bygINCpresents, BLACK BOY MIDDLE SCHOOL (Part 1)

[danielonyourscreen]

thank you for sharing the video.

[MyAfroShow]

Thank you for sharing.

[bygINCpresents]

would be fascinating to hear your story the other way around. how old were you when you moved to SVG?

[Xarscum]

you know most surinam kids here in holland are like Jaleel.

My Example is a kid called Chairwin.

his face is set on uninterested and his bottom lip always hangs and his eyes are like

he never gets any sleep

[bygINCpresents]

maybe chairwin doesn't get any sleep? maybe he's up all night thinking about why he is the way he is but never figures it out b/c the tools he needs are taught in classes he never pays attention to b/c he stays up too late and is tired of problems with no answers for him. you never know what's in the hearts of men until you know yourself more. get to know you and you may figure out a way to help chairwin and others like him.

[TheFashionistaChic]

Wow! Your story evokes an array of emotions and ideas. I first thought of my experience as an adolescent and how I viewed education. How as a female my perception differed from your perception.. Then I compared your experience to my older brother's view on education. As a black male, he did not excel academically. But I believe it was more do to his lack of interest rather than how he was perceived by his peers. But of course, that is my perspective.

[TheFashionistaChic]

I do have a question? You commented on how the other kids in the class faired in contrast to yourself. Exactly what were the results or how were you even able to make that assertion?

[bygINCpresents]

life is perception. what you hear is what i saw then. fighting in school. not good. not taking class seriously. not good. not seeing the connections between black history and the reality of brooklyn, ny in the late 80s. not good. everyone has their own style of processing info, so yes, i cannot say w/ 100% accuracy how the other kids faired. there are many measures of success. i am sharing what i perceived. their actions wasn't the good i wanted for myself. and as you will see in later videos...

[bygINCpresents]

... i admired my classmates. i was jealous of their youthful zeal. some were living foul but they were LIVING. mistakes need to be made when you're young. it's dangerous for young, black men in the inner city to make mistakes in school, in public, in the institutions, lest they get sent to institutions. but folks gotta live. even black boys. so the other kids were faring better than me in terms of LIFE. middle school showed me i had to live LIFE and measure my own success.

[bygINCpresents]

perceptions of self have much more to do with academic achievement than mental acuity. i learned more in school when i liked myself more. why would anyone want to be somewhere, stuck for 6 hrs., if they are unsuccessful & the negativity is compounded by social phobias, anxiety & fear? we would tell any sane person to get out of such a relationship, wouldn't we? but you and i know ALL kids have to push thru and get from school what they must. the world demands it.

[Xarscum]

whoa this part where you say you made more effort because of the other people in your class i thought that too in my third year in high school!(bout a year and a half ago)

[bygINCpresents]

i guess if i'm gonna be dumb, i'm'a make it "deep" dumb... peace.

[neeeeeeeeeyah]

haha i was in a gifted and talented program.

[bygINCpresents]

where? city? burbs? was it with minority kids, white kids? positive experience for you?

[Beatles4ever70]

Amazing story! If only more people were like Mr. Hope

[bygINCpresents]

there's hope out there. just gotta remember and tell their stories... your stories.

[victornewman06]

Damn good piece, I'm looking forward to listening to the rest.

PS: No you didn't with the Randall Cunningham juicy curl football card LOL I had that one!!!!!

[bygINCpresents]

didn't have the card but mimed randall when i played in the schoolyard... they don't know how ahead of his time randall was. imagine him in a spread offense with 4 receivers with room to take off like mike vick? don't know why buddy ryan didn't do that. they had the defense to shut teams down. never spent money on receivers though.

[DaRasEion]

Very profound. Good writing and production. Your message is a powerful one.

[ivibeblk]

Wow, I can't wait for the next part in this series. To have been so young you had great foresight.

[bygINCpresents]

when you're too shy to talk to people but you read a lot, listen and use the textbook's lessons to figure out life, i guess the result is foresight.

[Timeout123]

This still goes on in schools in the US today and the sad thing is there are less and less teacher like Mr. Hope.

[bygINCpresents]

what's funny is that he didn't go out of his way to do anything "pro black" all the time. hard enough keeping 30 kid's attentions. i just liked the fact that the man stood up. he got tired of the way it was. there was honesty there.

