Do More Than Cheer For Urban Youths

Do More Than Cheer For Urban Youths
by Rodolpho Carrasco
c. Religion News Service 1996
(Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif. and a columnist for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here.)Four Latino boys were chattering in Spanish when a black boy told them to quit speaking Spanish. A verbal argument ensued among these classmates as we drove to a sporting event. From my vantage point as the driver I quelled the debate and asked one of the boys to explain the problem.

LOS ANGELES (RNS) -- Four thousand teen-age boys -- black, white and Latino -- burst into the L.A. Coliseum recently, to the cheers of 50,000 men gathered to kick off the 1996 season of Promise Keepers, the Colorado-based evangelical Christian organization that holds mass rallies in sports arenas designed to help men be better husbands, fathers and role models.

Running, leaping and hopping, the teens traversed the length of the L.A. Coliseum, roisting the men to their feet. The men in the stands responded to the youthful enthusiasm on the field with a seat-rattling roar of "We love you!"

Any witness not stirred by the emotion of this moment must have been dead. Yet later, I began to question the efficacy of such displays.

The Coliseum sits in South Central Los Angeles, wherre the young male population is roughly half black, half Latino. It's easy for the men in the stands to cheer. But how many are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform urban youths in leaders?

Hard work is exactly what is required. Young blacks from the inner city are more likely to die by homicide than any other means; one-fourth of them are in the criminal justice system. Many urban Latino males face the same fate. These at-risk young men often grow up without a father in the home.

Tough realities require tough solutions, but most youth outreach efforts -- public and private -- only go halfway. The men who volunteer to be "role models" usually are not around long enough or often enough to make a difference.

Consider this example from my own neighborhood. One man from a local church spent two years working with two young Latinos. He frequently commuted from his home in the suburbs to visit the two and warn them about drugs, crime and sex. While he was around, the guys stayed out of trouble.

But when the man's business grew and his wife became pregnant, he ceased visiting. Not long after he disappeared, one of the youths was in prison. The other, who was about to father a child, dropped out of school and began looking for work.

It's not that I don't respect the volunteer's efforts. And certainly the young men must be held accountable for their actions. But this is the reality about drop-in volunteers: Sooner or later they disappear, as have so many of the men in these teens' lives.

But not all volunteers are drop-ins. Bryan Robinson and Derek Gullage, who were among the crowd at the Promise Keepers event, do much more than cheer. They live in the neighborhood they serve.

Robinson, a black staff worker, and Gullage, a white volunteer, work side-by-side with me at Harambee Christian Family Center to groom young black and Latino men for leadership.

Harambee -- Swahili for "let's push together" -- is one of more than 200 youth programs across the country affiliated with the Christian Community Development Association, founded by veteran civil rights leader John Perkins.

For the past five years Robinson has taught moral values, homework skills and work habits each weekday after school. But with four young men, Robinson goes deeper. To see these fatherless youths through high school, into college, and into roles as community leaders, Robinson and his wife welcome them into their home for meals, movies and sleepovers. In fact, Robinson spends more time with the four outside official program than in -- all this on a salary so low he cleans swimming pools to make ends meet.

For three years, Gullage has shared Robinson's strategy, living in the same neighborhood where he volunteers. Such commitment carries a high price. Last year Robinson was nearly shot while walking home from the center. Gullage was robbed at knifepoint.

But the hazards of life in a rough neighborhood are balanced by the fruits of their labors. Of the four youths from whom Robinson has served as surrogate father, one is off to the marines; one is mulling over competing college scholarship offers; the third is a budding webmaster and the fourth boasts steadily improving grades. All stay out of trouble. And all have demonstrated sufficient character to help Robinson administer the daily program at Harambee.

It's easy to stand with 50,000 guys at a Promise Keeper rally and give cheers of hope for urban young men, for the rewards for the giver are immediate and euphoric.

But what we really need in America today requires the visionary self-sacrifice of men like Robinson and Gullage.

There's some truth to the maxim, "Values are caught, not taught." Men who would be role models must stick around long enough for the values they teach to become embedded in the hearts and habits of urban young men.

The copyright for these materials are owned by Rudy Carrasco.  These materials were used with permission by TechMission.