When President Obama surprised the White House press corps with personal, insightful context on responses to the George Zimmerman verdict, he brought the resources of the most powerful office in the land to public education. The lesson was simple: African-American young men in this country have been systematically “Other-ed.”
Our boys have been so utterly marginalized that the U.S. Attorney General had to sit down and warn his son that he will be profiled. So much space exists between the everyday citizen and the average African-American male that at least one of six jurors found it easier to identify with an adult killer than a slain youth. Young black boys in this region have been considered “the Other” at such a level that thousands have mobilized in St. Charles and Mehlville to keep them out of their schools.
My three sons are “The Other,” and they will be treated as such in this nation.
Any culture that marginalizes a group of its citizens misses out on the gifts and graces of a category of fully expressed humanity. So this culture must change, and cultures change by learning to overcome adaptive challenges. Ronald Heifetz, in Leadership Without Easy Answers, defines an adaptive challenge as a “particular kind of problem where the gap cannot be closed by the application of current technical know-how or routine behavior.”
In this case, the old repertoire of public gatherings and calls for dialogue will not transform values that cause the “Othering” of African-American youth. Indeed these activities have never worked to move St. Louis beyond its most intractable issues. This work will require thoughtful, innovative leadership and a rigorous communal learning agenda.
To black parents and teens trying to navigate public dialogue that objectifies African-American youth, I recommend The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life by Kevin Powell. The essays within, targeted for young black men but good for all, provide solid counsel on everything from job readiness to how to act when you’re pulled over by the police.
Youth development professionals and all those who nurture youth must enter into the fearless dialogue created by the new book by Gregory Ellison III, Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for African American Young Men. Ellison’s research, informed at the intersection of service to youth in-risk and Ivy League preparation to serve the community through the church, invites life-giving affirmation of the identity of young black men.
Educators and school administrators (in the Francis Howell, Mehlville, Normandy and Riverview Garden districts, specifically) must quickly bone up on Beverly Daniel Tatum’s Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? While this will help you prepare for the realities you now face, it is a productive read to all who want to help St. Louis get over its issues with race and racialized policy.
It is also clear that African-American community leaders in St. Louis need to read Robert Franklin’s 2007 book, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities. His suggestion for churches directly engaging incarcerated brothers re-entering the community would go far in overcoming the “Othering” of poor black men by their middle-class counterparts.
Finally, for elected officials, judges and legal advocates who believe the structural barriers to social mobility have been removed from the law, please study The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. The work we still must do to afford access to full citizenship for all will be made clear.
In a problem as complex as a crisis of culture, leadership is not talking or immediately acting, but extending the learning agenda. Don’t let the six-week rule for news apply in this case. Let’s extend this teachable moment.
Rev. Starsky D. Wilson is president & CEO of Deaconess Foundation and pastor of Saint John’s United Church of Christ.
