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Youth Education, Sports Icons and Community
Leadership |
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For as long as I
can remember the need to focus on school and the cultivation of a
positive attitude has been proclaimed from the hill tops but has
sadly only been embraced by a few in the trenches.
Today, it's all about being "cool" or "hip." It's about presenting
the right "image", about being able to impress the girls or one's
peers. It's about making the team, about being the coolest looking
player on the basketball court or football field, the dude with the
snazzy haircut or braids, or gangster style tattoo, or Fubu outfit,
or pricey Nike trainers, or gold chains, or rings, or saggy pants,
or sports car.
Of course girls aren't immune, they too are enticed with "bribes" of
good times and pregnancy! But it is mostly our boys - the next
generation of Black men - that are in real and in some cases mortal
danger. It might be an overstatement to say that sports can be seen
as a new form of mental and physical slavery. But is it? It's
probably true to say that because it is attractive and associated
with stardom, that sports exerts a powerful influence on our youth
and that in some respects its influence is insidious.
Okay you say, let's keep things in proper perspective. No point
scare mongering right? After all it's only a game. And can we really
offload this sports thing onto the media moguls, sports magnates or
fashion houses? Accepted, they do have the power and the influence
but aren't we the ones who willingly purchase their products, their
services and who allow ourselves to be used?
As powerful as the media is; as seductive as the lure of instant
success through Nike trainers or an NBA or NFL contract might appear,
the reality is that most parents and children are not caught up by
the hype or fooled by the lies. In other words, the choice is ours.
And many of us have taken a stand against the enticements of sport
realizing that one Michael Jordan, or Venus or Serena Williams, or
Tiger Woods does not an entire generation make.
The overwhelming majority of young black males who rally to the call
of the sports and fashion media are drawn either to basketball or
football. Almost undoubtedly these are the "coolest" sports and the
black presence is obvious. The few players who, either because of
their performance or earnings (the two usually go together), make it
into the superstar leagues are the new emblems of success and have
become the role models of every young black male who fancies his
chances and sees sports as an easy ticket out of the ghetto, the
classroom, or the boring life dictated by those of his parents'
generation.
What I find most worrying is the way in which the educational
opportunities of many young black males are seemingly being hijacked.
Of course, those who make it into the professional ranks realize the
importance of a scholarship and a college education. But the stories
of cooked grades and stars who can barely read or write are too real
to dismiss as fantasy.
But, perhaps more important even than this, is the "easy believism"
that may be paralyzing or otherwise infecting our community through
our children. Hey, they say and think, you don't have to work too
hard. Just play a little basketball. Don't worry about school.
There's nothing wrong with practicing that jump shot all day at the
park. Homework? What's that?
Forget it, who needs grades anyway? Just work on those Harlem
Globetrotter skills, slam, dunk, dribble, don't pass, drink your
milk and Oreo cookies and think of Michael Jordan's success. No
problem. You're gonna make it!
And my prayers are with you. But the reality is that you probably
have a better chance of making it to the White House and appointing
an all-black cabinet as you do of becoming the next Michael Jordan,
Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, or any of the other currently
top-rated basket ball stars.
Get real.
And that's the problem; the cloud of unreality that has colored our
thinking and blinded our vision. And, unless we wake up and soon,
our collective blindness may consign our children to the career
ghetto with no education, limited opportunities, on a train going
nowhere fast. And you don’t have to think too hard about the usual
passageway from here to drugs and the criminal justice system.
Most of us recognize and accept that these last two are tearing many
communities apart and we regularly hear individuals speaking out
against the cancer of crack cocaine or the unwarranted numbers of
black men behind bars. We rightly recognize these "truths" as being
evidence that perhaps all is not right with our society. But the
possibility that slipping educational standards and the promotion of
an easy path to success may be the real modern-day curse of our
children has yet to be trumpeted from the hilltops by our
politicians, community leaders or conscientious media personalities.
If they are speaking about it, then they must be whispering. Either
that or I'm slowly becoming deaf! Of course, not all sports stars
are jocks and it would be a terrible disservice to the able, gifted,
and aspiring among them to say as some might that most athletes are
nothing more than kids with too much money and too little sense for
their own good. While the stereotype remains popular, again largely
because of the media's focus and misrepresentation, it is largely
untrue.
