20 Kids Can Never Play Together for 20 Years.

There is a saying in my ancestral homeland (Nigeria); “Twenty children can never play together for twenty years.” This is a reality of life. But it does not enjoy recognition among many of my African American folks. They don’t know when to let go of the human, emotional and material baggage in their lives. For the youngsters though, the worst baggage is usually their old neighborhood “homies” or buddies.

Many of these young folks, especially the men, are often stuck in the past. It’s considered an attitude of “keeping it real” when a young, urban professional, sports personality or Hollywood actor gets stuck with buddies or “homies” in his past neighborhood. It does not matter that those buddies are not doing anything positive or productive with their lives. If they are not drop-outs, they are deliberately jobless or into some criminal enterprises.

Now into big-time career and famous, a typical African American young man will surround himself with these buddies from the past. It will have been a different thing worth commending if he reaches out to those buddies with the sole aim of uplifting them educationally or with some careers. No, he will only be interested in turning them into hangers-on, to boost his ego. Sadly though, the same buddies or hangers-on will, in most cases, turn out to be his nemesis. This reminds me of MC Hammer, Allen Iverson and many others. Where are their buddies who used to play the role of hangers-on?

There was also the sad story of a young African American rising basketball star who, at the beginning of his career visited his old, childhood neighborhood. There, he ran into some old buddies who invited him to take a ride in a car. The group soon drove to the entrance of a store. Leaving the basketball star in the car, the others walked briskly into the store, pulled out small hand guns and robbed the place. As they ran back into their waiting car, a witness secretly took photographs of the young men. That was all the police needed to round up the perpetrators of the crime. All the attempts of the basketball star to prove his innocence proved abortive.

Unfortunately, this is just one of the many ways that innocent young black folks railroad themselves into bankruptcy, jails and worse, untimely deaths.