And he should know. He came from the same sort of community, but without the support he is giving in his work today. The author of 'Why Young Men', he boot-strapped his way from borderline poverty to graduating from Yale Law School -- no small feat for a guy who as a teen almost joined a gang. "I was tempted by a life of crime, but ultimately chose the virtuous path that led me to Yale."
His Black father left when he was in elementary school, but his Scottish-Irish mother prevailed. Frankly, I think the fact that he had a mother from another culture helped give the balance and insight into a world other than that of a ghetto-raised kid from the "hood".
Adamantly against hip-hop culture and what it does to young Blacks, he says, "We need an investigation into the billion dollar hip-hop industry concerning why so many rappers are killed. It's an incentive for young dudes to lean into these gangster images in order to make quick money and fame. Stop making excuses, hold hip-hop to account."
Here are a couple of excerpts from the profile in 'The Globe and Mail' today:
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| This is how the Black community is now turning on him. |
Above, we have a professor from the U of T who says that being as successful as he has been "lets governments off the hook". Huh!!?? In other words, "the government" is responsible for the failure of every Black kid. How is that progress for Black communities? It's the blame game over and over again. Predictably and unfortunately, Black leaders are publically turning against him in droves.
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| Jivan's response. I too agree there is no such thing as "systemic racism". There's individual racism, but it's not "systemic". |
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