Young Black Males: Are they the 'Throwaway Generation?'

Part III of V

Cal Wiltz, chairperson of the Criminology and Sociology Department at
Dillard University, said, "The idea of a throwaway - that young black men
are part of a throwaway generation - doesn't sit well with me. I look at it
as a category of young black men who are perhaps carrying the curse of
their fathers who have become stigmatized more so than a group who can be
thrown away.

"It's not a lost generation. It's a generation that's inundated with stigmas.

When you have a category of individuals who have been stigmatized, the
society seems justified in degrading that category of people. The high rate
of incarceration, the lack of equality of education and the extremely high
homicide rate are examples of this degradation. The bottom line is that it
is the society that is stigmatizing them.

"When we look at the homicides, the high dropout rates, inferior education
and all the problems associated with education and lack of education - you
can put it all society's doorstep.

You don't put that on those kids' doorstep. It's my responsibility to make
sure that they get an education.

It's because I did not send them to a school that would educate them in a
way that I think they should be educated and make sure that school does its
job. You promote gun ownership and you put lethal weapons in the hands of
these kids and ask, 'Why is this happening?' It's because you didn't stop
it. Perhaps what you should be looking at is us adults.

"When you look at prisons, you see they are inundated with young black men.
I took my students to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. It's like stepping
back in time. One of the things that strikes you is long lines of black men
with farming utensils on their shoulders in a straight line under the
supervision of a guard on horseback with a rifle on his hip. Why are all
these men here? How did they get there?

As a society, we made a decision in order to deal with this stigmatized
category of individuals. We will lock them up and forget that they are there.

"These young men are wasting away. They're experiencing social death.

Every day they stay there they die. When we decide to release them they are
socially dead. They can't make a contribution to society at the prime of
their life. Since they are socially dead they can make no contribution to
the development and survival of their family.

If these individuals respond to their social death the way we don't like,
we send them back and kill them more - now, not just stigmatized but
unequipped to deal with society; so, they become predators."

Wiltz continued, "As a sociologist, I lay this at society's feet. We have
to, as a society, deal with the problems head-on if we are going to solve
them. We can't solve the problem if we are going to put people behind bars.
Consider this: The penal facilities are in many respects better than our
educational facilities. As horrible as the Louisiana State Penitentiary is,
most of the buildings are air-conditioned. Most schools are not. What does
that say? What's going on here?

"The rationale is we have to do this because if we don't provide
air-conditioning they will revolt.

We'll have a riot. It's necessary to control them. It's making it more or
less comfortable to be behind bars. That's our mentality.

We want to deal with the population where it can't harm us. We don't have
to look at it.

"If you go to The Louisiana State Penitentiary you'll see a highway -
Louisiana Highway 66 - that leads nowhere else but to the Louisiana State
Penitentiary. The symbolism is astronomical. One of the better maintained
highways leads to a dumping ground, literally and figuratively. We can't
allow that highway to have potholes.

This is an important highway.

We get rid of rejects and refuse there.

It's interesting how society deals with the stigmatized. The ramifications
are devastating for the black community and black kids.

Wiltz said, "There is a conspicuous absence of men in some black
communities. As a sociologist, I have to ask what impact is this having on
these communities. For one, it facilitates criminal behavior, particularly
drug dealing.

Since there are no men in the neighborhood, this is a good place to set up
shop for a drug dealer. 'They pose no danger to me,' he thinks. There is no
man to say 'move on,' no man to be a threat to me. This literally
facilitates crime, and as a result you have a continuous deterioration of
neighborhoods. The neighborhood goes to pot, in large part because there
aren't enough people there to maintain traditional values and norms; so, it
all falls apart, because there are no men.

"Furthermore, children are not being socialized fully. Our mothers and
sisters and other women in the community are doing their share of working
with the children. I don't believe a child is completely socialized if
there is no father in the household.

Some would say there are role models around, but these individuals are
carbon copies, reasonable facsimiles, not the original.

They're not as clear.

A facsimile can be read, but it is not as clear.

"A male child has to look to some older male or development of manhood is
not clear.

