The Ties That Bind Us: Recapturing the African-American Community from Inside Out

By Jimmy D. McCamey Jr. Ph.D.

Writing a book can never be something that just happens. It takes time, dedication, and persistence to complete such a huge task. Being a full-time employee, business owner, father, uncle, mentor, friend, and so many other things to many, it would have not been possible to complete this task without the support of my family, friends, colleagues, and employees at the number of agencies, universities, and colleges I was afforded an opportunity to work with over the years. Each of you continued to inspire my writings and study of politics, social justice, community, education, African-American culture, and poverty issues. Finally, I give a special thanks to my two sons, Jimmy Dawson McCamey III and Jamey Lawson McCamey, who inspired me to write about black boys, black families, and the black community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524546502

Jimmy D. McCamey Jr. Ph.D.

Dr. Jimmy D. McCamey Jr. has over twenty years of experience in higher education, clinical social work practice, mental health counseling, education consultation, assessment, and treatment of children, adolescents, adults, and families. Dr. McCamey has over two decades of leadership and management experience in residential treatment, psychiatric and community-based treatment facilities, and higher education. In addition to providing mental health counseling and supervision for master-level clinicians, Dr. McCamey has taught undergraduate and graduate social work, psychology, and mental health counseling for over fifteen years. Dr. McCamey is a former faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) and is currently a tenured associate professor of social work and mental health counseling at Fort Valley State University (FVSU). Dr. McCamey has published extensively in the area of mental health, poverty, social welfare, academic achievement, and African-American men and women, to name a few. Dr. McCamey is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), licensed professional counselor (LPC), and a diplomate in clinical social work (DCSW)—all by examination. He is also state certified (GA) as a DUI clinical evaluator, DUI treatment provider, and DUI and driver improvement school director/owner/instructor. He is certified for PRIME for Life (PRI-Version 9), PRIME Solutions (Version 1.0-ASAM Substance Abuse Treatment) and Driving Educators of Georgia (DEOG). Dr. McCamey is a long-standing member of the National Association of Social Work (NAWS).

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Copyright © 2016 by Jimmy D. McCamey, Jr., Ph.D.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-4651-9

      eBook         978-1-5245-4650-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 10/24/2016

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgment

Introduction

1. Successful Black Boys Equal Successful Black Men

2. Family Plus Educational Involvement May Equal Academic Achievement

3. Being Poor can Impact Your Child’s Education

4. How Your Children Feel about Themselves May Impact Their Grades

5. Increased Juvenile Crime and Differential Treatment of African-American Youth

6. A Social Constructive Approach to Learning Parents and Teachers Need to Know

7. Self-Help and Economic Empowerment

8. Strengths of the African-American Family

9. The Long Journey from Incarceration to Employment for Black Men

10. Deconstructing Negative Views of the Black Family

11. Strengths of Poor African-American Families

12. The Black Community Under Siege Inside and Out: A Solution-Focused Approach

13. Why Race Matters at the Voting Booth

Summary

Selected Bibliography

About the Author

Preface

This book may not be welcomed by some but may be respected by many. I placed a considerable amount of effort to present this book to an audience who may have a deep appreciation for diversity and who are open to what can happen when African-American people unite, as well as for an audience who are not quite at the point of appreciating diversity. More specifically, I wrote this book for an audience who are seeking to appreciate and respect the challenges faced by black boys, black men, and black families in America. I wrote this book to educate some, to remind others, and to reframe the discussion about black boys, black men, and black families. I also wrote this book to help convince a few that the answer to overcoming the struggles faced by black America lies in the minds, hearts, and souls of black folk.

I wrote to the young black parents who have young black boys and the teachers and educators who are held responsible for educating black boys and to the judges and attorneys and the entire juvenile and adult criminal justice system to give the young black boys an opportunity to claim their greatness. Last but not least, I wrote this book for poor families across this great nation that have to raise young black boys during this difficult time in America, and for the parents who have defied the odds and raised young black boys to become successful men. I salute you and challenge you to join the cause to help other families who could use your support and guidance.

Acknowledgment

Writing a book can never be something that just happens; it takes time, dedication, and persistence to complete such a huge task. Being a full-time employee, business owner, father, uncle, mentor, friend, and so many other things to many, it would not have been possible to complete this task without the support of my family, friends, colleagues, and employees at the agencies, universities, and colleges I was afforded an opportunity to work with over the years. Each of you continued to inspire my writings and my study of politics, social justice, community, education, African-American culture, and poverty issues. Finally, I give special thanks to my two sons, Jimmy Dawson McCamey III and Jamey Lawson McCamey, who inspired me to write about black boys, black families, and the black community.