There are many young, bright, articulate, educated, conscious young
male and female athletes who are serving as positive role models for
the next generation. However, it's unfortunate that interviews with
these individuals or real-time media representations of their lives
off the court or field are few and far between. It's so much easier
to focus on their sporting talent and promote their star quality.
After all that's what sells tickets and increases the value of the
individual to the promoter, owner, manager, coach, or television
network.
For all the positive qualities that a Michael Jordan may exude, and
for all the speed with which selected individuals are catapulted
onto the world stage and transformed sometimes overnight into
American icons, how many of your sons or daughters do you really
believe will ever have an opportunity to achieve the same degree of
success?
If your answer is one in a million, then you understand the stark
reality. The reality is that the media allows relatively few players
to rise to the top. As with Hollywood, it's much easier to work with
a single hero. The same formula is followed to some degree in the
sports world.
The script is written; the actors assembled and only one athlete at
a time can play a leading or superstar role.
Is it any wonder then that sports "stars" almost routinely look to
Hollywood, product endorsements or the music industry for further
development of their careers? But, let's give credit where credit is
due.
There are some real success stories out there. In most cases, the
silent and the quiet who shun media attention, and who focus on
their families, their careers and their futures in that order are
not usually the stuff of which legends are made. You won't find such
individuals being touted in the media. And there are other stars who,
having gained a certain notoriety by living up to the stereotype,
have gone on to make a success of their lives and business
accomplishments.
Magic Johnson is perhaps one example. It was back in November 7,
1991 that the sports world was rocked by the announcement that Magic
had the HIV virus. The news was shocking. This was at a time when
for many HIV was equivalent to certain death. Now, a decade later
Magic is a significant force in business with a reported $500
million business portfolio.
Many communities are the richer for such efforts and no one can take
away from these public successes or the significance of these acts
of entrepreneurial magic. However, I always find myself asking, when
confronted with such tales of success and material wealth, how much
more could our stars and leaders be doing by way of sponsoring
scholarship programs or linking their names, talents and wealth to
charter schools, colleges and universities, after-school care
programs, mentoring programs, summer camps, space camps, foreign
language learning schemes, cultural exchange programs, computers in
schools, science and technology initiatives, hospitals, clinics,
fair rent housing development schemes, libraries, urban renewal
initiatives. The list is almost endless and the benefits would
extend far beyond the black community.
But how do I know that they aren't investing in such things? Just
because we don't hear about it doesn't mean they ain't? Right?
Pardon the grammar but the point is well made. Perhaps they are
doing all this but no one is talking. After all isn't this what the
Bible encourages when it speaks of humility and the left hand not
letting the right hand know what it's doing? Well how come we hear
so much about the supposed wealth of individual stars and so little
about the acts of "good."?
Surely, declaring these good works is a potent way to be an example.
I mean, let's be realistic, if nobody knows what these individuals
are doing, how can we be expected to say "Hey, that brother or that
sister is focusing on something positive, or investing their time
and money in building the community, in our future, in our schools,
in learning? How can they serve as potent role models unless we SEE
them playing the role?
How?
The way I see it, until we begin to see more visible examples of
such investments in people and communities we're all wasting our
time. Unless we see these institutions and edifices being built,
arising from the ashes of our decaying communities so to speak,
until there are conscious, vocal and repeated statements of support
for the building of lasting institutions that are geared to
improving the minds of our children and keeping them healthy and in
school then even the success of a Magic Johnson, or a Michael Jordan
may be taken as no more than the largesse of a rich individual who
may be simply throwing his surplus cash around in blind imitation of
other wealthy folks.
While no athlete or media star is under an obligation to support
public works and they could very well invest their hard-earned cash
elsewhere or live lavishly we all know that many do support some of
the initiatives that I've outlined above and that they do so through
privately established trusts or channels of investment.
The likes of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael
Jordan, Spike Lee, and Whoopi Goldberg among others have long been
associated with positive if not always public acts of kindness. Well,
now may be the time to come out of the closet.
The point I'm making is that the dangers are so great that what we
need to do now is mount a public campaign, to wage a public war on
the apathy of our kids and their acceptance of second-rate grades.