[mzsuzuki]

I disagree about the notion of less teachers like Mr. Hope...there are still quite a few teachers like Mr. Hope but our media is only hungry for the articles about teachers sleeping with students and not teachers teaching students. However these teachers dont transfer...

[mzsuzuki]

I have to school them on switching codes...and I make sure that they know in my classroom...you don't have to "front", they can let down all defenses and LEARN...I would love to use this video as part of my presentation to other teachers on teaching African American males.

[bygINCpresents]

please, use the video. i' like to go into school and talk to the young headz about their life relative to my own. i don't think boys of any age are encouraged to open up about themselves. i certainly didn't until life forced me to look.

[mzsuzuki]

The whole process takes about 6 months for them to feel comfortable after 12 years of not always feeling comfortable being smart and being cool. Now they will tutor one another in a minute...I love it!

[bygINCpresents]

you doing the thing,. you doin' the damn thing. if the vids can help, please go forth.

[mzsuzuki]

I teach a sixth grade all male class...Bravo...I love my gentleman...I call them my their last names...they wear a uniform..most wear ties..and 90 percent of them bring back their homework...I only have three males struggling but I am concerned about them once they leave my classroom.

[bygINCpresents]

i taught a 5th grade class where i came to the realization that no matter what i did, 70% of the students were going home to conditions that would not build on my lessons. i went home on weekends and just lay in the fetal position for hours wondering what good was i doing.

[mzsuzuki]

I feel you..but because children are very flexible...its the adults that are not...once they enter the room on Monday..usually they fall back into the mode of learning and the rules that govern this classroom. Do I have to redirect them? Sure..Do we have to talk about situations as they arise?..sure!

[mzsuzuki]

I hope that you will think about returning to education..we definitely need brothers like you IN the classroom. Please understand that some things that you plant in the minds of children don't take root for a year or so..Therefore my 8th grade students and older come back to Thank Me and engage in dialogue..the 5th/6th grade students don't understand..right away...

[bygINCpresents]

i taught for a year after that troubling episode. changed schools though. coached college athletics the last 5 yrs. don't know about being in the classroom everyday. wouldn't mind creating a program where the kids come to me to talk about the problems at school outside the textbooks. most teacher's are way to busy to give the kid's lives the schooling so many can't get anywhere but school.

[gravelin08]

Have you ever read "Summerhill" by A.S. Neill? If you haven't, you must read this book. We need this kind of education for kids...helping them discover who they uniquely are and taking themselves to the world. You've got it. I hope you can build something like this in your own way. Summerhill's still around. They have website summerhillschool. It's in UK.

[bygINCpresents]

you may the second or third person to mention that book to me. actually think i emailed someone from the school with a link to these videos.

[328823]

I must start with thank you

that said i was a touch of j but not aginst my elders but to class mates it took years for me to finaly get it and im still getting it but as long as i wake i will get more:)

again it was so painfuly true to our daily life

we need more of this THANK YOU

[bygINCpresents]

you've got to make a vid about your times back then or write a couple words or something. if you make a vid, i'll keep it private if you wish. seems you've moved out of that state. your thoughts can help someone else though... where was home then?

[328823]

junior high la kicked out of four schools

the first private then public all the way to southcentral autobaun

[328823]

i think i might i have always wanted to write a book about my life it moves from LA to CHI to ATL where i now live

it has been a wild ride

[bygINCpresents]

don't think about it anymore. start writing. doesn't take much. one paragraph each day. some days more. the words will suck for the next year but keep working. writing is rewriting, right? stories must come out to be dealt with in full.

[bygINCpresents]

when you getting started? don't take much. one paragraph a day. some days you'll pen more. after six months, you may have something. the rest is rewriting... writing IS rewriting. frustrating but true. just get the stories out. worry about quality later. enough people will be around to help with that part.

[dleifyamjr]

I can not begin to say how wonderful this video was to me. I admire your naration skills. It came together so well that your images would not even be needed. But they were as well very well put together. I like many others look forward to more.

Thank you

[bygINCpresents]

you like putting vids together. what program do you use? i want to move from pictures exclusively to video and back and forth but can't figure out how to save and incorporate internet vids. any suggestions?

[dleifyamjr]

I use Pinnacle studio plus v11. It is great for do video editing and text overlays. But getting and using internet video is still out of my reach. Not sure how to get it downloaded. If I find a way you will be first on my list to let know.

