Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: We're predominantly a bunch of guys who have the courage of our convictions. We feel that we'll tell them to sit down and be quiet. And we'll do almost anything to get them to think, to provoke, inspire, and generate thought.

SPEAKER 2: Well, Mario, let me ask you, what do you think went wrong with these kids? Why have they ended up in trouble or in the juvenile court system? What happened?

MARIO: Most of the youth today are being brought up with a lack of direction. There used to be a phenomenon where we, as African Americans, had a strong extended family network. And basically, people in the community or in the village took care of the youth.

Nowadays, people have gone away from that. And many people are intimidated by the youth. But we must not lose sight that these are still children, and they're still youth, and they need guidance.

SPEAKER 2: I would imagine there are a lot of people who are going to hear this, who say to themselves, well, if a kid does something wrong, no matter what the reason, if he's misunderstood, if he had a bad family life, put him in jail. That's where people belong when they do something wrong. Well, how do you respond to a comment like that?

SPEAKER 1: We feel that many children are redeemable. Sometimes we use terms like recyclable. Sometimes we use terms like salvageable. There are a small percentage of children that perhaps do need to be locked up. We tell the judge, when we go to court on behalf of some of them, that we insist that they be held responsible for what they've done. But we want to play a part of it and help it to be a rebuilding experience and an experience where they've learned something and that they're better off because of.

SPEAKER 2: How do you think we reach this point in the Twin Cities where now somebody gets shot over a bike, or some kid says, don't cross that line or I'll kill you? I mean, it seems like 15 years ago around here, it wasn't like that. What do you think has changed that has brought all these guns on the streets and kids so willing to use these guns to resolve these petty disputes?

SPEAKER 1: I think that the way things have gotten to this point is probably the breakdown of the family structure and many times the absence of an adult male in not just African American situations but in many situations. And a lot of times, it takes an adult male to help an adolescents through those vital, vulnerable, formative years, between 14 to 19. And you got to do that with a strong hand. And it's their job at that age to cause chaos and to test themselves. And many of them are going out and doing things that are dangerous because many of us have abandoned our own children.

And so another thing that SOS does is we act, in many cases, as kind of surrogate fathers. The response that we get most of the time is really phenomenal. You ought to see sometimes we just go up and put our hand on a young man's shoulder and ask him how he's doing and make him look us in our eyes, make him shake our hand, and let him know that what he does makes a difference. You ought to see the difference in him. I mean, they blossom right before you, at least for the time that they're in your presence.

MARIO: Yeah, most of the youth do come from single-parent, female being the dominant parent, homes. And many of the women will tell us that once the child reaches that particular age, they are no longer able to teach that young man to be a man. They don't have what it takes to teach that-- give those skills to that individual.

SPEAKER 2: It sounds as if you're looking for solutions from within almost, that this is a problem within the African American community and only the African American community can solve it. Is that how you see it?

SPEAKER 1: Not only. I mean, we need to do that in cooperation with this people around us. But we stress that we have to take responsibility for ourselves. We have the responsibility to get up when we're knocked down and choose how we're going to react to our circumstances.

SPEAKER 2: Is there any other solution out there? What should other people be doing to support this effort?

SPEAKER 1: Well, we sure want more African American men-- one way that I would criticize ourselves is that we need younger men because we're-- except for Mario. Mario is the only guy in his 20s. But we're a bunch of old-timers trying to bridge the gap between several decades. And so we need younger men. And we feel that just by virtue of the fact that you might be functional and have a job and have a family, you have something to offer because some of these kids need some very basic communication with us.

MARIO: And with this particular group that we're working with, they're in the borderline. Some of them have done very well in school up to this time, and now they're starting to slump off. So they kind of need some encouragement. We feel that what we're doing is providing a light at the end of the tunnel, providing some hope that they can actually succeed as the American dream prophesizes.

SPEAKER 1: One thing that is important to note is that we are exclusively African American males, and we've had significant success as such. I mentioned earlier that we've gotten about approximately half a dozen boys from the judicial system, so far. The ones that we have gone to the court and reclaim have stayed out of trouble, thus far. We're pitching a shutout. And we're hoping that we can do more of that kind of thing in the future.