By Mansfield Frazier
The manufactured creatures — part myth, part legend, part actual truth — that scares the daylights out of everyone in America (be they black, white, Hispanic, Asian or somewhere in between) is that constantly damned and demeaned demographic known as “the young, urban, black male” (YUBM). The only other instances in our nation’s history of groups being so vilified were Native Americans when they were being portrayed as savages so their lands could be stolen, and the Chinese, when the backbreaking work of building the railroads was completed and their labor was no longer needed.
In some quarters (many black communities included) YUBMs are castigated as the root cause of everything that’s wrong in the country … and FBI statistics that certainly show this demographic commits crime far out of proportion to its size only propagates the negative images. Indeed, there often is legitimate reason to be fearful of YUBMs.
But the question no one seems to be asking is “why?” Why are too many YUBMs so prone to acting out in a myriad of negative ways and violent manners? Are they born predisposed to commit crime? Is something intrinsically or genetically wrong with YUBMs — as those on the far right just love to posit?
The answer is no, there’s nothing “wrong” with them … but something reprehensible was done to them, and it goes back centuries in this country. Cultures spring up in response to conditions, and conditions in our nation’s ghettos cause them to be the perfect places for the creation of violent predators and dangerous gangs.
Why?
The one-word answer is and always was: Poverty. For society to expect these youth to remain completely destitute when they’re being bombarded with messages from all sides telling them what they absolutely must have is foolhardy on our part. These youth will form gangs and take from society what they cannot obtain in any other manner. If we ever become serious about solving the problem (mass incarceration certainly hasn’t worked), we simply must find a way to provide YUBMs with a modicum of hope for a better future, or, like Langston Hughes’ prophetic “Raisin in the Sun,” they will continue to explode.
But, perhaps for the first time in my recollection, there is a potential solution to the problems YUBMs face … maybe one that won’t work in every city across the country but can certainly work here: Urban farming.
Cleveland is in the forefront of the sustainability/urban ag movement, and real jobs for at-risk youth and those from economically underprivileged families can be created. Our non-profit, Neighborhood Solutions, has been proving the viability of this coming economic shift with our small urban vineyard, which has employed close to a dozen individuals since it broke ground. This year alone we’ve cycled six young men returning home from incarceration through our unofficial reentry program and helped them stabilize their lives by becoming gainfully employed. And this is on a site that’s less than an acre. Imagine how many lives could be altered if hundreds upon hundreds of acres were under tillage?
As the saying goes: Nothing stops a bullet like a job.
Urban ag has the additional upside of not robbing Peter to pay Paul. Many of the employment programs I’m aware of merely take work from one group and transfer it to another, such as the rehab business (which has pretty much gone into the tank with no prospects of coming out anytime soon). Crews made up of individuals exiting prison were set up by a well-meaning program to rehab homes … but ended up putting some small rehab companies out of business because they couldn’t compete with a subsidized program.
However, since urban ag is a relatively new industry, these new jobs won’t take work from existing companies. My real concern, however, is that once the industry takes off and proves its financial viability, people from outside the urban core will begin to elbow locals out of the way … there’s certainly examples of that occurring in the past.
If we can engage YUBMs in their early teen years and provide them with work opportunities that will regularly put a few bucks in their pockets, we can modify behavior … and there’s simply no question about it. By offering weekly stipends the youth have to work for, we can demand good grades and good behavior … since they will then have something to lose: Money.
Virtually every aspect of human endeavor is incentive driven, and YUBMs will respond to the carrot of a paycheck just like everyone else in society does. Such a program would cause a steep and rapid decline in the amount of violence we see occurring in urban communities. Additionally, studies have shown that when young people work around crops they tend to make healthier food choices later in life.
The market for produce for Northeast Ohio runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Why are we still trucking bell peppers and other produce across country (while sending money out of state) when we can grow our own crops right here … reusing vacant land while stabilizing young lives in the process? All it takes is political will.
Of course there are those who’ll say such a program cannot work, but that will come from folks who have a vested interest in the continued failure of urban communities. There’s a powerful cabal in American society that enriches itself off the misery and death of others … and it’s called the prison/industrial complex — and it has highly paid lobbyists working day and night to convince lawmakers and decision makers to stand guard to protect the status quo.
And while we’re at it, let us not forget the traditional farmers, those who own hundreds of acres around Ohio, and usually are staunchly on the right politically; they’d love nothing better than to strangle urban farming in its crib. It’s not in their vested interests to allow competition.
Whether other advocates realize it or not, we in the urban ag movement are going to have a real fight on our hands, but for a myriad of reasons — like changing the outcome of young lives — this is one that’s clearly worth engaging … doing battle over. The outcome of such a sea-change in how crops are delivered to the table, and how young people lives are stabilized can be significant, indeed, a huge leap forward for a segment of society that’s in dire need.
I, for one, am ready for the battle, and in the immortal words of William Shakespeare, “And damned be him that first cries “Hold, enough!” This is a battle we in the inner-city cannot afford to lose.
Click here to read Part One and Part Two of Taking Back Our Streets.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: Taking Back Our Streets – Part 3”
Bob Fritz
Anyone who knows anything about farming knows you can’t make a full-time living on a 1-acre farm. They can’t even do that in third world countries like China or Egypt. The solution for YUBMs is not the 21st Century version of sharecropping. I suggest you look to that other group you claim were vilified–the Chinese. Today Chinese in America are pronbably above averge economically. They are engineers and managers, and own businesses. And they are not hazardous to their neighbotrs’ health. How did they do this? By going to school and studying hard. I suggest you mentor YUBMs to do the same.