WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:14.620 Since the beginning of man's recorded history on this planet, he has made his pilgrimage 2 00:00:14.620 --> 00:00:21.360 through time and through space with both his effort and his essence centered around eternity. 3 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:29.720 Eternity for man is that level of achievement and interaction where his human acts and deeds 4 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:36.240 are not only conceived but they are passed on in orderly progression from one generation 5 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:37.340 to the next. 6 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:43.900 Whatever the accomplishments, whatever the heights of glory, whatever the failures and 7 00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:50.380 misgivings of any culture, they are measured by the trials and the triumphs of those who 8 00:00:50.380 --> 00:00:54.840 inherit the legacies of the past and test them in the future. 9 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:06.580 To the un-gifted at land, oh what a lovely precious dream. 10 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:19.100 To the un-gifted at land, open your heart to what I give. 11 00:01:19.100 --> 00:01:34.760 In the whole world you know, there's a billion more that go to market. 12 00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:41.780 Black youth, the purpose and promise for black community building. 13 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:04.280 For any culture, the tests come from the kinds of investments that are made by the 14 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:06.480 adult population for its young. 15 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:13.100 The essence of the black experience is being strengthened and passed on through today's 16 00:02:13.100 --> 00:02:13.860 black youth. 17 00:02:14.860 --> 00:02:21.400 We see this in the young blacks who populate our urban communities, reaching, straining, 18 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:28.320 striving to overcome the odds of their ghetto lives and the hardships suffered by their 19 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:30.440 parents and other black adults. 20 00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:38.060 To these black youths struggling with educational processes, the barriers to self-sustaining 21 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:42.660 knowledge may appear very steep but not insurmountable. 22 00:02:43.540 --> 00:02:48.940 Black youth grapple and deal with the realities of black community living at the level of 23 00:02:48.940 --> 00:02:50.640 economics and politics. 24 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:57.540 They have inherited the drawbacks and the pitfalls that result from the absence of real 25 00:02:57.540 --> 00:03:00.880 financial and political independence in their areas. 26 00:03:01.660 --> 00:03:07.780 But they have also inherited the fortitude from their forebears to test and challenge 27 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:14.660 all existing and all probable levels of power and authority in search of their own power 28 00:03:14.660 --> 00:03:15.920 and authority. 29 00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:22.920 Black youths enter manpower centers and apply for positions that will provide them with 30 00:03:22.920 --> 00:03:29.680 extra skills and training, as well as money so direly needed in their homes and families. 31 00:03:30.880 --> 00:03:36.460 Other black teenagers sign up with the Neighborhood Youth Corps for work that will help them in 32 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:37.640 career development. 33 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:44.700 Still others seek employment through college work-study programs, performing clerical duties 34 00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:48.080 or assisting in direct community services. 35 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:55.740 Important to the entire scope of black youth involvement is the reality of peer relationships. 36 00:03:56.880 --> 00:04:02.580 Employed youths and those still in school lend a hand to those of their group who have 37 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:09.800 lost faith in and abandoned what is commonly accepted as the normal channels of advancement 38 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:11.120 and stability. 39 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:17.680 Black youth help those of their own generation who have dropped out, who have dropped out 40 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:23.280 of school, out of self, out of society, and out of sight. 41 00:04:24.380 --> 00:04:29.720 The cords of our cultural community are strong enough to support young blacks' involvement 42 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:30.700 with each other. 43 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:36.360 Whether they are college students at Malcolm X Community College or members of the Black 44 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:41.680 Panthers or the Black Peasstone Nation, in the community of the young and the black, 45 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:48.100 there is an understanding, the human understanding that there are no differences in aspirations 46 00:04:48.100 --> 00:04:56.260 and frustrations, only differences in individual situations, opportunity, timing, and luck. 47 00:04:56.900 --> 00:05:03.420 The purpose of black men throughout the historical experience has been to carve out, affirm, 48 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:11.360 politicize, and pass on that special niche which was and still is our own claim and human 49 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:15.420 right to self-preservation and self-determination. 50 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:21.660 As black youth take up the tattered banners of those who have fought for the fulfillment 51 00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:28.460 of dreams and promises, they also find themselves in the midst of an almost worldwide revolt 52 00:05:28.460 --> 00:05:34.600 of youths, a revolt against systems, codes, tactics, and techniques. 53 00:05:35.640 --> 00:05:41.260 The major point of departure between the young of other cultures and the young of black culture 54 00:05:41.260 --> 00:05:46.720 is a revolutionary arousal and assertion of a black identity. 55 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:53.880 The search and the insistence for broader participation in the rapidly advancing technologies 56 00:05:53.880 --> 00:06:00.540 have been coupled with the urgency and the pride of the quest for cultural exposure and 57 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:05.500 its relationship to everything that makes up the entire black experience. 58 00:06:06.700 --> 00:06:12.080 Young black artists communicate the black expression on murals of brick and mortar. 59 00:06:12.880 --> 00:06:18.500 Black students incorporate black cultural life into regular school and community life, 60 00:06:19.340 --> 00:06:23.820 viewing not one aspect of their lives as separate from the other. 61 00:06:24.500 --> 00:06:27.480 This is the essence of black community living. 62 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:34.280 One hand linked directly to the past, the other reaching for the future. 63 00:06:35.520 --> 00:06:38.020 Black hands reach out for involvement. 64 00:06:38.780 --> 00:06:42.780 They reach out in massive black voter registration drives. 65 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:49.320 Young black hands are in eager pursuit of career training like that provided by the 66 00:06:49.320 --> 00:06:51.420 companies of the Bell System. 67 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:55.800 Young black hands stretching for the future. 68 00:06:56.660 --> 00:07:02.560 And as these young black hands and these young black minds make the qualitative leap from 69 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.460 the pilgrimage of their fathers, as they surge toward the goals of self-realization, 70 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:15.400 we must understand their mission as one that has been underwritten and sealed by our one 71 00:07:15.400 --> 00:07:18.000 overriding purpose, liberation. 72 00:07:19.140 --> 00:07:27.620 We must embrace, encourage, direct, assist, and support our young, gifted, and black community 73 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:39.300 as our black youth give evidence, life, vitality, and substance to the promise of a people bound for freedom.