Introduction

The debate continues well into the twenty-first century as to who is to be blamed for the African-American plight and today’s social ills as it relates to the African-American community. Regardless of who is to be blamed, it is up to the African-American community to stand up, unite, and address the social ills that plague the community. Today, more critical than ever, the African-American community must have a serious dialogue about who’s truly the enemy of the African-American community. This succinct book will challenge the notion that mainstream America is fully responsible for black community challenges and will evoke many emotions and critics that often fail to self-empower African-Americans to take control of their own destiny and to spend less time focusing on mistreatment from mainstream America and more time on becoming self-sufficient and working in collaboration with other African-Americans in addressing the plight of the African-American community.

Historically, mainstream America has lynched, terrorized, and deprived African-Americans of an equal and fair education, housing, and economic mobility and water-hosed blacks in the good ole South. It is well-documented that blacks were enslaved and oppressed for hundreds of years and many generations, which are clearly documented in the history of the life and struggles of the African-American community. It is also apparently clear that the enslavement of Africans and African-American people as well as the violation of African-Americans’ civil rights have a long-standing impact on the overall success of current African-American communities, such as family wealth and social capital, due to the unfair treatment and social structures of racism, discrimination, oppression, and classism that created the foundation of America’s uneven playing field.

Today, many of the racist rhetoric, racial overtones, and oppressive themes of the tragic and horrific treatment of African-Americans continue to exist well into the twenty-first century. However, moving forward with the same trajectory of focusing on the unfair treatment from mainstream America has not proven to curb the cycle of disorganization, apathy, poverty, criminality, and shame many African-American communities experience throughout this nation. Not only have the African-American community spent too much time focusing on unfair treatment of blacks by mainstream America—over the past several decades, African-Americans may have developed a psychological mind-set of hopelessness, envy, disconnectedness, and apathy and have abandoned the rich history of self-help, which was a hallmark of the African-American community. Over the course of time, African-American people have responded to different descriptions that have categorized the African-American race and community. For example, African-Americans have been called African-Americans, negro, nigga, colored, and black-American among other things.

This succinct book has thirteen important sections of focus that may serve to enhance the quality of life for the black community. The aforementioned subtitles are as follows:

1. Successful Black Boys Equal Successful Black Men

2. Family Plus Educational Involvement May Equal Academic Achievement

3. Being Poor can Impact Your Child’s Education

4. How Your Children Feel about Themselves May Impact Their Grades

5. Increased Juvenile Crime and Differential Treatment of African-American Youth

6. A Social Constructive Approach to Learning Parents and Teachers Need to Know

7. Self-Help and Economic Empowerment.

8. Strengths of the African-American Family

9. The Long Journey from Incarceration to Employment for Black Men

10. Deconstructing Negative Views of the Black Family

11. Strengths of African-Americans and Poor Families

12. The Black Community Under Siege Inside and Out: A Solution-Focused Approach

13. Why Race Matters at the Voting Booth

It is clear that blaming mainstream America has offered little assistance to improving the quality of life for African-American folk in America. African-Americans can no longer wait on mainstream America to save the African-American community; African-American people must take some degree of responsibility for recapturing the positive African-American experience through economic mobility, political and community action, education, self-help, self-love, and solution building to meet the challenges faced by the African-American community.

1

Successful Black Boys Equal Successful Black Men

The black community was historically bound by community kinship and black male leadership. Black men were clearly seen as providers—the source of strength and discipline and protection for the black family. The twenty-first-century black family in general has changed tremendously and has often lacked the presence of a father, a father figure, or a black male role model in the home. We have all concurred that the unfair criminal justice system has been a huge contributing factor to the entrapment and, to some degree, enslavement of hundreds, thousands, and millions of black boys and black men in America over the course of the past forty years; but until recently, little attention has been given to criminal justice reform and the unfair legal process for black boys and black men.

By the same token, little attention has been placed on preventive measures for young black boys to reduce the school-to-prison pipeline, which may also be viewed as a structured social system of oppression and discriminatory practice that continues the cycle of investing in bigger prisons while defunding public education and using the funding for local city and county governments to build more jails and expand the prison industry.

As America entered the new millennium, statistics continued to show an enormous gap between academic achievement in African-American students and white students. A huge disparity between the social and economic status of the upper class, the middle class, and the economically disadvantaged populations continues (Jansson 1997). During the past few decades, the gap in academic achievement between African-American children and their white counterparts has widened. More specifically, African-American male children have experienced severe difficulty in performing well academically, resulting in an increased rate of school dropouts, crime, unemployment, underemployment, and poverty in young African-American adults. Given these social phenomena, it is imperative that the issue of academic performance be given due attention. Many variables contribute to these social phenomena, and researchers have provided explanations and interventions to address this issue with limited success.

Little attention has been given to the importance of academic success in the formative years of minority children—especially African-American males. In this succinct book, the author analyzes this social phenomenon by focusing on African-American males during their formative years. Specific attention is given to the African-American male self-concept, kindergarten readiness, and family involvement. Given the concerns faced by the African-American family and the challenges faced by African-American