin to realize their responsibility to God, Family and Community.<\/em><\/p>\n

We all know the problems but where are the answers? Simple?.Participate in and establish Sigma Beta Clubs in your area. Its mission answers the call to stand in the gap and tear down the challenges that come against our young men. We must mold and train our young men to become men of God. As we do the gain will be immense. If we do not the loss is great. And who is to blame? The young men in need of mentorship, or the men who could have given of their time, talent, money, wisdom and experience. Who’s really to blame?<\/em><\/p>\n

Dwayne Thomas, M.S. MPA <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

today’s post comes to you via bro. dwayne thomas. last week, he posted a comment in which he included the following Crescent submission, which didn’t make the cut. i thought i’d pull it out of the comments and bring it up front and center to share with all. enjoy. I have witnessed African boys who … Read moreWho’s to Blame?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluephi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}