Preparing Young Black Warriors to Compete & Win In a Racist World!

I have no desire to rain on your parade here, but we have to be careful not to confuse the anomaly represented by the exceptional achievement of the few to lull us into the illusion of equality and liberation.

While Oprah Winfrey, President Obama and a number of exceptional stories involving young teen entrepreneurs and other successful blacks definitely remind us of what we are capable of, we must be careful not to confuse the anomaly with the reality of the whole. We must consider all of the variables in place. Success does not take place in a vacuum.

While I have experienced remarkable success my entire life, I am not foolish enough to declare myself a self-made success. I have had a number of people who have played vital roles in developing the mindset that allows me to break through the challenges that I face as a Black man. Working with inner-city youth, and having grown up in the inner city reminds me that far too many of our youth don’t have those influential presences in their lives. Many get caught up in the Criminal Justice System before they reach puberty, further limiting their mobility.

Am I suggesting that the extraordinary cannot be achieved by any Black person in America? Absolutely not! There is plenty of evidence to the contrary. However, as long as the extraordinary is an anomaly and not the reality of the masses, we still have work to do.

Actually, I am not an advocate of begging the perpetrators of the racial caste system that exists now to change. I am actually one who believes that we must train our own to thrive despite this racial caste, but we cannot do that by pretending it does not exist. Instead of attempting to convince our people that no opposition exists, we should be honest and let them know that the systems are set up against them, and then show them how they are built for the opposition — they are big enough, bad enough, strong enough, creative enough and smart enough to overcome the opposition. Teach them to work together instead of against one another.

While black success stories are inspiring and necessary, it is important to understand the vacuum through which they are created. I am honest enough with myself to acknowledge that the right words of encouragement, the right parental support system, the right teachers at the right time, all played an immense role in developing the confidence in me that simply refuses to succumb to the mechanisms and machinations of racism. I am committed to giving others the same opportunities that I have had, with hopes of producing even greater results.

The truth is that we are unprepared to win on a large scale, and one of the reasons that this is our current reality is that those of us who have experienced success now look back, without referencing all of the help we received along the way, and we expect all of our brothers and sisters to do it on their own.

We will win, but it will take a different mindset from those of us who have the answers. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.