[AbbottSupreme]

Peace!!well done bro!!!great delivery...ty 4 sharing..bless..one

[Deezil7]

Man i loved them all, Football,basketball,baseball,I­ ran track in high school, volleyball.. its didnt matter the sport I just loved competition.

[bygINCpresents]

sports illustrated wrote that some black athletes get a free pass in the hood. that the thugs wanted us to succeed so they left us alone. or maybe we were at practice all the time when we would've been in the park fighting. you feel you got a free pass, d? added dap 'cause you could ball better than 'em? ever felt isolated from your boys 'cause you knew what the hell you were doing?

[Deezil7]

I dont like hearing that from Sports Ill. but in a sense, there is SOME truth to it. I wasnt a superstar athlete, just better than average. I feel brothas tend to look up the Great athletes in the hood and kinda put them up on a pedistal a lil bit, but by no means is it a free pass...You still have all the struggles everyone else face and a little extra pressure.

[bygINCpresents]

the article said superstar athletes are not forced to be part of the gang. free pass that way. most ballers in any hood have to survive, superstar status or not. i wanna hear those stories, your stories. guys who had it together back then and went on. growing up, seemed like a brah had to go to jail just to have time to read and think 'bout life holistically.

like we couldn't do it on the grind, outside the joint. i tried all thru high school. i'm'a show the process on youtube.

[Deezil7]

Man i did good in high school, Applied to a Electronics school, got a partial scholarship,graduated, and I started my career in computers by the time i was 18 making about 30K, bought my first house at 22...etc.. etc.. Black people are breaking the sterotype... but just like a revolution...WE WILL NOT BE TELEVISED!

[Nicegirl74]

This is always great to hear. Just need to find a way to make black boys have hope from an early age and higher expectations of what is possible in their lives to stop more of them fulfilling the stereotype.

[Nicegirl74]

Sorry, just re-read that and realised I made it sound as if I thought it was easy. I just mean that to succeed our children have to believe the world is theirs. The reality of their surroundings, home lives and society's hostility towards often them rob them of that childhood hope.

[bygINCpresents]

that's why i mention mr. hope in this story. i look back on my life and see divine interference. the guy's name was HOPE... it's easy to believe when you can do something. every child must figure out something they are the best at. that brings more hope than anything. how can anyone like anything if they are struggling or failing all the time? gotta find something to be good at. it starts with goodness.

[bygINCpresents]

what did you see the boys doing in your area? you mentioned boarding school. what about the brothas there? were they trying to to be the stereotype when it suited them? were they running away from it negatively or towards some positive definition too few know?

[Nicegirl74]

There was one black guy in my year group at uni and I distinctly remember that I would try to catch his eye to nod or smile (as I was always raised to do on seeing black folk) and he would never meet my eye. I felt as if the two of us were trying not to draw attention to ourselves by speaking to each other.

[bygINCpresents]

seen that too. at one point i couldn't look at brothas in brooklyn. thought it was too aggressive. maybe my fear was the fears of the urban jungle and not a black thing. happened when went back there after a semester at college, i got used to looking up and saying "hello" to people. new yorkers would give me the harshest looks when i met their eyes. funny place.

[Nicegirl74]

The boys in my family haven't really succeeded materially. They chose to stay in the same town even when unemployment is high. I used to think they lived immature lives - drinking etc. Now I realise what we girls lost in part. In every situation they are black men, for all that can mean and as they stayed friends they never have to hide or pretend.

[bygINCpresents]

i don't quite understand what this means: "In every situation they are black men, for all that can mean and as they stayed friends they never have to hide or pretend." explain. you can email me if you need more than 500 characters.

[Deezil7]

cont.. and yes i got teased for doing homework/getting As on my report card. I feel I got added dap cause i was good at sports.. cause in the class room people didnt know me, but in gym class I always made friends.

[Nicegirl74]

I'm starting to see that in many ways girls have an easier road.

[bygINCpresents]

girls have the weight of the male world, especially if you start developing physically. i remember the way grown men looked at adolescent girls. dangerous. attention can be a dangerous thing when you don't know what it can mean. i never felt those stares. that's an extra. and the whole notion of beauty. that's gotta mess with ya'll. all we have to do is be good and sports or smart and we get respect no matter what we look like. ya'll get killed for those too.