As athletes and stars we need to start telling and showing them by
the way we walk, talk and invest our money that education is
important. We need to be telling them that there's more to life than
basketball, or football, or overpriced trainers, or MTV, or gangster
rap, or Hollywood, or video games, or fully loaded convertible
sports car, or the latest prison hand-me-down fashions, or ribbed
condoms, or gold chains, or reefers, or smack, or crack cocaine, or
alcohol, or cigarettes, or gang banging, or getting pregnant at age
fifteen, or becoming a father before you're old enough to drive, or
hanging out, or jailhouse tattoos, or multiple body piercing, or
even the "cool" walk.
Whoa!
Is there anything left that I don't like and want to get rid of?
Or am I saying that there's some natural association between this
litany of supposed negatives and professional sports? The answer is
of course no. The fact that some sectors of the media continue to
make this association is tragic and dangerous.
The fact that many young people themselves make the connection is
perilous. The only point I'm making is that in the balancing act of
life it appears that education and lasting career development
continue to be challenged by the litany of material and emotional
goods some of which I've identified above.
But don't get me wrong. This isn't about going back to the way
things were when George Washington was President (actually, they
weren't so good then). Or back to the fifties when men were men and
women were women (yeah right), or a period before there were drugs
on the street and television had yet to be invented. This isn't
about going back to an unreal time when every child got perfect
grades, there was no fun, no sports, no soda and everyone wore gray
uniforms.
Rather, this is about coming together and deciding what it is we
want for our children. It's about taking a long hard look at the
reality of the world in which we live. It's about recognizing that
many of our children are being left behind. It's about accepting
that many of our young men and women - our children - are losing out
on the American Dream. Their minds and their bodies are being sapped
of all energy. Commitment and effort are being replaced by a desire
for easy returns, usually with little output.
The dangers of a continued focus on life as a trip down easy street
are obvious, although not so obvious as to have drawn the attention
of every politician in the country. Every parent and citizen with
even a passing concern for the future should be demanding that
something be done. More importantly, each of us should be looking
out for the kids in our care, for the kids on our block, in our
school, in our churches, mosques and synagogues, in our boys and
girls clubs, at the local Y's, hanging out on the street corners.
We should also be looking out for all the others out there. Sport
has its place in our society. Basketball, football, and baseball,
along with many other sports, capture our collective attention.
We're a nation of sports lovers. And that's all right. The
combination of skills, artistry, rivalry, strategy, tactics,
techniques, personalities and drama is interesting, sometimes even
exciting.
Sports may even help get us through the week and give us something
on which to pin our hopes (the fortunes of "our" team) or,
increasingly, the hopes of our children. For many the fascination is
innocent enough for what can be harmful about little league baseball
or a friendly competition, or my son playing basketball a couple of
hours several nights each week, or following the fortunes of his
favorite team or players by television or fanzine?
The answer is nothing, so long as the fascination is measured and
balanced against the need to invest time in other creative pursuits
and, above all, in education. Learning must count for something
today. Look at the efforts of other communities. Recent immigrants
from India, from Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia are
linking their future success to the classroom. Other communities
would do well to take note.
If education is important today, it will be even more important
tomorrow.
We must therefore give our children every possible opportunity.
Accompany them to the game, applaud their successes, tend to their
occasionally broken spirits or bodies, and give them every support
possible for sports can help round them out as individuals.
However, we should also encourage them to keep everything in
perspective and resist the tendency that some of us may have to cast
ourselves in the role of aspirant coach, referee or parent to a
prospective superstar.
Digest the fact that, nine times out of ten neither you nor your
child will make it. Did I say nine times out of ten? Add a few zeros
to the nine and you'll be closer to the real ratio between the dream
and the reality.
But even for that very small minority who consider themselves
specially gifted or blessed and who are determined, come hell or
high water, to challenge the statistics and make it into the first
tier ranks of professional sports, the point must still be made:
Maximum effort and educational success are non negotiable.
Bramwell Osula is a professor. He has over 20 years experience in
the corporate, government, and academic sectors and has worked
extensively in Europe, Africa, and North America. His interests
include Performance Consulting, Critical Leadership, and Global
Networks. |
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