POETIC TONGUES/Fabu arter-Brisco, Madison’s poet laureate
Academic anemia

     Last month, I wrote about our children in The Madison Metropolitan School District and how we, as adults, together must work harder for their academic
success. Academic success for African Americans students is what I have actively pursued in Madison through presentations, residencies, teaching and
mentoring. As well, it is a subject that I have intellectually pondered for years. How is it that the majority of our children are doing worse in public schools
now, than during the hard years of segregation? Ebony magazine reported that our next generation of young African Americans would be the first
generation not to achieve as much or more than their parents. Since the end of chattel slavery, each generation of African Americans have achieved more
academic and economic success than the previous generations. I remember that my mother who never attended a university encouraged me to attend and
supported me emotionally and financially during undergraduate and graduate programs. I also remember that I did the same and more for my son and our
children in the community with the hope that they too, would be more successful than us. Why is the opposite true? Why are our children less productive? 
    I believe that all American children are suffering from a lack of adult support and protection due to our contemporary cultural climate. We have seen
the basic rights of children denied and too often, instead of adults caring for children, they are exploiting them. It becomes difficult to study, to achieve if
one is growing up in a climate where children are disregarded and disrespected. Two celebrity cases illustrate how unsupported and unprotected our
children really are. The State of California, in 2003, brought charges of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14” under Section 288a in the California
penal code against Michael Jackson. The State of Illinois, in 2002, brought charges of 21 counts of having sexual intercourse with a minor against R. Kelly,
yet later reduced them to soliciting a minor for child pornography, 7 counts of video taping and 7 counts of producing child pornography. It took R. Kelly’s
case six years to come to trial in 2008, while he was able to tour and make millions of dollars. Both were acquitted despite a preponderance of evidence,
including videotape.
     The crime of child pornography is an offense against a child and causes harm to the child’s physiological, emotional and mental health. A recording
that could haunt the child in future years is especially horrible. The trails of both these men left me understanding that apparently a great deal of money
and high powered lawyers can free anyone at the expense of children. Both men’s trials revealed lives that are sexually perverted and that involve abuse to
boys and girls. Michael Jackson talked about “many children had slept in his bed.” R. Kelly compared himself to “… Martin Luther King Jr.” despite rumors
since 1991 that he was having sex with underage girls including a marriage to Aaliya at 15, that they both later denied. These kinds of high profile trials
create an atmosphere that children can be violated without punishment just because both men are celebrity singers. Michael Jackson is on record having
settled several cases out of court that had accused him of inappropriate behavior with little boys. 
Michael Jackson, working on a comeback, wants the world to believe that at 46 he wasn’t guilty of molesting a 13-year old cancer survivor, not guilty of
plying the boy with alcohol and not guilty of conspiring to abduct, extort and falsely imprison the child and his family. R. Kelly wants the world to believe
that it wasn’t him on the tape, the girl wasn’t underage and the tape was fabricated despite his sexually explicit hits “Bump and Grind, Your Body’s Callin,
Sex Me” and numerous earlier allegations of child sexual abuse. Both of these men are believed to have been sexually abused as children. When we are
children, we are not responsible for what happens to us, however, when we are adults we are responsible for our own healing.
     I grew up listening to and enjoying the Jackson Five. When R. Kelly produced “I Believe I Can Fly” I used the song in a children’s program to
encourage and inspire them. I haven’t listened to Michael Jackson or R. Kelly for years and I never will again. While I am still trying to figure out how best to
encourage African American students to achieve, I want them to know that I respect them and their childhood. I refuse to support anyone in anyway that
does not respect children and the innocence that should be a part of every childhood. The next time you go to purchase a Michael Jackson or R. Kelly CD,
attend a concert or call yourself a fan, I invite you to remember that our children deserve better.