Black Youth Rising: Hope for Change

“I want to go to college,” said high-school aged Michael to Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Professor at San Francisco State University and the author of Black Youth Rising. Dr. Ginwright looked at him in surprise. “Say what?” He quickly sprung into action and organized a youth-filled bus trip to San Diego State University through his alumni connections. He had not heard from Michael in two weeks and was stunned when a student told him that Michael had been shot two weeks earlier. “It took the wind out of my sails,” said Dr. Ginwright. It hit me from the blind side.” He referenced slain rapper Biggie Smalls song, Things Done Changed and continued expressing his dismay. “Gone was the romantic notion of my urban youth and running after the ice cream truck. Now in Chocolate City, things done changed. Kids were killing each other, and no one was doing anything about it.”

His morning keynote presentation, “Addressing root causes of health disparities: promoting positive health and academic achievement among youth” opened up the dialogue of inequality as being systemic and structural. He said the process of building the capacity of individuals, institutions and communities to promote and sustain environmental health could be addressed through the four C’s of radical healing: caring relationships, consciousness, community and culture. He cites a community project where youth helped to clean up a park, the result was a sense of hope that was off the charts, “through their contribution to the community now they have renewed optimism for the future.”