A gathering of men

The meeting was to announce news: the Community Empowerment Association and the Center of Life, a Hazelwood-based nonprofit, are partnering to create the African-American Leadership Institute, a program for mentoring young black males, and have received a grant from the Heinz Endowments to fund the first two years of the Institute's operation.

The meeting was to invite participation: the 50 or so men in attendance at the Homewood Senior Community Center Saturday afternoon were asked to help shape the structure and program of the Institute; for instance, by offering suggestions for specific activities.

That turned into an open comment period, for the men had things that they felt the need to say.

One of those men was Dr. Dawud Akbar, director of the Nzinga Institute, who said the AALI must address two primary concerns. First, "What does it mean to be human?"

"Most of us have been duped and tricked" he said, into believing that being human just means satisfying the urges for things like food, sex and status.

"This is totally, totally destructive," he said, "...the culture of death."

In addition to the fundamental question of what it means to be human, he said that the new Institute must address "the unique concerns and issues relating to us." Otherwise, "be prepared for more funerals."

Referring to the high number of Black children who do not live with their natural, biological father, he asked, "What elements in the environment have convinced us that that is normal and that it is not an atrocity?"

He quoted Malcolm X, saying that if you separate a tree from its roots, the tree dies, and added, "you separate people from their roots, they die."

And that was when, like Jesus receiving the news of Lazarus' death, Akbar wept.

When someone weeps in public, everyone responds in one way or another. Some look away. That's what I did, so I missed it when J.W. Wallace went over to Akbar to offer comfort - a second type of response. A few minutes later he told us about ourselves.

"We should never let a brother go through something like that without somebody going to that brother," he said.

His tone, as I heard it, was not, "All of you are bad and wrong." It was, "For God's sake, let's be human."

Lee Davis stood up and spoke for his generation, those in their 30s and younger.

"We've been through it so much," he said, "it" being the death of friends and loved ones, that now the subject gets a shrug: "Oh well." Giving comfort? "How many of y'all brothers have done this for us? Most of y'all haven't."

"We still need y'all's help," Davis said.

There are those who weep; there are those who look away; there are those who comfort; and there are those who shrug, because they've used up their tears.

Those of us who would mentor our young have a great deal of work to do among ourselves.

But how?

More about the meeting in my next post.

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