Young men have to contend with the absence of a father in the household.
How can they come to see themselves as men? What happens is they go through
this exaggerated masculinity. They do things to convince themselves of
their own manhood.

They're aggressive. They have five girlfriends instead of one. They have
sex as much as possible, because this is what a man does - or so they
think. There is no father to say, 'You should treat this girl with
respect,' 'You should not act so violently,' 'This is what a man does' -
The minute details of what it means to be a man. He is comfortable with
those things he knows to be a man. He is overly chauvinistic. A father
would say, "moderation." There are no parameters. He doesn't know what his
limitations are. He could produce the same things that drove his father out
of the home, such as crime.

Wiltz said, "The lack of the complete socialization process is putting
black men behind bars. This is something that has ramifications throughout
society. When you put a man behind bars, you are almost condemning his
children as well. The son follows his footsteps. The problems are so severe
that more and more of our women are being treated the same way. The fastest
growing population in prisons is women.

They are building new cells, because more black women are being
incarcerated. It's all about how this society responds to groups of
individuals.

"I believe that if White America were to experience the same problems -
homicide among youth, educational facilities that were deficient, most men
were behind bars - something would be done to stop it. There would be a
change in how that stigmatized population is defined. I don't have any
empirical data, but what we would find would be a redefinition of what we
would call criminal behavior, such as marijuana use. If White America saw
its children being put behind bars for using marijuana, tomorrow it would
be legalized.

White Americans would not allow its children to be put behind bars at the
same rate as black folk. They would come to their rescue.

"How do you have a change in how a stigmatized generation sees the world
and how it sees its role in the world and how it perceives success in this
society of ours. What you find, in that stigmatized generation, is a
tendency to begin to devalue those things that the older generation cherishes.

One time, in Black America, education was viewed as an avenue to success, a
way to lift yourself out of poverty.

Our stigmatized generation no longer sees education as an avenue out of
poverty. I say the problem is with us. The older generation, as a society,
has allowed it.

Wiltz continues, "Educational facilities are institutional, especially
elementary schools, are doing a horrendous job with young black boys. It
has been my experience that young black boys are inquisitive, very bright
and very intelligent. those traits manifest themselves well in kindergarten
to third grade.

Then something happens.

The inquisitiveness and intelligence they manifested disappears. Earlier
they were so bright and interested in learning.

Now, they fall by the wayside. For some reason or another, our educational
institutions are not able to work with these bright kids. These bright
black boys now are problems relegated to special education, expelled from
school and disciplined.

"What happened to the bright boy? What happened to the very inquisitive boy
I knew who is now relegated to special education?

What is happening is that our educational systems are failing to work with
those kids. You're not bright one day and then dumb the next. Something or
another is not being done to work with these kids. Some would point to
teachers who are not willing to work with young boys. Others are saying
their environment is taking over, works against them, so, they fall behind.

Wiltz has some definitive ideas.

"My contention it that it is because our educational institutions are not
responding to the needs of these boys. Until it happens, they will express
their frustration in some kind of violence.

They can do math related to sports, but cannot pass first-grade arithmetic.
They don't see the relevance.

We have to do things that make sense to them, asking them to add apples and
oranges may make no sense to them.

"After they are relegated to special education classes, this stigma stays
with them forever.

Their diploma is different. They stay with that class.

You have parents who are willingly, without objections and in some
instances requesting that their male child be put in special-education classes.

They tend to see this as a means of supplementing their meager income.

By getting their child certified as a special-education child they qualify
for government assistance. They don't realize they are relegating their
child into a stigmatized category that that child will carry for the rest
of his life."

Wiltz believes that when a child, who as a first grader is in special
education, when it's time to go to college or get a job, the categorization
becomes an albatross because of a decision the parent made when the child
was in first grade.

He believes that once the children are put in that category that they will
never be able to get out of it.

Wiltz said, "I think its easy to do, because many of these kids have
stigmas already.

Many teachers are not even willing to work with them. It's easy to ship
them off. They are not yet ready to send them to prison, but can push them
aside.

