In the end, the question remains: “If not me, then who?” Back in the day, Hilary Clinton bit an old African proverb—“It takes a village to raise a child”—for one of her goofy books. But in typical white liberal fashion, she missed the point. It’s not that you need a village to raise a child as much as the fact that the village will raise your child, with or without you.
Kids don’t grow up in vacuums. Maw ‘n’ Paw Kettle can teach Junior right and wrong, make him memorize the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Torah, and do life-affirming chants until the cows come home. But once he goes outside, junior belongs to the village. Soon as your little princess turns on the TV, radio, or logs on, the village starts teaching. As far as the world is concerned, you must learn and class is always in session. So if the village is foul, your kid will be foul. And to all those “Oh, not my child” parents: Yes, your kid, too.
People do what they see, what they’re told, what they’re shown, and most of all, what they can get away with. That’s just how human beings learn. If it was stupid when Charles Barkley said, “I am not a role model,” then it’s also stupid for every businessperson to pull the same card. (And don’t forget, Mr. Round Mound was pushing Nikes when he said that.)
I think a big reason many kids still feel Tupac so many years after his death is because ‘Pac knew most adults, especially those in business, government, and entertainment were full of crap. ‘Pac once said (either while on his way to jail or on his way out) that he was America’s child and America helped make him what he was. He even summarized this philosophy in a popular acronym: THUG LIFE: “The Hate U Gave Little Innocents F***s Everybody.” He was more honest about his flaws than his critics were about theirs. We felt that. And when kids see how most adults roll today, it’s no wonder they still feel it.
Young people don’t care much about politics because they see that most politicians don’t care enough about government to run it honestly. Kids don’t care much about school because they know that most of the adults running the schools keep running them into the ground. Youth listen to us condemn gang violence only to form bigger gangs so we can fight arbitrary wars and hunt down folks we don’t like. They hear adults complain about rampant teen drug use, sex, and pregnancy only to rationalize the ‘60s and ‘70s as “I was just experimenting, everybody was doing it… things were different then.”
DL Hughley once said about raising boys, “You’ll never learn to be a man until you see a man.” If adults can’t be the change we want our kids to be, how will they ever see the change they’re supposed to become? How can adults spend our 9-to-5’s promoting, accepting, condoning, and profiting off of all that we abhor, then come home and pull a “Do as I say, not as I do?”
Kids don’t grow up in vacuums. Maw ‘n’ Paw Kettle can teach Junior right and wrong, make him memorize the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Torah, and do life-affirming chants until the cows come home. But once he goes outside, junior belongs to the village. Soon as your little princess turns on the TV, radio, or logs on, the village starts teaching. As far as the world is concerned, you must learn and class is always in session. So if the village is foul, your kid will be foul. And to all those “Oh, not my child” parents: Yes, your kid, too.
People do what they see, what they’re told, what they’re shown, and most of all, what they can get away with. That’s just how human beings learn. If it was stupid when Charles Barkley said, “I am not a role model,” then it’s also stupid for every businessperson to pull the same card. (And don’t forget, Mr. Round Mound was pushing Nikes when he said that.)
I think a big reason many kids still feel Tupac so many years after his death is because ‘Pac knew most adults, especially those in business, government, and entertainment were full of crap. ‘Pac once said (either while on his way to jail or on his way out) that he was America’s child and America helped make him what he was. He even summarized this philosophy in a popular acronym: THUG LIFE: “The Hate U Gave Little Innocents F***s Everybody.” He was more honest about his flaws than his critics were about theirs. We felt that. And when kids see how most adults roll today, it’s no wonder they still feel it.
Young people don’t care much about politics because they see that most politicians don’t care enough about government to run it honestly. Kids don’t care much about school because they know that most of the adults running the schools keep running them into the ground. Youth listen to us condemn gang violence only to form bigger gangs so we can fight arbitrary wars and hunt down folks we don’t like. They hear adults complain about rampant teen drug use, sex, and pregnancy only to rationalize the ‘60s and ‘70s as “I was just experimenting, everybody was doing it… things were different then.”
DL Hughley once said about raising boys, “You’ll never learn to be a man until you see a man.” If adults can’t be the change we want our kids to be, how will they ever see the change they’re supposed to become? How can adults spend our 9-to-5’s promoting, accepting, condoning, and profiting off of all that we abhor, then come home and pull a “Do as I say, not as I do?”
"What's wrong with our future?"
—Heavy D
—Heavy D
