New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: Helping hands

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: Helping handsHelping hands

Bx. school leads by example, teaming students with mentors

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last week lauded 100 Black Men as the future of public education because the organization is now sponsoring the Eagle Academy in the Bronx, the first all-male school in New York City in more than 30 years. One of the most important aspects of the school is that it provides mentors for the young men in order to make sure that the boys become accustomed to seeing and knowing successful men who are not corrupt or corrupting and with whom they can talk and from whom they can get advice.

Joining Klein at the philanthropic gala celebrating 100 Black Men's 42 years of service was Eagle Academy Principal David Banks, who came onstage with his students and gave a rousing speech. His point was one of the most important ones that can be made in our time. Hard work, quality education, changing value systems, celebrating intellectual achievement and mentoring are of the utmost importance in the elevation of those at the bottom.

Sean (Diddy) Combs, whom some might have mistaken for a play gangster in his dark glasses, actually gave an interesting acceptance speech after being awarded Entrepreneur of the Year. He thanked his mother and the women in his family for encouraging him, but he also pointed out how important men in the business such as Quincy Jones had been in mentoring him toward success.

It was somewhat ironic that Combs was followed by jazz great Wynton Marsalis. It was ironic because Marsalis made a point that was not aimed at Combs in particular, but rather at the ugly facts of the pop music business.

Marsalis told the audience that it was important to keep its cultural awareness in line with the goals of the organization because black American culture, which once produced so many musicians of worldwide importance, is being debased and now pumps out trash that pollutes and weakens the community.

Marsalis said that it was important to salvage the greatness of black American culture because of its human importance beyond all lines of color, sex, religion or nationality. Jazz, he said, represented not just the triumph of a single ethnic community; it represented the triumph of the human spirit, which was why it had spoken so clearly to lovers of art around the world.

The address Marsalis gave was much more well received than those given by the other speakers. But what was most important about the evening is that all of the men, having come from the bottom to the tops of their professions, symbolized everything that 100 Black Men, like every serious effort in this nation, is trying to do. Each of those men knew that he did not get where he is alone, quick to acknowledge mentors as the answer in sustaining the human virtues of a culture in academic, economic and artistic terms.

Originally published on November 13, 2005