By Charles Perkins



Growing up with a dad who physically abused and pimped women, had a heroine addiction (which he eventually died from when I was eleven), and who also introduced me to marijuana when I was seven, I learned many life lessons the hard way.

The absence of role models and male mentors throughout the course of my early life contributed to me having low self-esteem, poor grades, being kicked out of several schools, mistreating women, committing ilegal activities, serving a brief jail stint and ultimatley joining the Marines in search of manhood and financial stability. I'm sure many of the trials I've endured could have been avoided if there were respectable people around that cared for my cultivation into manhood.

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending Kevin Powell's Black and Male in America Conference in Brooklyn, NY. The state of emergency black males are in is driven by the rising concerns of health, economics, education, and leadership amongst us; the need to address these issues were imperative in order for this conference to be held.

I admire Kevin Powell's vision and willingness to push a conference such as this. He managed to devise panels with the nation's leading professionals to create a thinking environment recognizing the problems and allowing everyone to express their opinions and offer solutions. Powell's keynote address was an assessment of the state of Black males in America. He summarized his thoughts which would be discussed in the following day's panels.

The topics addressed throughout the conference were; economic empowerment, health: physically, mentally, and spiritually, mentoring and educating black boys and young black men, hip-hop, and manhood. The tutelage and experience of the panelists provided much insight and wisdom to environment as well as the testimonies and comments from the audience.

It was agreed that black males must become financially literate in order to sustain in the capitalistic society of America. Knowledge of finances will allow them to make better financial decisions and investment choices. Investing back into the community is very important to create a sole financial independency in that environment rather than relying on the money of outside sources.

It was also noted that health must become an individual as well as collective priority. Without a healthy mind or body we are restricted in our ability to truly uplift each other, our families and our communities. This entails eating healthier foods, becoming physically active, and resolving our personal demons. Special emphasis was put towards spirituality, acknowledging that there is something greater than you.

Although all of the topics were extremely important to the vitality of Black males, the emphasis of the conference focused on defining manhood, accountability and mentorship. The necessity of this is great just from reviewing the details of my own life. Perhaps maybe if someone would've instilled the values and responsibility of the need to be accountable for my actions I might have made different decisions earlier in life. So the necessity to focus on the roles of manhood, mentorship, and accountability were extremely important to me in order to have the knowledge and tools to be prepared to mentor youth who live in similar circumstances or for those who may need guidelines to manhood.

The conference was extremely helpful and insightful for me and many of the males there from the many testimonies I've heard from interviews that were conducted. I am extremely appreciative to all the men that dedicated their time and participated in this conference for their love of black people. Their presence and examples alone was enough to inspire me to strive to be like them if not greater, and much appreciation to Kevin Powell for conducting this conference. His leadership and respect for humanity was reflected throughout the conference and I believe everyone witnessed the beginning of something great.

For me, to be Black and male in America is to be spiritual, loving and equal of women, compassionate, assertive, accountable, intelligent, humane; it is to be a father, a son, a husband, an uncle, a grandfather, a friend, a mentor.

What are you?

Charles Perkins is an IT Technician living in Oakland, CA. You can hit him at: cperkins@geomatrix.com