AC Phoenix, January, 1992, Page ii
1
Reshaping Our Future By Supporting Our Youth
An Analysis By Patricia
Smith-Deering
Phoenix Managing Editor
Debbie Allen, renowned dancer,
choreographer, actress and singer,
was recently interviewed for Parade
magazine (November 17, 1991) and
talked about a situation she faced 24
years ago that too many of today’s
Black youth are facing on the road
to getting an education.
When 16-year-old Debbie Allen
went for her audition in 1967 at the
North Carolina School of the Arts,
she had 11 years as a dancer on her
resume’ and was confident that she
could best her competition. When
she was turned down and told by
one of the white judges that she
should abandon her plans for a
career because “her body (was) not
right for classical dancing,” she was
devastated. —
Even her mother considered her a
failure, so Allen felt that everyone
involved must be right. She was a
student at Howard University
before she regained her confidence
and danced again. For that, she
acknowledges the-encouragement
that Mike Malone, a noted
Washington, D.C. performer, gave
her. She went on to Broadway,
following her 1971 graduation as a
drama major, and the rest is an
important part of entertainment and
Black history.
If it can happen to a talented Black
in the supposed liberal, artistic,
creative environment of the per
forming arts, what about Black
youth in the environment of public
schools? Today’s young Blacks
come head on against very similar
obstacles - the first and foremost of
them, racism. The second one,
frequently, is lack of any real,
viable kind of support system.
It should go without saying that
parents play an integral role in
supporting their children’s efforts in
school. Some parents, however,
seem oblivious to the impact their
callous remarks or disregard of their
offsprings’ achievements have on
their self-esteem.
A friend of mine shared with me
recently some comments made by
her father when she went home for
Christmas break from her junior
year at WSSU. This bright,
attractive young woman had man
aged to make the Dean’s list at the
school, following her transfer there
from a Virginia university. Instead
of basking proudly in her
A Statemenf Prom
The AC Phoenix
Congratulations to all who
celebrate the King Holiday.
During this 28th year since
his death) how much o£ Dr.
King's Dream has come true?
Are we better off today?
the ah ■
Phoenix
We’re in your Future now
more than ever.
announcement, her father criticized
her weight, her looks, antf other
misperceptions and misconceptions
he held about his talented daughter.
He even questioned the truth of her
news, insisting on personal
notification from the school.
The anger and hurt in her voice
and on her face as she recalled his
comments (and her mother’s
silence) were heart-wrenching.
Children crave their parents’
approval, and it does not take a
great amount of intelligence to
understand why. Words hurt as
much as a fist does. All of it is
abuse and can adversely affect a
child’s peformance unless there is
other support to bolster a sadly-
deflated morale.
The raw statistics speak for
themselves on the rate of illiteracy
and high school dropouts among
Blacks, both nationally and in
North Carolina. Also part of that
data are the numbers of Blacks who
are incarcerated and Black female
teenaged mothers. Over all my
years of talking with Black men and
women, young and old, one thing
stands out as a major contributing
factor to either their success or
failure in achieving personal goals -
positive support.
Positive support can help a young
person continue to try in the face of
teachers who are racially motivated
against the success of their Black
students or teachers who are just
plain indifferent - Black or white. It
can also bolster low self-esteem
when any teacher tells a student that
he or she is dumb, stupid, or has
nothing to contribute. There are
Black teachers equally as guilty. 1
have seen it and heard it, both as a
corporate training instructor and
manager interacting with public
school teachers, and as an educator
and journalist, outside the corporate
environment.
When anyone is told that they
can’d do, that they have no value by
someone who is respected or loved,
they believe it - unless it is
counteracted elsewhere. It is that
“elsewhere” that concerns all those
now engaged in the various “fights”
- against illiteracy, the dropout rate,
drug and alcohol abuse, teenage
pregnancy, unemployment, home
lessness, and all the rest. It’s
interesting that some of those in
prison were super sharp in their
Continued on Page 12
^^wr^cTs
DiX.. PCX P(\
McDonald's Family of
local owner operators
joins the eommunity in
celebrating the birthday
of one Great Man who
had a Dream -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 20, 1991