Yesterday I was in line at Whole Foods on 14th Street and I forced myself to look closely at the business of downtown living. Most of the patrons were 20-30-40-something white types, some smug about their choice in high-brow grocery shopping, others just hungry for some roasted chicken and in a hurry to hit the park across the street and read a novel.
Then there were the workers—the cashiers, the guys down in the seafood unit. Most of them were black, West Indian descent and American, the others were Latin—predominately of Caribbean descent. And unlike the patrons, these workers were much younger. Eighteen, twenty maybe. A few pushing twenty-one.
At first I was angered, all of these young minds of color, their lives shaped by the high-brow needs of white types. Then I got angry at them. Why didn't the pay closer attention in high school, why did they spend more time dismissing the idea of education and embracing socializing and its inevitable slow-burn. Then I thought is this what they wanted. To graduate from high school and become cashiers at Whole Foods. And then I thought about some of their peers who attended the same school, shared notes in the same pre-calculus course, but went on to graduate and now exploring the ivy-coated quads of Penn State, or even the neighboring NYU.
Then I calmed down, tossed aside my judgments, and thought clearly that something is certainly wrong. With our nation. With our public school system. With unresolved emotional scarring in the older generation that is now handicapping this generation. Something. I don't know. Sure, we can easily say racism or classism are the evil-doers, but it's not enough to point out the culprit/s. The culprit has been obvious for centuries. But what can be done to change the course of direction for these young minds defaulting into servitude for the urban bourgeoisie.
I say we start with the schools. And this is not to blame the teachers, etc, but to simply point out that something new needs to be implemented. Something that will encourage and challenge these young people to place education as a priority, no matter what emotional, personal or economical obstacle falls in their path. Something must be implemented that seriously addresses the importance of education to the emotional and social survival of the young "colored" mind.
And as I was taking my receipt from the cashier, with her blue eye-shadow and coarse black curls, I wondered if the only true change can come from revolution. Like in the children of Soweto. Self-righteous and bloody. I don't know. Something.
Until next time,
Keith
posted by DIGABLE-POET @ 5:16 AM
1 comments
