|
|
|
|
|
| by Dr. Alex Gee |
| August 22, 2012 |
I recently spent six days in Jackson, Mississippi with 20 young African American boys from Madison and Chicago for a rites of passage process that my team designed. I teamed up with Marlon Anderson and Walter Henderson from Fountain of Life Church in Madison and Pastor Lance Davis and Lamont Scott of Dolton, Ill. It was one of the most enjoyable ministry experiences I've had in 30 years. It was a wonderfully memorable opportunity for the young men (as they are now called) as well. A rites of passage process is an experience where teen and pre-teen boys are called into male responsibility and taught the full facts of life: work ethic, faith, love, sex, respect, family, entrepreneurship, education, and community leadership. This can take place in a secluded camping area. This is not a new concept and emulates the "coming of age" processes used in Western African or with the Jewish Bar Mitzvah.
For several years and for several reasons I have given serious consideration to the creation of a rites of passage program for African American boys. My doctoral research showed the blaring results of fatherlessness on our boys: low self-esteem, anger, promiscuity, high instances of mental health struggles, hopelessness, and criminal activity. Absentee fathers are not a new phenomenon, unfortunately. In fact, contrary to popular belief, my researched showed that from the early 1900s until the early 1960s, African American families were more intact than our white counterparts. (I would like to discuss why there has been such a drastic change in our family structure in the past 40 years in another article.) The tipping point, however, of fatherlessness in the African American community today has been the absence of surrogate fathers, extended male family members and grandfathers due to drugs, incarceration, and premature death. Single moms and surrogate fathers (uncles, older brothers, grandfathers and other mentors) have typically raised Black boys. Today with so many single mothers wrestling with their issues of fatherlessness, broken hearts, stress, poverty and the absences of surrogate fathers, Black boys —and Black girls — are able to live their entire lives without seeing healthy Black relationships up close. This is a reality that breaks my heart and consumes much of my energy.
My trip to Jackson, Mississippi (a destination I chose because a colleague, John Perkins III, offered us the use of his campus) was meant to be pilot that would do four things: 1. Help Black boys to know that they were worth our time and energy. 2. African American mothers would be inspired by seeing that African American men, too, would recognize great potential in their sons and that their dreams for their sons could indeed be realized. 3. Show society that Black boys have unlimited leadership potential when they are challenged, nurtured, and taught in love and respect. 4. Offer our 20 young boys a chance to laugh, cry, learn, and dream with healthy adult African American male role models.
In addition to spending time with father figures, our participants were exposed to a wonderful grandfather figure, Dr. John Perkins, a world-renowned author, teacher, ambassador, and champion of grassroots, faith-based racial reconciliation, community empowerment, and indigenous leadership development. The 82-year-old Dr. Perkins showed that he could still keep up with the "young fellas" by leading powerful morning sessions with the boys each day.
There were many highlights of the trip. The one that stands out is when we spent an afternoon learning African and African American history. In addition, we wrote an exhaustive list of negative stereotypes that society holds of Black males on an easel pad and left it up for the day. After dinner we rehearsed our positive history before taking the list of stereotypes out to a dark field and set fire to it in a wheelbarrow as a sign of renouncing such views. We told the boys that their lives would be the perfect revenge for the ancestors that had been demeaned, hunted and lynched — right in Mississippi where they stood. Men and boys stood in solidarity as we all shed tears at the thought of triumphing over our past and the great hopeful pursuit of our collective future that could help heal the Black family and community. That night not only did our boys commit to becoming responsible young men, we as adult leaders recommitted to becoming better men!
.jpg)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print
E-mail
More