Young men encouraged to find strategy for success

By Eddie B. Allen Jr.

“Game” is much more than what young, urban men bring to basketball courts, or their techniques in approaching members of the opposite sex.

No, as about 70 teenagers who attended the recent Youth Initiatives Project’s Male Leadership Summit on Detroit’s east side heard it, “game” is the required strategy for success that combines education, training and self-discipline. Ken Harris, the summit’s keynote speaker, gave a dynamic and inspiring message to the young men gathered for the annual program at Brenda M. Scott Academy for Theater Arts on May 7.

“Men, young brothers, it’s time for you to step up – now,” said Harris, founder of Detroit’s annual Black Expo. “You’re waiting on someone else to do for you, and that game is up.”

Harris, a member of the city’s Charter Commission, exhorted the participants to prepare for adult lives that will find them operating their own businesses and pursuing their own visions, rather than depending on an uncertain economy to supply them with jobs. Harris was one of several community leaders who appeared at the summit sponsored by Detroit’s Neighborhood Service Organization. The event is a component of the agency’s anti-drug and anti-violence programming through Youth Initiatives.

“Let me put you up on some real game,” Harris continued. “I’m going to tell you something, and write it down if you have a pen: If you don’t have your own, somebody will own you.”

A panel including Darryl Earl of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Nutrena Tate of Wayne State University’s Nursing School, Don Phillips of the Detroit Community Health Connection and hip hop artist/activist Khary WAE Frazier also participated in the summit. The panelists answered questions from the youth, including, “How do we stay positive?”

“When I was 12 years old my brother said he would pay me $100 to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X,” Phillips answered. “I read it and told him I didn’t want the money because I fell in love with books. You have to find your passion.

“I’m going to tell you how to stay positive: Look to your parents and your grandparents. Remember that you owe somebody; somebody put themselves on the line for you, and it wasn’t just people that you know.”

Plymouth Preparatory Academy student LaMar Thomas asked the panel how to avoid teen violence.

“Know your situation, know your place,” said Frazier. “Know what puts you on edge. The first thing you can do is step away from that situation. I got too much to lose over a ‘gas station incident’ or a ‘Belle Isle incident.’ You might run into a situation with somebody who has nothing to lose.”

Earl added that the prosecutor’s office issues 2,000 felony charges per week.

“In any war, the biggest threat is young men,” he said. “You haven’t seen your enemy yet. The dude that you go to school with, go to the same barbershop with? That’s not your enemy. You have to de-program that belief in you.”

As part of his keynote address, Harris stressed the importance of practicing cooperative economics in the community. He gave a visual demonstration of earning power by choosing a student to stand at the front of the cafeteria and represent a barbershop owner.

“I want everybody in here to come up here and touch his hand,” Harris said. With each student who touched the youth’s hand representing a customer, Harris counted imaginary cash totaling $5,000.

“That’s the power of community and economic development,” Harris said. “And you only spent five to ten dollars. Imagine if you spent $100 a week in your community.”

“This is your generation, y’all,” he said. “You will be the owners, the best in your chosen endeavors. Do you see how much is in this? For you to be throwing away your God-ordained purpose because some girl is cute, ‘cause she can ‘throw that thang?’ You will make a difference to your children, to your wives. You will honor your parents. Why? Because you are the chosen ones.”

Moderator Herman Jenkins, a filmmaker, praised the youth who attended the summit. He shared the story of how recruiters from the University of Detroit showed up at a gym years ago, looking to find future NBA star Chris Webber, but instead offered Jenkins a scholarship after witnessing his 30-point scoring performance. Webber didn’t play.

“Just showing up!” Jenkins said. “I could’ve chosen to be any number of places after school that day, but I was there. So I want to congratulate you gentlemen for just showing up today. By showing up, you have stepped into the plethora of infinite possibilities of life.”

Osborn High School student Dequan O’Neal, 15, was among the speakers who delivered the Youth Initiatives Project’s report on teen male challenges and recommendations: “We want to talk about why we’re not going to prison, why we’re not dropping out of high school and why we’re going to college. First of all, we’re not going to prison because we love our lives and we don’t want to spend our lives behind bars. We’re not dropping out of high school because getting a high school diploma is the first step in being successful.

“And I’m going to college because I want to study medicine. I want to do something that a lot of black males don’t do. This is the way we feel and we encourage you to feel the same.”