My Days at Camp

I've been an educator for over 20 years.  Recently I had the opportunity to see one of my former students, who is now himself an educator, at the Way Up Youth Leadership Camp.  He was a staff member for Sacramento Unified School District.  He told me "thank you for always encouraging me...you always supported my dreams."  The goals that this young man set for himself were supported by all he knew, family, friends, teachers, counselors.  We all stood by him and encouraged him to set and reach his goals. I beamed with pride to watch him interact with the young people who were in his care.  For me he was the example of what happens when a young person is nurtured and supported by his or her community.

Having goals and dreams, a hope for the future, are not always nurtured by one’s family, friends, and teachers.  Sometimes, the spark that ignites a young person’s dreams has to come from an outside entity.  This year I had the opportunity to see first-hand how adults working in partnership with young people can work to influence the life of a young person.  On July 30^th over 350 young people from the Sacramento City Unified School District descended on California State University, Sacramento to attend the Way Up Leadership Camp.  For some of these young people the camp represented the first time they walked on a college campus.  For these young people, staying in the dorms and eating in the campus commons was an un-thought-of adventure because the concept of attending college was foreign.  Yet there were others who, like my former student, had aspirations and visions for their future. The camp simply confirmed where they envisioned themselves in a few short years.  

It would be easy to focus on the bright-eyed, smiley-faced, respectful, and ready to go young people.  Their excitement and enthusiasm for life and learning was contagious.  However, my attention was diverted to the young woman who looked angry, who seemed to have a protective fence around her that read “enter at your own peril.”  She reluctantly participated in activities.  Her vocabulary was peppered with colorful phrases.  She was often a disruption.  In the back of my mind these thoughts kept creeping in, “Why is she here? Send her home.  Things would be easier without her.” I tried to push these thoughts away, but I couldn’t help it…until I talked to her.  As she was fuming about being “dress-code violated,” I approached her and her friend, both of whom seemingly oozed negativity.  This was our conversation that occurred in a matter-fact-tone as we walked to the next workshop:

Me:  How’s that working out for you?

Student:  What?

Me:  Being angry all the time.  If you don’t like being here, why are you here?

Student:  I came here because of the college experience.  I came to camp last year, and I wanted to have the experience again.

Me:  So... would it hurt to at least try?

Student:  My foster-mom doesn’t think I’m going to be anything.  My teachers don’t think I’m going to be anything.   Everyone I know thinks I’m going to end up dead, pregnant, or in jail.  I gotta protect me…It hurts when everyone is against you.

Her last words stopped me, and they have stayed with me… “it hurts when everyone is against you…” After that conversation I spent more time learning about the person. Beneath the anger was a scared young woman who desired attention and acceptance.   Her favorite part of camp was the part I thought she paid the least attention to; it was a presentation on living life with hope.   Many of our young people have had their hopes extinguished at the ripe old age of 14.  There is a direct correlation between the loss of hope for the future and negative outcomes including involvement in the criminal justice system, drug use, and homelessness.  The veneer of anger is the protective sheen that is a salve for the pain and uncertainty that comes from the messages that some young people receive from family, friends, and teachers.  I wish I could say that the brief interaction I had with this young woman changed her, alas I do not know.  I do know that she smiled a few times.  I overheard her tell her friend about her desire to "make a difference in her community." Lastly I observed her confidence as she walked around the college campus.  It was as if the three days gave her the knowledge that she too belonged on that campus.  Her confident stroll on that last day at Sac State is the reason why she, and the many others who had the same rough veneer, belonged at camp.

  

It would be great if every child wore a smiley face and was respectful to peers and adults. It would be wonderful if every young person had supportive families, friends, teachers, and communities; alas, many do not. As a community we do not have control over a young person’s family, or their friends; however, we do have the ability to provide opportunities to shift communities.  The Way Up Leadership Camp has provided opportunity to influence positive change in the lives of young people through partnership between youth and adults.    

