The Minds of Marginalized Black Men - Chapter 3 - Coming Up Poor

Coming Up Poor

Coming up poor addresses the issue of the young African American men developing their futures through the obstacles of growing up in Near West Side. The most common obstacle that most of the men experienced were the lack of decent finances, a father figure, a sense of security, and the proper information to lead them to college. Young men are interviewed and asked to describe what it was like trying to grow up in the community, and what kind of support did they receive from their family to pursue an education beyond high school.

The men speak of how growing up, the community was extremely violent, and quite often the children in elementary school had other things on their mind other than getting a quality education. Survival of the gang infested area, the home that was full of stress and anxiety due to the lack of money, and earning the respect of peers no matter what it took were the main focuses of these adolescents. When asked about their parental figure(s) attitude towards achieving a higher level of education they all had the same answer. All of the parents highly stressed how important it was to receive a quality education and stay off the streets and out of gangs. Although their parents wanted nothing more for their children but to grow up and do something with their life, the parents themselves were unable to provide concrete information or help to guide the children in the correct direction.

Some parents overprotected their children to the point where the child would sneak out to the streets and was exposed to all of the gang violence. Since the streets were so terrible, one often found a sense of safety and security only in joining a gang to avoid being the recipient of a soft reputation. To find security in the streets one had to gain the respect of the surrounding peers. When kids are bullying, stealing, and dealing with drugs when in elementary school, the future for that generation is very limited to those who can stay away and deal with the conflicts another way. The local high school had an enrollment of 97 percent African Americans, and during the 1980s the percent that received a high school diploma only ranged from 15 percent to no more than 30 percent.

The high school couldn't provide what one would call a safe and educational learning environment for many different reasons. During daily instruction students would have to halt their studies and duck beneath their desks because of gunfire in the streets. With instability such as this one can only imagine the quality of an education that a student could receive, this is why the percent of students intelligent enough to attend college ranged from 10 percent to no more than 40 percent. This doesn't mean that those eligible to go to college were able to afford it considering that 95 percent of the students came from low-income families that needed financial assistance to survive.

Once these boys became men and were still stuck in the city the believed that they had survived the most challenging part of growing up in the city. Now they were off to the workforce, where many were unable to keep steady jobs. With the morals and mindsets that the men acquired growing up, they were bound to lose their jobs sooner or later as they valued the respect of their employees more than the importance of getting the job done. The men are extremely affected by their adolescent years and are now struggling to provide for children of their own. This cycle seems to continue as the elders always stress the importance of a quality education; the only challenge is learning how to get it.