“This world has lost its glory. Let’s start a brand-new story”

--The Bee Gees, from the song Words

As another crop of fresh-faced graduates prepare to enter a world coming apart at the seams. Greed is rampant, lying is normalized, and facts are simply inconvenient truths. So, the world that awaits them is not very hospitable. In fact, the world that awaits them is fraught with danger.

Still, if you’re alive you cannot avoid this ball of confusion called life. Did we prepare them adequately? Or did we assume that they, along the way, would pick up whatever survival skills that might need to be viable?  The answer to both questions is simply that we failed them miserably. Still, all is not lost. We have time to give them the benefit of our experiences — both good and bad. The message we must share with them is that they must persist, resist and agitate. We must help them develop and maintain mental, emotional and spiritual strengths while emphasizing that only the strong will survive into the next millennium.

African Americans today must recognize that we are our ancestor’s most recurring dream. They dreamt of freedom and throwing off the inhuman yoke of enslavement; they dreamt of not only surviving but also prospering. And, while progress for us has been spotty, uneven and often illusionary, we have steadily made progress. I cannot think of another group of humans treated so shabbily as us that have come so far with so little help in such a short time following 450 years of enslavement.

What was/is our secret? Well, our belief in a higher power and our innate sense of survival qualify as key elements that contribute to our resilience.  So, as our young people are poised to engage in the world, let’s share with them all that we’ve learned about survival in a society where we’re viewed as lacking something.  The first thing we must share with them is that they have every right to project a positive future.

Allow me to suggest the following action steps to taken by our young people:

1. Know the history of your people
2. Always carry yourself with dignity
3. Respect yourself and your people
4. Remember health is the only real wealth
5. Dream bigger
6. Ignore random bigots but always fight against institutional racism/sexism
7. Never Give Up-persist, resist and agitate

In summary, as George Clinton of Funkadelics rapped, “Free Your Mind and Your Ass will follow.”  This world needs the youth to “start a brand new story” right now!