It truly amazes me how this is ingrained in white folks and how Black Americans and/or African Americans never get this. For some reason, we believe that just raising kids and getting them through high school is enough. I have heard countless black parents say that their only mission is to get their kid to 18 years of age and they’re done with parenting. It’s like a ritual in the black community. People start doing the happy dance as soon as high school graduation comes around.
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This is far from what our white counterparts do in America. I grew up with white kids. I know this for fact. I went to a predominantly white elementary school, high school, and college and didn’t see a ton of black kids at college until I went to a public college at the University of Texas Arlington. My friends’ parents always had a plan for them to go to college, get a profession, and succeed.
They think it’s crazy to just get their kid out of high school and they are highly disappointed in their kid if their kid settles for simply getting out of high school and going to get a job. They count this as failure. The kids I grew up with and their parents count a success as them going to Purdue University, Ohio State University, Notre Dame, getting an advanced degree, getting a Master’s Degree and possibly a PhD.
I’m not kidding. Look at my Facebook friends if you think I’m not telling the truth. Their standard of success and how they measure that success is much different from ours. How do we change this? What do we do to put our kids in a better position for success and growth? First of all, you must create a success plan for your child at the age of 5. This success plan is about education. You must hold a very high standard of education for your child at the elementary school level. You must create and demand excellence from your child at school at an early age. You must then ensure that your child has a great education at the high school level and that they become indoctrinated with a college mentality.
Your kid will learn from you whether or not college and education is important. If you just speak about it and don’t do actionable things about it, they will not care either. This is how our young black youth fall through the cracks and ended up doing nothing as an adult. And do not expect someone to care more about your child’s education than you do. You MUST care. You MUST show concern. You MUST ensure that they are going to a good college or university and that they are equipped with the right tools to do so. Your business plan is to create a winner out of your kid. You must create a strategic thought leader out of your child for your child’s sake. Not yours. You must ensure that your kid gets to college, gets out of college, and has a chance at being in the upper middle class. The future of the black middle class depends upon this.
Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries, a black enterprise and web content developer and marketing company based in Atlanta, GA.
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