Albert and Marianne, a couple from Chicago, spend about $80 a year on LEGOs a couple times a year and keep what they build on a shelf. But that’s nothing compared to Albert’s cousin, who has a whole LEGO city in his basement. I met Albert, 28, and Marianne, 30, at the LEGO Store in downtown Chicago. They have only been building LEGOs for about a year, but they love them.

The Lego Store was filled with people like Albert and Marianne when I visited it in October. Alison, a 23-year-old employee there who is fromUtah, told me that Lego’s were famous the world over and had been around since 1932. They were invented by a man named Ole Kirk Christiansen. That made me wonder: What would give someone the idea to invent LEGOs?

It turns out the whole story is on YouTube.

InBillund,Denmark, Ole was a carpenter working in a workshop. He started building toys, beginning with a wooden duck.

He was searching for a name to put on his toys, and thought of the phrase “Leg Godt,” which means playing well in Danish. One day he was staring out the window and saw a truck with the phrase on it, but because of the window frames he could only see the LEG GO part of it. LEGO means “I put together.” That would the name he would use on his toys.

In 1942, Ole’s toy workshop burned down and he lost everything. He decided not to give up. He built a new toy workshop. On a trip to Copenhagenin 1946, Ole bought a plastic toy machine – he had built all his toys of wood. He bought the machine and built his first plastic teddy bear. Ole and his son Godtfred built the LEGO Ferguson Tractor which became very popular and made the company a success. Ole and Godtfred took a trip on the ferry toEnglandin 1954. Godtfred got the idea to make LEGO a whole system of toys that fit together, and then sold LEGOs to many countries. Godtfred figured out that the LEGOs didn’t stick together, so every time a child built something big, it would collapse. He figured out how to make the LEGO pieces stick together. Then Ole and Godtfred’s toy factory burned down. They swore off wooden toys forever.

Three years later, Godtfred built the Billund Airport because so many people were coming to town to tour the LEGO factory. LEGOs became so popular that Godtfred came up with the idea of building a LEGO amusement park. In 1968, LEGOLAND opened. Six hundred thousand guests came the first year. Today, the LEGO Company is still owned by the Christiansen family. LEGOs are sold in 130 countries.

On Oct. 15, 2014, in an interview at the LEGO store, located in downtown Chicago at the Water Tower building, Josh the supervisor shared great information about the Skyline Lego display in the storefront window. Josh is 24 years old from out of town who attends school here in Chicago. He loves building LEGOs and he has been building LEGOs for 19 years. Josh said that the store has a team of master builders who build the displays on site. Josh likes building his own LEGO creations and does not have a favorite LEGO set. Josh is working right now on a Tiki Bar creation.

Josh says the towers, displayed in the storefront windows, were designed by Adam Tucker.

“Some fans from the LEGO fan club came and help built the towers at the store,” he said.

He explained how they clean the displays at the Lego stores, “The towers are not glued so it makes it incredibly scary to dust them, in fear of them falling.”

The fountains in the background of the displays were built by a team of master builders. It took 450 hours to build the 2D fountain and 600,000 LEGO pieces.

This display caught my attention because it was really incredible looking. All the towers and buildings took 25 days to build. Way too long, but the display looks awesome and I would like to have it for real. It just surprised me that the buildings and towers haven’t fallen down or broken into pieces. It’s still there with no damage for all these years.

While I was in the LEGO store, a bunch of customers were there checking out all the cool building sets and buying all these different types of LEGO toys. The customers were building these little weird cars and while I was there, I built a little car too.

There were 2 children playing with the LEGOs and I asked their parents if I could talk to them about their interest in LEGOs. The children were under the age of 10 so we couldn’t use their names, but their parents allowed them to talk to me. The little boy and girl are siblings. The little boy was 7 years old and the little girl was 9 years old. They were visiting from out of town and came all the way to Chicago just to stop by the LEGO store.

The little girl has been playing with LEGOs since 2012 when the LEGO friends LEGOset started. She likes playing with LEGOs. She spent a day building a house with LEGOs. She wishes there were more LEGO sets for girls. The one thing she wanted from the store was the Heartlake Shopping Mall.

The little boy wanted to take home an Arctic Base Camp. “I have been playing and building LEGOs longer than my sister. I started when I was 5 years old.” His favorite set of LEGOs is called LEGO city and is mainly for boys. “I build more things out of LEGOs than my sister. I built fire trucks, dump trucks, police cars and small towns.”

After interviewing the children, I reflected on my time at the LEGO store and realized that LEGOs are very popular and people search for the perfect LEGO sets to fit their own collection. It is safe to say young and old people both have LEGOs as a common interest. Recently, LEGO has gained a lot of attention with a new movie and video games that have already come out.

