I give the police some understanding. Not much, but some. I can see taking precautions about pursuing more aggressive actions without accessing carefully how the actions may escalate the situation. The safety of people who are just working, shopping, taking tours and having meals downtown have to be considered. Yet I had an issue with what looked like the police just standing around and barely exercising containment instead of actively working to shut down behaviors and clear the streets.

Do parents and guardians not bother to keep up with their kids anymore? Even when I became a teenager nearly 50 years ago, there were some teens that were determined to do whatever. Back then, I had friends and acquaintances in that age group who were known to the police. There was also breaking of curfew, drinking and smoking, unwed pregnancies, etc. But tearing around downtown and daring the police to do something? The majority of my generation wasn’t quite that crazy or stupid.

Where parents and guardians are concerned, the amount of technology available, like cell phones, for example, is supposed to help keep track of this generation of youths. Parents and guardians when I was young had to rely only on their authority and unveiled threats that were often acted upon to keep order. I guess there’s not that much respect of adults or fear of consequences going on in homes anymore. Yet if the police had loaded the paddy wagons to the brim with the teens who overran downtown last week, I have no doubt that many of the parents and guardians would have screamed to the police, the news reporters, and everyone else that their little darlings’ rights had been trampled upon. Indeed there are some politicians and community leaders who have made the usual excuses about the teens lacking resources, etc. Never mind that tourism has dropped and some businesses have moved out of that neighborhood, and perhaps the city.

This summer in Chicago ought to be interesting. I don’t see myself going downtown often this upcoming season, at least not without pepper spray (it is legal to have and carry in Illinois), and remembering my self-defense and boxing skills.

Take the educational profession, for example, especially where preschools, grade schools, and high schools are concerned. When I was going to school, teachers were more highly respected than now. The current custom of always blaming teachers for students’ grades or behaviors in class did not happen while I was growing up. Also, there was an understanding that teachers were in charge and worthy of respect. I was a substitute teacher for a year in both grade schools and high schools and my sympathy for what teachers have to deal with went up 100 percent. Teachers have next to no support from school boards these days in regards to having control in classrooms. There are many YouTube videos of former teacher stating why they left the profession.

Having a position in social service agencies is no fun, either. I saw too many people walk in with fresh degrees in social service, eager to change the world, only to be burnt out after a few years – or months. I was a secretary/administrative assistant, and not hands on where clients were concerned. Yet, I had to be on high alert, and my patience was tested constantly. Just because I was not a social worker, that did not protect me. I threatened to throw a teen down a flight of stairs after I was targeted for harassment. While I worked at another agency, several social workers were assaulted. No support was given, even though some social workers had to be hospitalized. After my supervisor made a statement about employees needing to understand the youths and overlook such behavior, I made it clear that I would exercise my right to self-defense.

The official reason that I released from my last position as a boxing coach due to health. The underlying reason was that I made a point of shutting down unwelcome behaviors from youths. I had to in order to properly run the boxing class. However, my supervisor and most of my co-workers were parents who believed that youths should have carte blanche at the fieldhouse. I wasn’t shy about announcing that I wasn’t going to be disrespected, nor put up with disruptions from youths nor parents and guardians. Later, I learned that I had been placed at one of the worst fieldhouses in the city.

People need to investigate throughly before taking positions that involve working with and around youths. Also know that companies that don’t provide basic comforts may not provide much else. One of the social service agencies I worked at kept all windows shut and sealed and A/C was not on. I could have used a fan like this –https://amzn.to/3GzIOwA – during the summers I worked there.

Back in the day, there didn’t appear to be many commentaries about being a part of the CF community from people of color in general. White people were, and continue to be, very vocal online about their choice.

There needs to be more CF Black people speaking up and out, especially since there continues to be major celebration and acceptance of the babies’ daddy and babies’ mama culture. Having babies out-of-wedlock contributes to all kinds of drama, from high educational dropout rates to low income earning power, but yet is considered cool. Too many of our teens get pulled into that situation and aren’t ever able to overcome the fallout. Neither do most adults who opt to become part of the babies’ daddy and babies’ mama culture, truth be told.

In addition, there are still scores of married people who didn’t talk enough nor think more about creating babies before or after the wedding ceremonies were over. More CF Black people need to spread the word that our lifestyle is not scary, limited, or negative. We need to let people know that it is perfectly fine if people do not want to be parents.