Young Black Men

A news item in the local paper caught my eye…an 18-year-old student at Edmond Memorial High is charged with aggravated assault and battery after fracturing the skull and jaw of a 15-year-old student in the school restroom. The older kid is black, weighs 270 pounds, plays football and identifies himself as a “Rolling 60s” Crip. The younger kid has a Mexican surname, weighs 155 pounds.

[Police reported Fields admitted hitting and stomping the other student, saying Sanchez used a racial slur and “got what he deserved.”

Police reported Fields also said “this is what you get when you mess” with someone “from the hood.” Police reported Fields repeatedly described himself as a “Rolling 60s” gang member.

Witnesses said the assault began because someone in the bathroom was singing a rap song, which has the slur in it, police reported.]

So, the Mexican kid may or may not have been the one singing. Details are sketchy on that. Regardless, Fields is an idiot. And a dangerous one at that. Who knows what situation he will misperceive next, there’s already many packed into this little scenario. First, mistakenly assuming he was the personal recipient of a racial slur and possibly mistaking who made it, then thinking an acceptable response to that would be breaking someone’s skull and jaw. This is a stoopid and dangerous individual. How should we as a society try to fix this? Can this young man be rehabilitated, taught to be more patient before reacting with his fists, taught more appropriate responses? Sure he can, but the chances are not likely in our current system. He will be given a year in prison where he’ll really learn the dope on how to be a career criminal – why bother with a trial, he already confessed to the crime.

Another question is why would a football player be so eager to claim gang membership? This is Oklahoma, football is serious business here, and a 270-pound defensive lineman on the MaxPreps list has a future. At one time this boy was ranked 25 in the state in his position. Did the gang influence outweigh the football influence?

So, what’s up with the Rolling 60s Crips – who the hell are they and why are they in an Oklahoma City suburb? Wickipedia: “According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Rollin’ 60s is ‘the largest black criminal street gang in the city of Los Angeles with between 2400-4500 members just in LA…Gang activities include pre-meditated murder, bank robberies, rape, drug trafficking, carjacking, assault and vandalism.’”

Did this idiot not realize he had a future?

Why the hell are they here, in the heartland – we already have tornadoes, snow blizzards, flooding, out-of-control grass fires, dust storms, ice storms that make trees explode, an earthquake that shook my house, temps that range from below zero to over 100 – do we really need the gang problem, too?

So, how did the Crips become an organization with 35,000 members in multiple subsets (over 800 by 1999)? The top four states with the highest estimated numbers of members are: California, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re freaking Crip-Central? This is sort of funny if it weren’t so damn tragic. Missouri – the Ozark mountains, home of the hillbillies? Oklahoma – nothing here but plains grasses, blackjack scrub, cows, and oil wells drilling here and there. Wow. Why have we fallen prey to a foreign invading sweep of gang culture? (Trust me, California and Oklahoma are like foreign countries to each other!) Why does anyone succumb?

According to the Wikipedia article on the Crips, two guys joined their little street gangs in 1969 to fight other little street gangs. They became known as the Crips, a reference to the young age of 17 of the members (cribs) that morphed into crips, short for cripples, when some started carrying canes to display their pimp status. But, this is the line that makes me see red in the article.

“Gang activity in South Central Los Angeles has its roots in a variety of factors dating back to the 1950s and 60s, including post-WWII economic decline leading to joblessness and poverty, racial segregation leading to the formation of black “street clubs” by young African American men who were excluded from organizations such as the Boy Scouts, and the waning of black nationalist organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Black Power Movement.”

The Boy Scouts refused to let black young men join? Really? And the Black Panthers were waning in 1969? Hmmm. Why would they name the BSA, the only one named mind you, for widespread racism?

This was written by someone who has no idea how BSA works. The BSA is not a top-down organization, in which a group of men sit on high and make decisions how things are going to happen in the thousands of little packs and troops all over the nation and world. No, it’s the greatest, largest mobilization of community volunteers the world has ever seen. Packs and troops are run by volunteer dads and moms, who commit their time and energy to delivering a program in their neighborhood. The parents choose whether they will work to ensure a certain experience for their children, and they are not paid one dime. Every unit reflects the cultural make-up of its community. You would be shocked to know how few paid positions there are in the BSA. And those guys concern themselves with background checks and training of all the volunteers, raising money, and moving resources to the local units.

Yes, there are strict, tough troops with strict, tough dads running the show, with military ties. They camp a lot, engage in high-adventure experiences. There are soft, laid-back troops, who focus on merit badges like Reading. All sorts of crews or explorer posts that focus on a future profession or hobby: law enforcement posts sponsored by police departments, scuba diving venture crews, etc. The typical BSA unit today is sponsored by the Mormon church, but executed by the parents in the neighborhood (although, there are a lot of Methodist church-sponsored units). Through ongoing training of the adults, a strong, vital unit can be maintained for years.

Little Johnny’s dad, Scoutmaster of Hoolaboolah, may have been guilty of racism in 1969, probably was. But, that may not be the official stance of the BSA, and the BSA cannot control what every volunteer does and says. Let’s look closer at black involvement in scouting.