What is a perfect community? How do we really define a perfect community? From the Black perspective, a perfect community is a community with: No violence, no liquor stores owned by non-African Americans, and also people who are working within the community for the people with local business, shops, clothing stores, groceries, parks, schools, etc.  Unfortunately, from my perspective, this cannot happen first of all because Black people like to stay stuck in a reality shown to them by the media. Black people and various other races live by what the media tells them is the “truth.” Second, Blacks are always in competition against others to prove that we are worth something. These things hold us back and keep us from achieving our collective goals.

So, even though we will never have a perfect community, I came up with some solutions to have a better community. My first solution to have a better community is to start with oneself. Begin to look back to your childhood and then next start to go through the things that were shown to you and were told to you. For example, look back and think of what you thought was wealth and then think of what wealth was shown to you. We have to notice that most of the things and ideas we have come from our childhood. Most of the madness that you see in your life is what you have agreed to be brought into your life and what you think is supposed to happen. For the Black community, we have to start changing our mindset of how things have been and start to speak word into what we want to see happen.
My second solution for a better community is to be more selective of what you watch in the media. Every day, news casters make a lot of money based on the numbers of viewers so if you stop watching, news companies lose ad revenue. That will teach the media to stop focusing on negative situations. We need to deprogram ourselves from what they want to show us, brainwashing us to be more in fear of the world around us.
My third solution for a better community is to stop being in competition with people from different cultures. In the song “Go to the Floor” by Missy Elliott, she says: “So all the hate and animosity between folks, you need to kill it with a skillet, you don’t see Bill Gates and Donald Trump arguing with each other because they got paper and better s*** to do. Get more paper.”  From this, I take the lesson that we should stop competing with other races and our own race too. When you start to be in competition, you set yourself up to lose. We give too much power to certain things because of who we think is against us.
As a young person, I don’t know all the answers to the world’s problems but I know that it starts with the changing of how you view the world and things around you. To have peace, it has to begin as a personal choice. You will start to be amazed as to just changing how you view things can affect the way the world around you and the community will begin to form into a small piece of perfection.

When I think of the perfect community, the first thing that comes to mind is peace. In my perfect community, there would peace among every brother and sister; not just African Americans but every culture. We would be blind to color, because color would not matter in my community. It would be equal opportunity and the word minority wouldn’t exist. We would unify each other in every aspect. No brother or sister would stumble alone.

African history would be taught in our schools, not just European history. Our children will learn their roots from an early age. It has taken me 21 years to learn my roots and who I am really. In elementary school, my teachers didn’t teach me about Egypt. I was taught European, German, French and Korean history. I didn’t learn about El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz until I was in eighth grade; and as far as I can remember, most teachers didn’t teach about Malcolm X because of his past years in prison. Growing up, I have only learned of Dr. King and Rosa Parks; respect is all due to them, but they are not the only Black leaders.

We have to know more about our history, our ancestors, our language and our land. We were told that we were nothing and that we weren’t smart. We were told that Abraham Lincoln ended slavery when the reality is that our African American forefathers were ready to take back their freedom. We are taught about Columbus and how he supposedly discovered America, but we have no knowledge of Pedro Alonso Nino, the Black navigator of 1492. I am not making any racial statements. I am trying to point out areas that need more attention. Every other race is aware of their background and culture. Yet the Black community still lacks the knowledge and wisdom of our heritage. If it wasn’t for my heritage and ancestors, I would be completely lost.

Teaching our history will encourage African Americans to become entrepreneurs instead of working for others. History will also show young Africans American that materialism means nothing. We never had the things we have today. Our ancestors survived off spirituality and heart but we cannot survive if our phone battery dies; we have to do better. I love Malcolm X because he breaks it down. In “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” Malcolm talks about how Black people want everything the next man has but we cannot afford it. We drive luxury foreign cars while living in a one-bedroom apartment with three children. We conk our hair and pay for the most expensive clothes, but we do not own trust funds or even a savings account. Again I say teaching culture would be a very serious step toward building my perfect community.

Finally, my perfect community would have more resources for youth. More adults would step up and spend more time with youth, instead of judging them and running away from them.  No young person would be neglected. I would create millions of homeless shelters for urban youth and adults. No one would ever be hungry. Our communities would have lots of food pantries. Elementary schools would give early majors to students and children would be able to start a major in their seventh year of elementary school. More internships would be offered to youth, especially in employable fields like computer software, app developer, pharmacy techs, etc. Most importantly, no child would be left behind. There would be at least one mentor for every child.

Children pose with Santa Claus at the Christmas Toy Drive sponsored by Social Sound Production & Entertainment Social Movement. Photo by Treanna Frencha.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

The first annual Christmas Toy Drive at Hamilton Park, located at 513 West 72nd Street, was held by Social Sound Production & Entertainment Social Movement. The toy drive was an overall success! There were refreshments (cupcakes, chips and juice boxes) for the children to enjoy after they waited to take a picture with Santa and receive their gift.

