Black Men Cry, Too
Mental and emotional health are no less important than your physical health, but so often black men refuse to acknowledge that aspect of themselves. As men, we tend to ostracize other men who are expressive of their emotions by referring to them as weak, feminine, gay or other derogatory terms. John Head, author of Black Men and Depression: Saving Our Lives, Healing Our Families, notes that “…from the time we are young boys, black males have ingrained into us an idea of manhood that requires a silence about feelings, a withholding of emotion, an ability to bear burdens alone, and a refusal to appear weak.” Yet, that ideology is destroying us.
Read more in the premier issue of YBE!
What’s Troubling These Young Minds?
It’s not just the trends in rap and hip-hop culture that bothers these young men, but many social issues and injustices that motivate Pro Young (21) and Sims (19), collectively known as Young Troubled Minds, to create music and a culture that inspires our people.
Starting out as a solo artist at age 14, Pro Young later invited his younger brother to join him in making music that made a statement. But as a rap duo, they needed a name. That’s when the phrase “young troubled minds” was mentioned. “A friend suggested it,” says Sims. “He said that those three words encompass our generation.”
But how do those three words represent Sims and Pro Young?
Find out in the premier issue of YBE!
Yes We Can, But We Haven’t Yet
By Taurean Brown
Now that the election is over, what change is really going to happen and what part will the people actually play in this change?
Attorney Mawuli Mel Davis to Discuss ‘Thug Life’
The Davis Bozeman Law Firm, in collaboration with the Auburn Avenue Research Library, will host ‘The Consequences of Thug Life: To Be A Thug Or To Be Brave.’
This dynamic and energetic workshop uses positive affirmations and creative teaching tools to inspire young people to be “brave enough” to be themselves. This discussion is a penetrating examination of what manhood has been “reduced to” in many communities of color.
Read more at Atlanta Daily World.
State reforms could give options to wayward teens
In Round 2 of criminal justice reform, lawmakers will consider changes to the state’s juvenile justice system, which costs $300 million a year but has had a poor success rate in keeping Georgia’s wayward teenagers from committing repeat offenses.
Among the key proposals will be financial incentives for counties to create community-based treatment programs for nonviolent juvenile offenders as alternatives to incarceration.
Read more at ajc.com – State reforms could give options to wayward teens.
Clark Howard: A college degree shouldn’t leave you broke
The state of Texas has come up with a solution to the high cost of college that I’m hoping will be a model for other states to follow.
Gov. Rick Perry remains on target with a promise he made in his State of the State address: To allow the state’s university system to deliver a standard four-year degree for a total cost of $10,000.
What Inspires You?
Inspiration:
An agency, such as a person or work of art, that stimulates the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
Divine guidance or influence.
Motivation.
Inspiration can be found anywhere at any time. It can be something as simple as a person you see in passing, the ocean at the beach, a political speech, or a homeless man sleeping in the park. Or it can be more life-changing such as a birth of a child, a spiritual awakening, natural disaster, or world war. Inspiration can move you to create works of art, publish written works or music, react in support or protest, motivate others, or even change your lifestyle. It can push you harder to achieve success. But inspiration is something different for each person.
So what inspires you?
Accepting Mediocrity
Failing Our Students
When did mediocrity become an accepted practice within this country? Dropout rates are the highest that they have been ever. But what’s worse are the lowered standards used in order to pass otherwise failing students. Perhaps this is a result of the “No Child Left Behind” era, but whatever the cause, it is doing no one any favors, especially not the students.
Prison, Death or Reform?
What punishment would be appropriate for Tracen Franklin?
Tracen Franklin, convicted in the death of 18-year-old Bobby Tillman in Douglas County, Georgia
Here’s an unconventional thought: punish Tracen Franklin for his actions without sending him to prison and without executing him. What he did was very tragic, and unfortunately, nothing that happens as far as sentencing will bring back Bobby Tillman; his mother and family will always feel that loss. He made a stupid decision that he probably regrets now. But prison or death? That’s always the justice system’s answer. What if, instead, he were punished in a way where he actually repaid his debt to society and to the victim’s family, rather than rot behind bars (or in a box)?
