Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

At this moment, there is a black boy somewhere in this country who has a new set of options:  ‘inflict harm on myself, or someone else, or pull my pants up and get to work’.  For far too long and too often, too many black boys in America experience what it is to be marginalized more often than they experience what it is to matter. 

University of Maryland professor emerita Nancy K. Schlossberg, in her paper Marginality and Mattering: Key Issues in Building Community, asks the question, “The polar themes of marginality and mattering connect all of us rich and poor, young and old, male and female.  Are we a part of things; do we belong; are we central or marginal?  Do we make a difference; do others care about us and make us feel we matter?

The over representation of men/boys of color in prison is a measure of the extent of marginalization, the under representation of men of color who graduate high school is another.  Imagine the potential for good that exists in the abilities of these men and boys if we harnessed their energy, and creativity for the good of all?  Now, they are simply ‘stored’ fat living out a sentence.

Now in Barack Obama, there is someone who looks like them, and who inhabits the White House.  Now black boys have a different role model, one whose modus operandi is to bring people together, to ‘organize the community.’ There is no ‘I’ in Obama’s team.  Yes, we’ve had role models in athletes and performers but now we have the potential to raise up intellectual capital as something worth striving for, as potent as physical prowess or talent.  Now imagine that it will be considered ‘cool’ by black boys to show how smart they are in school or to seek internships in Washington, DC.  Imagine that Community Organizing becomes a field of study in our higher education system.  All of that because now everyone can see the potential in black boys and make them feel like they matter.

We’ve seen what marginalizing can do.  “This is our moment.  This is our time” to change course.

-- Joan Grangenois Thomas