As first graders, they are going through the same process their older peers
are going through. They have begun the process of socially dying. They are
on that path that will make them less productive, less capable of making a
substantial contribution to society.

"We, as the adult population, are focusing on our immediate responsibility.
We must go beyond our immediate family.

Our quality of life is influenced substantially by other families.

If I don't take on the responsibility of looking at public schools, it
still impacts me whether my children go there or not. We can't afford to
say, 'Thank God that I don't live in that neighborhood because that
neighborhood is infested with drugs.' All of us must take responsibility
for what is happening to our neighborhoods - rich or not. It's all of our
responsibility. We have to take responsibility.

"Given what's happening to young Black boys in this society and due to
what's happening to our black boys and the impact that society is having on
them, there are many well-intentioned adults who are interested in doing
something, but feel impotent to take action.

In large part because they are viewed as individuals who are not as 'real.'
'Keeping it real' is a term used by some young people.

As an African American, if you have achieved a certain level of success, if
you are middle class, then some kind of way you are not real. So there is
little that you can do for our black boys. To talk about your experiences,
to talk about how you have achieved a certain level of success is seen as
not real.

"It is somehow believed that professional black men, in achieving their
level of success, must have compromised their blackness, so they are not
legitimate black men. This does create a problem.

It's evident when young black boys are more likely to emulate athletes and
rappers than educators or individuals who are in the mainstream. Black men
who have made it are not totally accepted.

Wiltz is truly concerned about the prison rate and how those numbers come
about.

"What I find is because that stigmatized population has such a high rate of
incarceration there is a normalization of incarceration. In certain
circles, it has reached the point where the incarceration rate is so high
(1 out of every 3 black men) that there is a tendency to see that
experience as normal.

It is no longer seen as a stigma, but celebrated. An African-American man
who can say I have dealt with the police and been in prison, and I've made
it through and have come out on the other side is bigger, stronger and
blacker. When compared to someone else who has not, these individuals are
able to stick their chest out and say, 'These are my experiences. Now tell
me what have you done.' They view themselves as masculine and an
appropriate man for Black America, while those who are not are not as
appropriate, not as strong, not as masculine.

"I look at the socialization of a child and how subtle the socialization
process is. For example, little Johnny is at a celebration with all the
cake and ice cream, food and soda that he could want. Why is there a party?
Because Uncle Willie has been released from prison. What is Johnny thinking?

What is the celebration all about?

What is the message?

How is he being socialized by this event? 'You know, when I get big and I
go to prison I know they are going to do the same thing for me.' Prison is
not that bad, because they'll celebrate it. It's not stigmatized. Perhaps
it's a rational kind of thinking to view it as normal. Most African
Americans have uncles, brothers, fathers, sons, etc. who have been
incarcerated. You can't look down on anyone.

It is now almost a normal process.

"Ask who has been arrested.

Almost all the young black men will raise their hands.

The normalcy means that we can't really look at it as a deterrent, because
everybody has experienced it. It is an inevitable occurrence. You are going
to be stopped by the police, and almost anything can happen that will
result in your incarceration. You may have a ticket that's not paid. Your
brake tags may not have been renewed.

So, its normal - no longer something to deter people or stigmatize them.
Everyone experiences that process.

The message that most young men have is 'Its going happen. So, just get
ready for it,'" Wiltz said.

Editor's Note: The following persons have made this series possible by
providing their insights on this subject: Saddi Khali, age 31, writer,
artist and educator; K. Gates, age 21, rapper; Charles Duplessis, pastor of
Mount Nebo Bible Baptist Church; Dwight Webster, pastor of Christian Unity
Baptist Church; Willie Muhammad, age 29, educator and the New Orleans
representative of the honorable Louis Farrakhan; Anthony and Renee Simon,
ministers of the Gospel; Terry Clay, social worker and community organizer;
Cal Wiltz, chairperson of Dillard University's Department of Criminology
and Sociology; Wardell Picquet, age 35, artist and educator; Harold
Muhammad, educator; Toniell Henry, single mother; Blake Henry, 12, a 7th
grader at Lusher.