Summer Youth focus – Change Lives, Save Lives

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
You know summer is here when the roar of dirt bikes tear up and down the block; with Biggie, Pop Smoke, Burna Boy, Frankie Beverly etc; with thumping bass blaring out of open car windows. Then there are police sirens, yelling, and the loud laughter. With the relief of warmer months comes the imagery of conspicuously under-employment and resulting poverty.
“I am Shannon Briggs. I’m a grown man, a two-time heavyweight champion of the world. I was born and raised in Brownsville. I’m a 52-year-old man, but I cried like a baby when I came back last week.”

As he prepares to set up the Brownsville Boxing Academy on Pitkin Avenue, boxer Briggs told Our Time Press, “It is worse than I thought. I woke up this morning, and I literally had tears running down my face. The kids have lost their innocence. There is no respect because it’s kids having kids. It’s what they see on television, on their phones, and in the music. I’m tough as nails, and this broke my heart.

On my last visit here, it was winter. It was cold, but it is hotter now. It is horrific to see so many people outside with nothing to do, walking up and down the street, day and night. I have never seen anything like this.”

Wanting to be proactive before the summer hits in full, anti-violence organizations such as Stop The Killing (STK), and individual community activists are determined to lessen the gun and knife statistics.

Weekly, members of the Stop The Killing campaign march through Bed Stuy chanting “Who’s going to stop the killing?” “We are!”
STK second chair Majid Gadson told Our Time Press, “The December 12th Movement felt duty bound to address our youth killing each other… We are approaching our third year of agitating, educating, and organizing in Bedford Stuyvesant. Our communities are plagued with poor conditions, and that leads to poor decisions. Political education is needed to help us identify contradictions that are not in our interest.”

The youth, Gadson said, are subjected to a steady diet of harmful policies and ideologies. “This culture of violence is the problem. We must replace it with a culture of Black power and Black love. We must understand that only we can save ourselves. That means we have to be willing to do the work and be consistent. As summer approaches we need our people in the streets. They can’t sit on the sidelines, they have to get active, and get involved. No more Black blood in our streets.”

The Brooklyn-raised Rev. Herbert Daughtry told Our Time Press, “I think Mayor Eric Adams is doing the best he can in the light of other issues he has to deal with, primarily the asylum-seekers. The young people need long-term sustainable projects to get them employment.
“The city, corporate America, and all of us have our part to play. There’s no way there’s going to be peace in the city with them making billions; when thousands of young people are unemployed. It is a situation primed for trouble.

“The Mayor needs to convene city leaders, top officials, and corporate America to lay out a plan including summer programs, summer teaching, and trips with significant points of interest to give them exposure. We need the top officials called by the mayor himself to have educators and top leaders identify where the resources are. There is enough energy and creative genius to address the needs of our young people.”
Mayor Eric Adams did not respond to the Our Time Press request for a statement by press time.

World champ Briggs told Our Time Press that some of the youth who came into the gym were in such obvious need that he took them to buy clothes and sneakers, “and I don’t even have it like that, but I had to. I bought them pizza every day because they were so hungry.
“Some of these kids don’t have baths. They don’t have phones. They don’t have food. It’s 2024. They say they are living with their sister or their sister’s boyfriend. There’s a lot of predators out here. I am blown away by how much these kids 7 and 8 know about sex. Brownsville is ground zero.

“I haven’t seen families like husbands and wives. They are living with friends, out at 12 o’clock.”
Making a direct plea to Mayor Eric Adams through the paper, Briggs said:
“Help us. They need it more than anybody I have ever seen in my lifetime, and I have traveled the world. But, being in Brownsville this last week with a little bit of sun, has changed them– it’s amazing how many kids are just lost. They don’t have anything. They don’t have a home. They don’t have food. Twenty-five, 30 kids are coming to the gym that’s not even open yet. They just want to come and sit down, and listen. They say ‘Yes Sir,’ ‘No, Sir,’ ‘Yes, Champ
“It was a dream all my life for the community, for the youth.”

Local businessman and activist Basir Ceylon Jones Felder told the paper, “In Brooklyn, you can see gentrification happening at a high rate. If you go to Nostrand Avenue you can see the effects of it and how it’s hurting our people. It affects the youth because there aren’t any resources the way they used to be, and a lot of the elders are stepping down or passing. The solution is getting those resources, and we’re teaching them about self-determination. With the violence, you can’t just stop it–you’ve got to meet them where they are. If you try to put them somewhere they are not accustomed to, they’re going to fight it. Instead, give them tools and have them understand the distinctions of what’s what. Tools like emotional intelligence, social training, and having mental health core groups.”

Jones said he intended to increase his efforts to be a part of the solution, including working closer with the elders in the community, and city leaders and politicians, “those who sit in the Council, and in position where they can advocate for change. We need to hold them responsible.”

Are we winning?
“No, we’re not. But, we’re not losing,” said Jones succinctly. I’m hopeful. We are in transition and when you’re in transition there’s no win or loss. It’s about learning.”