By Marcus Robinson

Lamar is only 16 years old and has many lofty goals, Lamar wants to make something out of himself. Lamar wants to be a Business Man he wants to use his talent in music to help others. His plans are to go to college, and get several degrees. Lamar explained to me that he wants to own a lot of property and open up businesses that will create jobs for other people. He really wants to own a property so he can provide a place that his mother can truly call Home. ” I want to help people who are like I am at the moment” said Lamar.

Lamar was sent to live with his Granny because where he was living with his mom wasn’t safe for him the living conditions were very bad. His mother lost custody of his little brother because of bad living conditions that is believed to have caused his severe asthma attack. Lamar informed me that his Granny’s lights are off, so now he is forced to live with his Aunt who barely feeds him. When he was with me he was starving, whatever little he could get to eat was good enough for him. It is so sad that in this day and age we as Black people fail to acknowledge the day to day issues that kids like Lamar face.

We complain about how they wear their pants but never really look or think to investigate the real problem. The reasons why some kids flee to the gang life, is due to the fact they either live in homes where the adults don’t care or they are foster kids who no one cares about.

People say Facebook is bad but Facebook has given me a glimpse into the lives of the black youth growing up in the hood. Many of them have already had sex by age 14 and now they are videotaping it and posting it on Facebook for the whole world to see.

Most of their parents don’t care because a lot of them were children themselves when they became a parent. Our youth have become a generation of savages because of how we as the elders have stood by and did nothing but complain about the styles or fads our teens follow.

Lamar wants to wear his hair in Dreads, but was told by a guy that hairstyle is not professional looking. Who set these standards for us to live by? How one chooses to wear their hair shouldn’t affect their employment, to me it’s just another form of racism. Lamar is technically a drifter, drifting along just to make it in a country that is rich and willing to help those living in other countries, but not help the people living right here in this country.

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By CCNM

I have functioned as a Business and Media Consultant over the past sixteen years and spent many years developing my capacity to function in our ever evolving use of technology, communication, education and training.