Black Youth Project

ImageBehavior upon Black Youth in today’s society is very much similar towards one another. Black Youth may not see or even understand the similar qualities we all have but they are absolutely there. Cathy Cohen’s methodology was very correct in ever shape, form, and fashion. The attitudes and behavior she wrote about black youth is very much accurate. As far as race, abortion, Political issues, gender issues etc… everything made complete sense and actually opened my eyes a little. Cathy Cohen enlightened me about things I never looked at in a certain way or never bothered to look or understand.

“What concerns me having a job and living? Will I be alive?… It’s [a] very tough struggle because the United States isn’t a fair country.” -21-year-old Black male. Well is this true? Is basically what they wanted to know, and it is very much so in my opinion. Black Youth doesn’t really have a fair chance when it comes to getting employed. Do you do drugs? Are you a gang banger? Have you ever committed a murder? Black youth [males] have to go through tribes and tribulations before getting a decent job. Where is the equality in these types of situations?

“When you grow up in poor neighborhoods and you see these drug dealers, or even gangbangers, with these nice cars and everything all this jewelry, you know how they’re getting it. And you know that’s an easy way for you to get it. There for you get it, you get into that [drug dealing] so you can have the money. And a lot of them do it so that way their parents don’t have to work so much.” – 24-years-old-Black female. This one quote summarizes black youth in ALL of the communities around me today. Always trying to find an easy way out of things, refusing to actually continue to look for a job because they gave up on life and “drug money” buys you what you want. How smart is that? Is it really the easy way out? When Black Youth put their self in these types of situations it creates greater conflict. They have to watch out for certain things and “Keep Up with the Jones” [stay on top]. You also can’t do certain things and try your best to protect yourself and your family if you have one. Street life is not where you want to be.

“In the videos, I dislike the way they objectify women. I think if you were just to watch music videos and never have met a Black person in your life, you probably would think ill of black people all altogether… White people probably think that Black people don’t care about anything but sex and selling drugs and partying all the time. I mean, that’s the imagines you get from rap music videos, pretty much.” -17-year-old Black female. Music videos have a very HUGE role in the images they depict in music videos. Why are the females always naked or shaking something? Why cant there be a classy lady showing off how educated she is instead of showing her boobs? Why cant there be more music videos family oriented? Oh because of population of Black Youth agree with the music videos that are being release because half of the things they’re doing in the videos very much relate to what some individuals are doing today. It’s become sad to say that our population of Black Youth minds are corrupt filled with the gruesome images they show.

“I don’t think that [racism will be eliminated] because racism is taught from parent to child, from parent to child. That’s something that’s carried down. So, it could be [eliminated] I hope that it would be. But I don’t think that it would be.” -18-year-old Black female. Racism is something that will just STICK is something that many believe. But it can very much be eliminated and toss away forever if it weren’t for simple minded individuals, But also you can’t really blame someone for being racist towards certain black individuals. Niggers? Yes, that is what some of Black Youth act as [simple, wild, shiftless, stupid, dirty, and useless]. Yes, some black youth act as Niggers.

“Abortion is a very personal issue. I think people should be able to make their own decisions.” -19-year-old Black female. Abortion is very personal and what you do is also very personal as well. But why would someone lie down and make a child if you know that you cannot take care of a child? There are different situations for people, who get pregnant, and some aren’t always by choice, but there are always different alternatives when it comes to a child. Black Youth are so quick to job towards abortions and feel that it’s okay, but did your mother kill you?

Gender issue also plays a huge role in Black Youth. “I don’t think [men and women] should have different roles or tasks; they should be able to do both jobs completely and thoroughly, so that way there’s never any dependency. Because then it changes the foundation of the relation [from] being a loving relation to a relationship that “I need you here because without you, I couldn’t survive.” -24-year-old Black Woman. It’s simple; you don’t NEED a man to be complete. A lot of Blacks in our society don’t know how to be independent and always need that sense of comfort. But that teaches nothing to “Black Youth”. If you see your mother relying on a man you may feel you “NEED” a man as well.

In a sense Black Youth is recycled they do what they see their parents did in the pass. They act upon what they see. Black Youth don’t always see the important things in life or maybe don’t really care. The accusations are correct, they’re accurate they basically tell it all. WE as black youth do nothing to change the image and perceptions that people have upon us and most believe that it’s okay or it doesn’t matter what people think about them. IT DOES! Image is everything in certain situations. Do you want to be look at as [simple, wild, shiftless, stupid, dirty, and useless] Niggers?



Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Google+ photo


Connecting to %s