What did I learn at camp?  I learned young people are excellent teachers (all facilitation teams had youth as partners in workshop development and instruction).  I learned camp is an innovative method that can reach young people to shift negative outcomes. Most importantly I learned these last two things: first, the importance of stopping to listen and support the dreams and goals of young people; second, I learned the value of looking beyond the veneer to the heart of a child.Was camp exhausting…yes.  Were there times I wondered what I had gotten myself into…yes.  Would I do it again…YES! 

Forward

~Dr. Addie Lucille Ellis

Tragedy vs. Travesty

I have not commented on the Trayvon Martin case.  The pain is too close, too real, too agonizing; it sears my soul with the sharpness of a white hot scythe through wheat.   In the middle of a conversation my words become inaccessible; my heart skips a beat, my tears flow.  In the middle of quiet moments, loud moments, and all moments in between – I weep. 

I am not angry at the man who pulled the trigger that ended the life of a child who could have been, who could still be, my son, my nephews, the children of my friends.  The man who stole the life of a child is not the issue.  The trigger man did exactly what the system in which we live trained him to do.  You don’t believe me?  I can prove it.  In one minute list as many positive stereotypes as you can about African Americans, Black people, which have nothing to do with sports, entertainment, or food.  Now take another 1 minute and list the negative stereotypes.  Compare your lists.  Which list has more?  Our society understand has taught us that Trayvon Martin, that those who look like Trayvon Martin, are at worst to be suspect, to be feared; at best to be pitied, to be patronized.  Those who are “successful” are deemed exceptional; those who fall into the criminal justice system are seen as normal because after all, “there are more Black men in prison than in college.” A statistic that is actually not true when one does the research; but, this inaccurate statement has been repeated so often that now people question the real data.  However, I digress.  Still don’t believe me; still don’t believe that the system masterminded the murder?  Take another minute and list as many movies or television shows that depict African Americans being people, something in the vein of Cosby Show, Living Single, Love Jones; or, to date myself, Julia or Christie Love.  Now, in the same time frame do the same thing about the majoritarian race.  Compare the lists.   Reflect on the ease in which it took to complete the lists.  As a bonus, turn on the television right now and count how many positive images of African American, Latino, or Asian individuals you see.  Just do hash marks.  Using the same amount of time count the negative images.  When these activities are done, if you’re honest with yourself, you will begin to see a pattern.  Glaringly, through the images shown through the media one is able to see what is considered to be the measure of humanity.  Everything else is measured next to that standard. 

 

The individual who pulled the trigger that murdered Trayvon Martin did nothing outside of what our system has deemed acceptable.  My sadness is centered in the awareness that the battle is not against one individual, it is not against a group of individuals; it is against a system that has racism so deeply embedded at its roots that oft times it’s not even recognized.  My fight is against a system that repeatedly reinforces 3/5.  Don’t believe me?  Go back to the lists you made earlier. 

I know I have associates, colleagues, friends, who will adamantly, vehemently, state race is not an issue.   I request two things, first talk to someone who experiences the world differently than you.  Second, and most important, accept what this person is saying as truth.  I know this is hard, because if what this person says is true, that means the world you painted for yourself is not that way for others.  It is the moment  you realize the world is experienced differently for different people that you will feel my sadness, my frustration, my righteous anger.  It is at this moment that you will become an ally in the War against Racism, the War against Inequity, the War against Discrimination.  You will enlist to fight in these Wars to make your picture a reality for all.  I welcome you in this War; however, I warn you, this is not a battle, it is a War, and it is a War that is not for the weak.  It is a War that forces one to stand up to actively change the face of the world.  It is a War I engage in daily.  Sometimes the battles that make up this war are won  by simply waking up, getting dressed, and setting a standard of excellence. Sometimes the battles require me to step out of my comfort zone and write, to speak out, to call wrong, wrong and right, right even when it is not popular. Trayvon Martin’s murder is a tragedy.  His unpunished murderer, is a travesty.  The 440+ school age Black and Brown children murdered in Chicago in 2012 is a tragedy.  The silence to these murders is a travesty.  The under reported 1.6 million children and youth in the United States that experience homelessness is a tragedy.  The fact that this occurs in the United States is a travesty.

The tragedies are why I weep; the travesties are why I fight. 

~Forward

Dr. Addie Lucille Ellis