For Those Who are Young and Black

I’m not going to lie to you or sugarcoat it. You’re African American. You’re Black and life is not at all fair. People are likely to assume that you are a trouble maker, lazy, and loud. You will likely have to work twice as hard as other people to succeed. It will be assumed that you are dumb and a criminal. The chips are stacked against you so you have one of two options. You can accept it, do something stupid and get a criminal record, lower your expectations make some babies and live from check to check for the rest of your life. Or, you can be smart, play it cool, and use the low expectations that others have for you to your advantage. You can fight and live a life that is better than the one that society has planed for you. If you live in a good situation or have a good background with a lot of money you can ignore the advice below, if not pay close attention.

Do well in school, go to college and graduate

Unless you have a business plan, good credit, and money to invest in a business as soon as you graduate high school go to college or you will die broke. You’re African American, if you don’t have a degree people are probably not going to hire you for a job that pays decent money. You’ll end up working a crappy job for the next few years until your laid off or fired unless you get and education. It’s not that you learn some great secret while in college that automatically increases your income; it’s just that people take you more seriously if you have a piece of paper from a university then if you don’t. If you don’t want to work in retail, at a place that underpays and over works you go get a degree in college. That means that you have to graduate High School. Studies have shown that it is easier for a white man with a criminal record and a High School diploma to get a job then a black man with a high school diploma and no criminal record. Go to college and get a degree, unless you’re going to trade school or can start a serious business.

Don’t break the law

You’re African American and you will be racial profiled. If you’re African American, especially a male, you know that police will pull you over and check you to see if you’re breaking the law. I’ve been pulled over many times and I don’t break the law. If you know that you’re more likely to get checked by the police than non-blacks it is extremely stupid to break the law. You’re more likely to get caught if you’re African American. People of all races and ethnicities break the law but most of the people who get caught are Black. If you get a drug charge, you might not be able to get financial aid for college, and if you’re not rich you’ll need financial aid. If you break the law you’ll die broke.

Don’t be a Trap star

You do a lot of time for selling drugs and you can’t get financial aid. If you are a young African American male and you sell drugs you are going to get caught. The judge will give you more time then he would give a non-black. The cop is more likely to check you for drugs. It will be harder for you to get a job when you get out of jail and you’ll end up forty years old living with your mama, and you’ll probably die broke.

Don’t smoke weed

I’m not going to lie to you. It probably doesn’t have any real negative physical effects. But cops will stop you because they know many young Black people smoke weed and you will get caught with it. Jobs do urine tests and you won’t get hired a well paying job. Even if you manage to pass the urine test nobody wants to hire someone with burnt lips. Plus it makes you lazy, I know you’re probably the exception but it’s just not worth the risk. Also some government jobs have lie detector tests where they ask you if you smoke weed, if you have within the last two or three years you won’t get the job.

Don’t have kids till you graduate college

It’s possible to raise and pay for kids right now while you’re in High School, but you will be broke. It’s hard to support a family working at a fast food place. It also makes it next to impossible to go to college unless you plan on living with your parents. Kids are expensive and Baby Mama/Daddy drama is the worst. So take the steps necessary to avoid this particular issue. Raising kids is expensive and they stop you from doing things that you want to do. If you know someone your age with kids ask them about it.

Don’t ruin your credit

Life with bad credit sucks. You can’t get into a good apartment, or a house, sometimes even a job. Go buy a book on credit and do what it tells you to do. Life is less expensive with good credit.

Don’t be loud or violent

Fighting gets you arrested and a criminal record. Being loud and rude alienates people. Hood behavior and work behavior are two different things. If you don’t know the difference, find someone who does and have them teach you. People of different cultures are already afraid of you to some extent and expect negative things from you. Don’t feed into the stereotypes. Don’t disrespect people because you think you can get away with it.

Work hard and be polite

People don’t expect a lot from you if you’re African American, use it to your advantage. If they expect you to be ignorant, show them you’re not. If they expect you to be unintelligent, prove that you are not. If they expect you to be lazy show them you aren’t. The advantage of people’s low expectations of you is that when you do well, it comes across as if you’ve done extremely well. So, do your best at all times.

Don’t wear a white tee and jeans

It’s not fair, but people judge you on how you look. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. When I wear a suit I get treated one way, when I wear a white tee and baggy pants I get treated a different way. Teachers, cops, and security guards are less likely to harass you if you don’t wear the uniform of the ghetto. Again, not fair, but it is the way it is.

Finally, read some African American history.

All too often when people talk about Black accomplishments they ignore our history in America. There’s more to your history then Timbuktu and Martin Luther King. Learn it. It will make you proud of who you are and how far we’ve come as a people.