By A.J. Briscoe
Guest Commentator
“Incubation: to keep under conditions favorable for development.”
There is a glorification of destructive behavior and habits formed around bad monetary management. These decisions are plaguing our culture. This abomination is encouraged through the material we read, entertainment (music), role models (athletes, artists, male presence), and the belief we are conditioned to place our belief into the media.
The acknowledgment of our achievements is obscure. I don’t see articles on our youth who maintain an A grade average, but you can pick up the paper and see how many points a high school student scored in sports. I don’t see community volunteers being recognized for mentoring the youth in the supposed most-troubled areas in the community, but I am informed every time a young man is arrested for a crime.
Attention seems to only be found in the realm of negativity. This allows an opinion to be formed on the character of the individuals on whom this focus is directed. This invites a reputation to be formed.
The passage of manhood should not be associated with prison. It needs to be associated with family and social responsibility and making a contribution to community development.
Manhood shouldn’t be associated with how many guns you have or girls you have sex with. It should be associated with how many social and academic accolades you have acquired, and how many women you have assisted in overcoming the challenges they incur. Reputations should not be admired based on aggressive and violent behavior, but they should be based on intelligence and sound decision making.
We have to go to war with the trend of insolence, destructive habits, and inferior thinking. We must glorify productivity in the form of entrepreneurship, building business models, and community development. Thug life and prison is counter-productive to our progression.
Nevertheless, in order for this to become a reality, we must replace the old with something new. I have found myself being disturbed by the trend of underachieving. Youth have a higher interest in how to spend money opposed to how they can generate it. In fact, earning money legitimately is frowned upon. Unless obtaining money has some illegal involvement, it is of no interest to most.
Crime is the alternative to jobs. Money is spent effortlessly on unneeded material possessions that do not have the potential to generate income. The same funds could be invested in a business with the potential to generate enough income to purchase the things that money is squandered away on irresponsibly.
Making wise decisions with money, along with managing money, needs to be ingrained into our culture, especially our youth and our educational system.
A.J. Briscoe lives in Minneapolis.
Support Black local news
Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.
Excellent article! Straight-forward and on point. Today’s youth absorb so much mainstream media and social media and sold on this idea of “thug life” and dirty business as being goals to strive towards. Diversion from this “set-up to fail” cycle is absolutely crucial. I hope I live long enough to start seeing a progressive movement with the younger generation being inspired by and aspiring to be business owners. Clean business brings respect, knowledge, power, money and that “Boss” status so many people want. We have to be as encouraging as we can be to mentor to the youth and push for much needed changes.
The more God is out of our families and Madison avenues next electronic gadget is more center to their core emphasis there will be no changes any time soon. Something this article and posters miss is the fact values, character are always taught at home. The home unit has broken down in America.
We have no respect for education the system is breaking down, we have foreigners that are involved with a worldwide Islamic cult allowed to operate the largest network of charter schools in the USA. Outsourcing of American education to the highest bidder. Until we value our children and their futures, this trend of loving gadgets more than learning American history will worsen. Text messaging is destroying the American language and ability to communicate. Christmas is around the corner…..what will this years may have electronic device be? Yes, parents play into this too.
MDF is hardly any mentor for children or young youth anywhere. No shinning example to set for children, otherwise they would be all claiming to be journalists or other things which they are not.
I wouldn’t take 1 thing this person says seriously.
Man you right on point little Cuz…love you keep up good work..
Today’s youth are more absorbed with the Madison Avenue advertising and having it all, the Miley Cyrus and Brittney Spears scandals to really care about any of this.
Mentoring to today’s youth means practicing what you profess to preach and frankly 99% of the people that claim to be doing “random acts of kindness” (oh the scandal) have rarely don’t anything except troll the internet looking for the next person to harm by making up stories about them or spreading accusations without any sort of facts or substantiated evidence MDF is that such person.
Walk the talk or leave everyone alone.