The first black troop was formed in 1911 in North Carolina. (BTW, the BSA was not officially chartered by the U.S. Congress until 1916, so this troop probably applied for a charter from England. The Boy Scouts of America was just getting started in 1910.) By 1926, there were 5000 black scouts in 250 all-black troops (segregation was not the fault of BSA). By the 1960s, a committee on inter-racial service became Urban Relationship Service, working to establish units for inner-city children of all races. According to this article found on a website for the African American Registry, “Programs targeting gangs were unexpectedly successful, and in many cities as many as 25% of boys living in housing projects were enrolled in the Scouts, many former gang members.” Of course, units in the north were integrated, most of those in the south were segregated. After the Civil Rights Act, all units became integrated except those that chose to remain all black. (And I have a problem with that actually, it’s called reverse discrimination. However, I am sensitive to the needs of individual communities and their methods to achieve their goals. A BSA unit ONLY reflects the composition and commitment of the individuals in its community.)

The greatest program for young men in the history of the world is available to all young men. Oh, thank God. The only thing you need is volunteer parents to run the unit. However…even that is changing today in high-need areas. Yes, units are sprouting up all over for the sons of homeless families and sons of incarcerated single mothers, all conceived and executed by VOLUNTEERS who are not the parents. God bless those citizens providing this service for the future of our nation. Tears well in my eyes looking at the pictures and videos of little boys given blue shirts, yellow kerchiefs and a code to try to live by, with or without their compromised parents.

So, how can someone carelessly claim the BSA excluded black youth and furthermore, name the BSA as a CAUSE of the rise of gangs, and how can the rest of us let that sort of statement pass? Did you know some scout jamborees were raided by Ku Klux Klan? The scope of this lie is absolutely breathtaking. They not only included black boys, but bared the brunt of radical crazies because of it.

What about advancement, were black scouts blocked from achieving high ranks? Let’s talk about Eagles, those young men who defy the odds (less than 2% rise to this top rank). Do you know what it takes to earn the Eagle rank? The young men who do this are special, there is something inside of them driving them forward with positive attitude. It would take too long to explain all the 21 individual merit badges with escalating pre-requisites in specific areas, the numerous pieces of each rank building toward the next, endless boards of review and scoutmaster conferences, and the Eagle Service Project itself, omg, which has to be approved by several committees, volunteers recruited, funds raised or solicited, do the dumb project, the work evaluated, then all the paperwork before, during, and after. At every step is a dad or mom volunteer checking quality, character and intent before signing off. Some young men do this incredible thing as young as 14, however most are 17. This is not easy, and I propose that most American adults could not do this. Eagles go on to win Nobel Peace Prizes and fly spaceships to the moon. They will naturally assume roles of leading this nation.

The first black Eagle was probably Edgar Cunningham in 1926 (uh, that was 43 years before the Crips formed), and the reasons this is uncertain are because several young black men eagled at that time and BSA does not ask ethnicity on Eagle rank applications.

There was Dr. Frank “Tick” Coleman, of Washington, DC, eagling in 1927, who went into education and counseling. Tick said “If we can get young men, young boys into scouting, it might help them get off the streets with these guns.” And you know an Eagle doesn’t just talk, they do. He dedicated many years to bringing scouting to underprivileged youth. He passed away in 2008, but a prestigious award is still given annually in his name by the BSA to its volunteer scouters who serve underprivileged youth. He said “I always wanted to make a difference.”

And what about Percy Ellis Sullivan, a 1936 Eagle out of San Antonio who went on to become a legend, first as a Tuskegee Airman then a Civil Rights lawyer. He said, “I dreamed that I could go anywhere in the Boy Scouts.”

Then there’s Chuck Smith, retired president and CEO of AT&T West, an Eagle from inner-city LA. “Clearly I wouldn’t have been president and CEO of a Fortune 500 company if it were not for this great movement of ours. I attribute every day of my success to it,” he said.

And check out Guy Bluford. While the Crips were forming in LA, he was busy getting a bunch of college degrees and flying planes for the Air Force, which would all lead to being the first African American in space. Of course he was an Eagle. He brought back the Challenger flag to a scout troop in Colorado.

Earl G. Graves, vice president of the BSA board, founder and publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, and an Eagle, said “The generation now being shaped by scouting will be strengthened by deserved self-confidence and molded with its own history of kindness, bravery, honesty, and its all-out pursuit of excellence.”

I dare you to say that the BSA excluded black youth causing a rise in gangs to the faces of these Eagle Scouts.

The answer is clear to me. If you want to make this a better world (in which young black men do not crush the skulls of young Hispanic men in high school bathrooms), get out your checkbook and donate some money to the Boy Scouts of America. I looked, there is no scout unit in Arcadia, the Edmond community where the big-wrecking-ball football player/ Rollin’ 60s Crip dude lives.



Earl Graves, magazine publisher...Eagle.



Guy Bluford, first African American in space...Eagle.



Chuck Smith, business titan...Eagle.



Percy Ellis Sullivan, Tuskegee Airman, famous Civil Rights lawyer...Eagle



Tick Coleman, mentoring football players into his 90s...Eagle.

Look at that crackerjack on the far right. Isn’t he the cat’s pajamas? I know a Senior Patrol Leader when I see one, and it’s not by the color of their skin. What is that young man going to be when he grows up? Oh my lord, anything he wants to be!