“I was all-state in four sports in New Jersey, but sometimes I couldn't get served at a restaurant two blocks from my high school. There were no job opportunities then... the only thing a black youth could aspire to be was a bellboy or a pullman or an elevator operator, or, maybe, a teacher. There was a time when all we had was black baseball.” TwoSometimesStatesSchoolJobsOpportunitySportsBlackTeacherFourYouthHigh SchoolBaseballBlockRestaurantsAspireJerseyNew JerseyElevatorsOperatorsAll StateJob OpportunitiesBlack Youth Author:Monte Irvin
“What good does it do a black youth to know that an employer must pay him $2 an hour if the fact that he must be paid that amount is what keeps him from getting a job?” IfsKnowsDoeFactsJobsBlackHoursPayYouthAmountPaidEmployersBlack Youth Book:Economics Source: Economics
“And you who sought for magic in your youth but desire it not in your age, know that there is a blindness of spirit which comes from age, more black than the blindness of eye, making a darkness about you across which nothing may be seen, or felt, or known, or in any way apprehended.” KnowsWayMayEyeAgeSpiritDesireFeltBlackKnownDarknessMagicYouthBlindness Author:Lord Dunsany
“A silly society is a youth-obsessed society: To the Chinese, who appreciate the value of experience, the greater the ratio in a team of grey 'hairs and no-hairs' to 'black hairs' the faster and better a task will be completed. The opposite assumption obtains in the youth-obsessed U.S.” ValuesBlackGreaterTeamYouthHairAppreciateTasksOppositesSillyChineseFasterObsessedAssumptionGreyRatiosBlack HairGrey Hair Author:Ilana Mercer
“I reveled in the smallness, the coziness of an upstairs bedroom in a traditional American Cape Cod house the half-floor that forces you to duck, to feel small and naive again, ready for anything, dying for love, your body a chimney filled with odd, black smoke. These square, squat, awkward rooms are like a fifty-square-foot paean to teenage-hood, to ripeness, to the first and last taste of youth.” FeelsFirstsBodyLastsHouseForceBlackRoomsHalfFeetDyingLove YouYouthReadyTasteFilledYour BodyTraditionalSmokeOddFiftySquaresDucksAwkwardBedroomTeenageNaiveHoodUpstairsCapesChimneysSmallnessSquatFirsts And LastsCape CodRipeness Author:Gary Shteyngart
“A young man had become possessed by a devil. The thing within him burst into loud lamentation and departed from the man. At once the youth's eye fell out on his cheek, and the whole of the pupil which had been black became white.” MenWholeEyeYoungBlackReligiousWhiteYouthHe ManDevilScaryLoudYoung ManPossessedCheeksPupilsDepartedLamentation Author:Saint Augustine
“The world used to think we are a land of snake charmers and black magic. But our youth has surprised the world with its IT [information technology] skills. I dream of a digital India.” ThinkingWorldDreamUsedBlackPowerfulMagicLandYouthSkillsIndiaDigitalSnakesBlack MagicCharmersDigital India Author:Narendra Modi
“Even when black youth gangs target white strangers on the streets and spew out racial hatred as they batter them and rob them, mayors, police chiefs and the media tiptoe around their racism and many in the media either don't cover these stories or leave out the race and racism involved.” StoriesBlackWhiteRaceStreetsMediaYouthInvolvedRacismHatredPoliceStrangerChiefsTargetGangMayorsTiptoesBlack Youth Author:Thomas Sowell
“Identity has several parts, and the self needs to expand. Black youth should be encouraged to have as many parts or as rich an identity as possible. It's a form of allowing them to be curious about the world.” WorldNeedsShouldSelfFormBlackRichIdentityYouthCuriousAllowingBe EncouragedBlack Youth Author:Darryl Pinckney
“There was certainly nothing really sexual about my youth growing up, simply because the fact remains if you're the fat kid in a school and I was the only fat black kid in the school - in fact, I was the only black kid in the school - but if you are kind of ostracized on many different levels in your school the last thing you're worried about is sex.” IfsKindDifferentFactsKidsSchoolLastsSexBlackLevelsGrowing UpGrowingYouthRemainsFatsWorriedDifferent LevelsFat Kid Author:John Amaechi
“The fact is in a city like Chicago, for example, unemployment in the black community is around 20 percent for adults, 35 percent for youth, they bail out the banks, public schools, there is a deep divide. We need a plan for reconstruction and redevelopment and I hope that - police are the gatekeepers but behind that gate are these problems of disparities and injustice.” NeedsFactsProblemSchoolBlackCommunityCitiesBehindsPlansExampleYouthPercentAdultsPoliceInjusticeGatesChicagoDividesUnemploymentPublic SchoolReconstructionDisparityBlack CommunityBailGatekeepers Author:Jesse Jackson
“Plenty of drug dealing does happen in the 'hood, but it happens everywhere else in America as well. In fact, some studies suggest that where significant differences in the data can be found, white youth are more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth.” WellsDoeFactsHappensAmericaFoundBlackDifferencesWhiteStudyYouthDrugSignificantPlentyDataIllegalHoodIllegal DrugsBlack Youth Author:Michelle Alexander
“I would say to any young black , if you get a job and you're asked to work 100%, then you work 125% and don't complain about it. The moment you complain about it, then you don't really want to work. Always do more than you're asked to do and you'll get far in life - and that applies to all youth.” MomentsBlackYouthComplaining Author:Noel Clarke
“Furthermore, the financial and social investment in prisons means that black and brown youth become, essentially, fodder for the machinery of capitalized incarceration. The steady supply of guns in the U.S. makes an already untenable situation even more dangerous, and all of us must raise our voices, write to Congress, hit the streets in protest, attend budget meetings of local municipalities - all to state our opposition to such criminal procedures and practices for our youth.” WritingMeanBlackSituationDangerousYouthGunPrisonMeetingsInvestmentFinancialProtestSteadyIncarceration Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“Body piercing and baggy clothes express identity among black youth, and not just beginning with hip-hop culture. Moreover, young black entrepreneurs like Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs and Russell Simmons have made millions from their clothing lines.” MadeBodyYoungCultureBlackLinesMillionsIdentityYouthClothesEntrepreneurHip HopHipsHopsClothingsSeanPiercingsCombsBlack YouthClothing LineBaggy Clothes Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history, and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such topics.” GivingImportantLightUsedBlackVoiceRaceYouthMusic IsHip HopHearingContemporaryHipsHopsShedTopicsHip Hop MusicBlack Youth Book:Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop Source: Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop
“The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.” MenMindBlackWhiteEnemyPracticeYouthWeakVictimJewTyrannyHipsExpertsDullLazyManipulationCommunistCapitalistHomosexualRedneckStandardizationDull Minds Author:Tom Robbins
“Away! Away! The spell of arms and voices: the white arms of roads, their promise of close embraces and the black arms of tall ships that stand against the moon, their tale of distant nations. They are held out to say: We are alone. Come. And the voices say with them: We are your kinsmen. And the air is thick with their company as they call to me, their kinsman, making ready to go, shaking the wings of their exultant and terrible youth... Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.” SoulRealityNationsBlackVoiceWhiteRaceCompanyAirYouthReadyArmsTerriblePromiseMoonConscienceEmbraceWingsTalesShipsWelcomeMy SoulEncountersTallSpellsThickShakingTall Ships Author:James Joyce