Freedom is something that is rare in its truest form. To be free in action and thought is powerful. Today we have to rethink and question who is free. Mental enslavement has been talked about for a significant period of time now and it continues to enslave generation after generation. There is the teacher that refuses to educate students on how groups became oppressed and enslaved. The hip-hip artist portraying a coon/brute image for a dollar. History that is taught in schools has been watered down to the point that the youth do not have a true understanding of events that made this country what it is today. Forced to hate everything about yourself; mind, body, complexion, and family.

We have all heard or read about the Willy Lynch letters in one aspect or another. People have been breaking down that letter for years, but it was not one man that created mental enslavement. It was not done with one speech. It was done with actions. The actions on the middle passage that led to the death and rape of thousands, maybe more. A great number of the youth are not free and we can see that in action and thought. They have chosen to glorify and portray ignorance. They would rather be hood famous and ignorant than educated and average. It was not always a wicked jump shot or selling crack rock like biggie once said on one of the greatest albums of all-time. WE created that image by allowing ourselves to be enslaved. The question I ask today is, “Will you free the Youth?”

“I can not wait to get some green contacts, and put this stuff in my hair that will make it straight…I’m tired of this nappy stuff.” This was an actual statement that I heard from a 17-year-old black male. This black male wants to drop out of school and become a rapper. This is our future whether we want to accept it or not. The youth today are suffering from mental enslavement and we are allowing it to happen. We allow it to happen when parents would rather be their child’s friends instead of actually parenting and providing the guidance their child needs. We are allowing it to happen when we let our children hang out outside until late at night and do not provide them with curfews that we stick by. We allow it to happen when we let them watch television for numerous hours and do not make them pick up a book. The mental enslavement is taught in the home and perfected in the classrooms. Young minds tend to be easily influenced, so the battle is not lost. If we continue to fear and walk away because we fill it is too late then the battle will be lost. If we allow the only education that kids receive to come from schools, whose books are outdated and whose teachers have biased opinions about their students, we will surely fail.

We have to save the youth one by one. Re-educate them with facts and not watered down opinions. We have to teach them about the downfalls of living life in the streets and being concerned with a 5-block reputation. We have to teach them that taking money out of the community is what keeps the community poor. We have to show them that selling drugs, playing ball and writing raps is not the only way out of poverty. Freedom is a fight that has been swept under the rug because we like to think that we are free because we can go to school, get a job and make money. What about the high number of individuals who get treated like they are ignorant in the classrooms, the brown brothers and sisters in Arizona that get asked to prove they are American and the victims of “stop and frisk” in New York City? You can think you are free all you want to but until you come back to reality and start fighting for equality for everyone we will never achieve freedom for the next generation, so ask yourself, “Will you free the youth?”