[Deezil7]

Great vid man, I went through a similar school environment and I was kinda like you, a quiet nerd and athletic. VERY CLEVER STORY and Well narrated.

[bygINCpresents]

it's not over. there's more story to come. come back in the next week or so. i'm'a keep going, trying to document those troubling adolescent years. middle and high school. trying to show how one black boy became a man in america thru it all... what sport did you play?

[volantera]

I was the class clown/nerd/artist. Did so well on tests that the teacher would add extra tough questions just to stump me. I was Mr. Gordon's favorite but didn't appreciate it because school was just a chore to tolerate until I could go home and play Nintendo. I took the female teachers less seriously than the male because they seemed more hysterical and appeared to have a need to be liked by us more. In other words, they were easy to read and dismiss while the males were more compelling

[bygINCpresents]

i simultaneously needed the female teacher's attention yet repelled them b/c they were black and female and i hadn't come to grips with black woman. i needed stability from the males. i tried to make all authority happy. school did what my home should have. school and soccer. that was it for years. i was not the clown but i envied them.

[volantera]

Yes, the issue of the feminine. That is something we all have to deal with. It cuts across all racial barriers, doesn't it?

Looking back, I see my clownish antics as the best I could do at the time. I had inherited a doubting and irreverent character from who knows where. I did not understand what I was doing, it was pure instinct, but it served me well until I had the wits to figure something out for myself. I think masculine role models are still lacking to this day.

[bygINCpresents]

my ambivalence towards women stayed for a while. could not deal with them until i figured out my mother and our history. as for males, i could gain respect thru athletic dominance. and i was smarter than most. they left me alone. i stayed quiet with most people. no human relationship until that flawed reality no longer served me. where are you with males these days? still searching for a figure?

[volantera]

Yes, I "figured" out my mother as well although I'm pretty sure not in the same way you have.

I was careful to say "masculine" role models rather than male. There are plenty of male role models around but are they men in the higher sense of the word? This higher sense is something that is no longer taken seriously and that's a problem.

[feeevah]

talk about intense. i've never had a black teacher. maybe a substitute for day or so, but nothing more. that's crazy now that i look back on it. i would've appreciated the wisdom that the old man spoke on. building on that knowledge of self at an early age is key.

[bygINCpresents]

the world opens up in middle school. you're not a kid anymore. you see the world for what it is sometimes and it ain't pretty. the rest become choices. i began seeing that and will share further realizations from back then in the next few weeks... no black teachers from grade 1-12? wow. i wonder how common that is. probably more than we know.

[feeevah]

i should probably correct myself. from grade 4 onward i had no black teachers. that's when my home country became north american. i wasn't born in this country. being young, i only saw the material things and a different way of life. where a kid could pretty much do whatever the hell they wanted. i wouldn't understand the complications until later on in life. i'm not saying that i hate where i am now.

[leslied81]

I remember finding crack viles as a first grader with my older brother...I will never forget that day. So sad that our kids have to see such things, this is why I want to be so successful to protect my kids from such a horrible scenery! GREAT VIDEO...Im subscribing!

[bygINCpresents]

a lot of kids no matter the color see so much more. your success will not guarantee your kid's protection, but i understand what you mean. be successful to give your kids a living example of what's possible. that's how to smoke out the vile crack from our communities.

[xcurvyliciousx]

Great vid, I really enjoyed it.

[bygINCpresents]

did it remind you of anything around that time of your life?

[xcurvyliciousx]

I think it was pretty spot on for everyone, we all watched those things happen even if we may not have experienced them ourselves.

I really enjoyed the story telling and the imagery that went along with it. It was like watching someone read a really good book.

[bygINCpresents]

i'm trying to get better at the story telling. getting tired of photos. wanna start using moving images from youtube but haven't figured out how to download yet. seems time consuming to go through all the footage.

[oandjshow]

Excellent video, keep putting up more great videos like this.

[bygINCpresents]

'preciate the kind words. i'll keep posting as long as the stories and memories keep coming.

[kdatwate]

you have a gifted and creative mind. this is really good.

[bygINCpresents]

you came by... you actually came to to watch. thanks... to you and the soon-to-be one.

[dmaryland]

great piece 5 stars