AJ Johnson on Black Youth

AH: Another question that I want to bring up is that people think that Black youth are just interested in nothing basically, we are just want the status quo, what would you say to some who would say that or think that?

AJ: I would say that A) you have put a whole race of people into a box because there are always going to be people who are not necessarily a part of the status quo, however, I would say, were they not socialized to be that way. That the majority of Black youth are socialized to be happy on the streets, happy to be in drug life, happy to be chasing after cars and rims, yet, still living in ghettos instead being able to live to their potentials, happy not to go into school, happy to drop out of schools, because it is typical, it is what they have seen all their life, are they not socialized to believe that they do not have a place in society other than the lower crust because they do not see anybody else actually making moves and Black culture are waiting for a messiah, are we not, are they not socialized to believe that there is going to be another messiah, another Martin Luther King, [Jr.], another Malcolm X, another Jesus to be able to come through and save them from this plight that we are facilitating consistently. It is a cycle; it is so cyclical the way that we live. Are they not socialized by media to say that “Oh, that’s my nigger” that is the way it should be, all of the people up top are they trying to change the way that Black people think about themselves? Or are they happy with their understanding of Black people because hey they are the ones making them money, I mean they are the ones with the money, giving us all their money, they do not even need the money, they do not even have the money and yet they are still giving us the money, and those are the pawns that they want. Are they not socialized to be that way to be pawns to want to give their money on these excessive things instead of trying to build themselves up in the economy, educationally, intellectually and in doing so build the economy up instead of just building up the few people in the upper crust, who are also spending their money on the most useless things. It is not a trickle down anything, it is the need for intellectual growth on the whole cultures part, but we are socialized to be that way, we are socialized to think the way we think, and nobody is doing something to change that, and nobody is trying to get the culture to think, critically think about the world that they live in. And how every single thing is set up for them to fail because they are socialized to fail and they are socialized not to think.