"It takes a village to raise a child!" is an old African proverb that hundreds of millions of people have heard or used over the past years and that many people believe. But today in the Black community, that proverb has little relevance or importance. There is no village to raise Black children! And in many cases there is no family, and not even a parent or adult, to raise a Black child. There is no collective community effort to ensure that most Black children will grow up capable of succeeding in the 21st century. Unfortunately, African proverbs don’t raise children, people do.
Some of the obstacles that Black youth in America must overcome today are: Young Black girls and women are 20 times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than young white girls and women. About 1 million young Black men are in jail (one half of the United States prison population) and only 600,000 are in college. The average 12th grade Black student has the reading and math scores of the average 8th grade white student. Only 38% of Black children are born into two-parent households, compared with 65% for Latino households and 77% for White households. Where is the village that will raise these children in the Black community?
In the 21st century, people are competing globally for resources and for their place in the world. Every day that you are alive, you must compete. This includes competing for food, healthcare, clothing, shelter, employment, and education. Nothing can be taken for granted any longer. Either you have a basic knowledge about the world, the skills necessary to navigate in the world and ability to learn and adapt to change, or you cannot compete in the new global human ecology. And if you cannot compete, there is no longer a place for you in the world.
The list of those who have failed Black children includes everyone from the United States government to Black leaders-including elected officials, faith-based leaders, community leaders, civil rights leaders, business leaders, the media and educators. Additionally, the United States government is complicit in this debacle with its formal silence while perpetuating policies, programs and practices that contribute to the demise of and chaos in the Black community. As a result, the continued existence of the Black community as a viable entity is in jeopardy.
The old model of child development in the Black community is broken and obsolete. To fix the aforementioned problems, a new system of child development is needed that will help Black parents and families successfully raise their children in the 21st century.
The Black Star Project has created The Black Star System of Child Development that teaches Black parents to work with school and community partners to educate and raise their children to be successful in our new global human ecology. The Black Star model of child development includes the following tenets:
- Physical and emotional health
- Communal consciousness and responsibility
- Strong spiritual and moral convictions
- Academic proficiency and intellectual curiosity
- Affirming one’s culture and ancestry
- Financial, economic and entrepreneurial literacy
- Effective parenting
- Responsible sexual behavior
- Technological literacy
- Exemplary global citizenship
This new model of child development has school as supporting agent rather than primary provider for a child’s development. Schools are only responsible for the academic preparation of a child. Parents, families and communities are responsible for all other important aspects of child development with the support of our government.
Do Black people have to be pushed to the brink of extinction before we wake up to the new realities of the 21st century? The only way that Black people can be saved is to make a maximum investment in the development and education of Black children, and in the education, growth and development of Black families and communities with support, resources and leadership from the government.
Without an action plan immediately and a structure to implement that plan, the racial academic achievement gap will not only persist, it will broaden-and it may last for another 200 years. That is ten future generations during which most Black children would be living in a pseudo-slavery without the rights, benefits and opportunities of other Americans, because the United States and the Black community refuse to do what is necessary to fix this problem.
Where is the village?
- Phillip Jackson is executive director of The Black Star Project.
- The Black Star Project is a Chicago-based nonprofit that works around the country to help preschoolers to collegians succeed. The group focuses on low-income black, Hispanic and American Indian students in low-achieving schools.
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