The kids and their parents had to make a line outside, and then were sent in five at a time to sign a form and sign-in sheet so they can be reached after the event. This is way Social Sound Production & Entertainment Social Movement can build a relationship with the families they helped. Once they filled out the forms, the children were sent to different tables, depending on their age, where they received a gift. After getting their gift, it was time to take a picture with Santa and other family members.

Following that, they went to another table to receive a cupcake, then to the next table to receive chips and a drink of their choice. This was a good event, it got everybody in the Christmas spirit. To see the look on their faces after they received their gift made me so happy.

“Next year, we can look to expand even more for our next Christmas Toy Drive at Hamilton Park! I’m looking forward to seeing more of Social Sound Productions’ involvement with the community in the future,” stated a volunteer staff member who was helping with the toy drive.

People can give back to their community by seeing what is needed in that particular place. They can find a way to help fulfill the need of that particular community by getting personally involved. Say, for instance, the community needs a new basketball court; the people living there could hold a fundraiser selling items they know others will buy. It doesn’t have to necessarily be junk food (chips and Candy), but they can sell healthier alternatives (vegetables, fruits and nuts).  They can even sell home made items (thank you cards, jewelry or clothes) at a reasonable price. These are things people like and will purchase, thereby raising the money for the court.

Another thing that can be done is getting businesses and other individuals to mentor the kids of the community; that can help the kids to better themselves. Having a mentor will give them positive things to do in their free time after their school work is done. We know in some cases school is hard, so creating an opportunity that will motivate the kids to do their school work is essential.

Holding community events for the youth is another way to give back to the community. Having a youth group form to help the whole community get closer and talk about problems that they can work on fixing is another very good way to help. Also including information to remind them that violence is not the answer to conflicts they may have with someone. Lastly, we could start a fund that will expand Black-owned businesses and teach the importance of keeping money in the community.

I attend different events from seminars to community service events and I always promote positive growth. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve told my peers so they can be aware of programs and activities happening in our community. Just to name a few of the things I’ve done to give back to my community, I’ve participated in Kwanzaa celebrations, Safe Summer picnics, and health fairs held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. Giving back to the community does make a difference in the lives of those who are helping as well as those who are being helped.

A pro-Hitler poster used as part of the Nazi propaganda display in “State of Deception,” a travelling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Museum that was at the Field Museum last year. Photo by Devin Belcher.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with the New Memorial Baptize Church. Students participated in a field trip to see “State of Deception,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

My experience at the Holocaust Exhibit “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” was educational and the information I learned was disturbing. The Field Museum hosted the exhibit in February 2014 and I knew it was important information, but I thought a majority of people knew about the events leading up to the Holocaust. I also thought with all the facts and information about the Holocaust being shared over the years, people would have a little sympathy for the victims and their families, especially after seeing videos, pictures, or hearing survivors tell their stories. This exhibit opened my eyes to knowledge that we haven’t learned in school yet. Adolf Hitler was responsible for an estimated 5.1–6.0 million Jews being killed. He used propaganda to convince German men, women, and youth that Jewish people were not as important as the German race. Hitler tricked the Jews into sending their children to the concentration camps where Jewish people were starved, killed, and enslaved. 

A panel from “State of Deception,” a travelling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Museum that was at the Field Museum last year. Photo by Devin Belcher.

Recently, I heard about people in California that were speaking out against the Holocaust. They were saying the Holocaust didn’t happen. It was then that I knew sharing the photos and writing about the exhibit was a must. Hitler used the German people’s fear and need for jobs to feed hatred for the Jews. Some of the Jews left Germany and went to the United States for help and were turned away. After the Nazi army grew and became powerful, they started moving into other countries such as Poland and parts of the Soviet Union. In the takeover of these other places, the Nazis killed anyone that was not for the Germans and people who had what Hitler considered to be flaws, such as: people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists/liberal leaders, and homosexuals. 

    It saddened me to hear testimonies of how Jewish people could no longer be friends with the German people they had known for years. Using posters and radio broadcasts, Hitler created images for the German men and women to relate to. Through the posters and radio broadcasts, Hitler was able to appeal to the wants and needs of the German people, making it easier for them to turn on Jewish who were once their friends. Jews’ homes and businesses were taken from them and they never recovered them when the Holocaust had ended.

I was honored to appear on the CAN TV show “Chicago Newsroom” with veteran journalist Glenn Reedus. We talked about the first round of the race between Mayor Rahm Emanuel, challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and others as well as the contests for the Chicago City Council. Click above to check it out.

Part II of my appearance on the CAN TV show “Chicago Newsroom” with veteran journalist Glenn Reedus. We talked about the first round of the race between Mayor Rahm Emanuel, challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and others as well as the contests for the Chicago City Council. Click above to check it out.

I was honored to stand in for Ken Davis as the guest host of “Chicago Newsroom” with my guest, veteran journalist Glenn Reedus. We talked about the African American community’s critical role int he upcoming mayoral and aldermanic elections. Click above to check it out.