Contradictions that I
See:
Watch out for our Children
Children often emulate what they
see. I am sure that most parents teach their children through self
gained wisdom and experience gained through outward observation.
As parents we hope for the best for our children.
Children who are educated in more affluent neighborhoods
are most likely to live up to their potential.
However, there are exceptions to every rule. For example, there are
children who develop successfully despite the worst possible living conditions from
which they come. Even though each day is a struggle against all odds, they
manage to make a good life for themselves. Also, there are children who
seem to have everything in their favor and grow up to be serial killers.
Sometimes, a parent who has a great number of lovers,
overdoes it with liquor, and does things that most people know will send
negative messages to a young mind may have children unaffected by those
adverse conditions. To coin a
phrase, there are no absolutes in life.
But although these conditions are true, there is an
ugliness that parts the lips of too many parents, and it shouldn’t.
Parents should be aware of how they treat others in the presence of their
children. Many times parents will berate other parents because they are
not as successful as they are or because they do not have as many material
things. Many parents laugh and make vicious comments, make judgments
concerning those who are less fortunate, smirk at the disabled, have no
respect for our elders, taunt those who are too fat or too skinny or too
black or too white--if there is such a thing—hair too nappy, their shoes
and clothing don’t have a famous logo printed on them, etc.
Many of us take great pleasure in degrading our fellow colleagues
and boast of that act during dinner conversation with our children.
It seems that life in some parts of our community has
become no more than a game of
taunting—this is the uneducated class of our community, but it still
should not go on. In too many
minds there is still the desire to win acceptance from others.
Within a small portion of our Black community, that behavior has
become the norm. We destroy
ourselves with this type of negative behavior because we harm our
children.
What about that idea that each one would teach one,
instead of hurt one? That is a pattern many of our community needs to
return to. But our underclass has set the stereotypes for our entire
community. Whereas the vast majority of Blacks are working to upper class
(73%), the 27% have control of our image, and the negative behavior that is
so obvious comes not from the majority, but from our underclass.
Jessie L.
