Re: Washington Post Jambo Article (Long)
settummanque, or blackeagle (blkeagle@DYNASTY.NET)
Mon, 4 Aug 1997
***WARNING***
This response is long; longer than most Mike Walton postings.
Be advised. It's also not one of my better ones as well.
***WARNING***
Paul Meyermann prefaced the Washington Post article (I received a copy of it over the weekend from a Scouter living in the D.C. area whom remembered me working there six years back) by stating:
A danger is created however, when Scouting is somehow considered to besuspect (implied to be racist) because it has not been successful in these areas. The article seems to imply that if only the Scouting program was more flexible that it would be more successful with ethnic and minority groups.
(cut portion only for space reasons)
Public mis-perception regarding scouting is should not be surprising since many of the debates on this list seem to stem from (interchanging/confusing) the methods of scouting with the purpose of scouting.
Our public, and in particular, the public residing in the "communities of color" in our cities, have come to a realization about our Scouting programs:
Scouting is a predominate "white thing", and those few others there in the program are there "mainly to show us that the Scouts aren't exclusive". For proof, let's look at some basic stats that the BSA does keep (all of these are 1995 figures; as soon as someone can provide me with more up-to-date figures, I'll be happy to update the numbers; but in my informal "reach out and touches" before the Jamboree (there was to be a reunion of black/Hispanic Scout Executives and volunteers, which was one of those several "groups" that the BSA didn't want "highlighted") the numbers haven't changed:
Who is more than likely to come to your community to talk Scouting with you?? Some white person (male or female), NOT wearing a Scouting field uniform with the intent of "getting in there, getting things going and getting out of there".
The BSA HAS responded to this "image problem", but not in the wayI would have responded. I'll explain howI would have responded later on. The BSA responded by placing a Black man at the head of our Commissioner service arm of Scouting. It failed because local Councils weren't interested in having a "national commissioner" to come to their Council and have lunch and dinner, talking about "what if's" and "remember whens". They need....they want....real Scouters, real BLACK and HISPANIC and ASIAN Scouters from other Councils to come and spend a couple of days, a week, a month if they can afford it...to show PARENTS that indeed, "we've got 'em, here's one of many, and listen to HIS or HER story...it'll sound like yours and together we can make it YOUR son's or your story too!"
The Urban Emphasis Program is designed to defuse a lot of critics, both inside (like me) and outside (like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, for one) and our feelings that somehow trying to get every boy to become a Scout isn't a good goal anymore. The Urban Emphasis program takes existing Scouting partners (black churches, school systems, public housing projects, and other non-profits, as a short list) and somehow reworking and finding out "what does it take to bring Scouting back to these areas". In reality, I've experienced that the Urban Emphasis program is just another way that the BSA can "backdoor" themselves into groups and organizations that closed the "front door" on them for various reasons (like public schools and some other non-profit groups).
The writer has a lot of good things that ALL of us should take into some careful consideration:
There may be no sharper illustration of the lack of racial diversity in Scouting and at this gathering of 30,000 Scouts, where thousands of teenage boys are turning to computers and pocket-size brochures to learn about cultures other than their own.
The BSA won't say this, but I'm going to give my best "estimation".
Of the 26 thousand-plus actual participants, 1500 of them will be Black. Of the 4 thousand-plus staff and support personnel, 830 of them will be Black. When PBS airs the Presidents' comments, or better yet, when you get the Jamboree video, count the number of Black faces in a Scout uniform that appear. It's those kinds of "undercurrent messages" that keeps a lot of Black kids from joining, not because "it's not cool" or the "thing to do".
So far, the four-year-old effort that Randall heads, known as the Urban Emphasis program, seems to have led to only a small increase in minority membership, officials say.
3 percent in the NCAC; 8 percent in Dallas; 4 percent in Atlanta; 2 percent in Chicago (which has the highest ratio of black youth population (TAY) to black youth membership in '94); around one percent in Seattle and in Richmond; I wasn't able to get numbers from NYC, Boston, nor LA.
In smaller Councils, Louisville, Kentucky again spikes it with 11 percent; followed by Augusta, Georgia with 8 and Birmingham, Alabama with 5 percent. But not the 12 to 14 percent that the BSA wanted to see nationally.
African American Scout leaders cite a number of reasons black youths traditionally have not been attracted to Scouting. They say the youths often have been turned off by the Scout uniform and the failure to promote sports as a Scouting activity. Another problem is that compared with the suburbs, the District and other urban areas have few public facilities open in the evening for troop meetings.
Here's a couple more reasons, not listed in the article:
"No Black role models. When I put my son in Scouts, I expect to see one Black face that he can relate to, that he can pattern himself after. All he sees in school are white leaders - teachers, administrators, bus drivers." Yet, when you explain to them, mostly parents, that those adults are in a large part, the parents and concerned residents of that neighborhood, you get a lot of "I don't know anything about Scouting. All I know is you do a lot of camping. I can't do/I'm not able to/I don't want to go camping. I don't see anyone else who's Black doing this...why should I?"
"I don't want my son in NOTHING that involves any kind of camping or
sleeping outside in the dark. I'm a old (person) and I can remember when we
slept outside in the dark and things would happen. I don't want any of that
happening to these boys....they are too young to experience "real life" out
there."
(A large concern expressed by many Black families is somehow that the Klan
or some other racist organization has ties to the BSA. This is expressed
particularily when explaining programs like the Order of the Arrow, with
it's white and red sashes. However, it moves beyond the OA and into regular
camping, which for many urban units, generally happens at the Council's
summer camp facility -- miles and miles away from the neighborhoods and in
many cases inaccessible to many urban families.
Some Councils countered this by holding special "urban campouts" in city
parks or other greenbelt areas; however, many aspects of Scouting: cutting
down timber, building open fires, pitching and sleeping tentage overnight --
have been disallowed by communities not wanting their greenbelt areas to
turn into "bum hotels". There's a way around it; I'll explain it later)
"What good is it?" (my parents' favorite line). "What do you get out of it? Do you get a job with it? Can you make money with it? I can learn a trade in the same time you're spending with the Scouts and I will have something to show for it."
"Is it that you want to be just like the white boys?" (my parents' second favorite line, and one that was shared with me when I visited a urban community center a month back, by another adult). There's this thing that is shared by not just Blacks, but a lot of others out there. If it doesn't live up to your expectations, you either kill it outright for anyone else or you create your own "group". This one kills a LOT of Black youth that want to be Scouts, but their own parents discounts it as something "we folk don't do because we folk don't do."
There's a lot more, but it gives one an idea of what the BSA is facing.
Scout officials from Orange County, Calif., said some local Latino adults and children associate the uniform with repressive police or military officers in their home countries.
Which was why the uniform was redesigned and an activity uniform made available; what's missing from that equation was the emphasis that you can wear the activity uniform if you don't care/want/can the traditional uniform. Add to this a lack of guidance on what to do with the rank pins (which I've wrote and answered the Rural/Urban Field Service with "wear the things on the shirt. You're only wearing ONE pin!")
In addition, inner-city Scouts said that many of their friends can't afford a uniform, a Scout handbook, camping trips and other outings, although in some cities the price is lowered by charitable donations.
The costs of "the basic getups", as we talked here, can spin upwards to $100, when you add on the costs of dues ($12 a year) and registration fees ($7; $10 if you include _Boys_Life_). All which can be manageable, as you'll read here.
In Pittsburgh, leaders are trying to attract and retain African Americans by emphasizing the movement's African origins. Ronald Curry, a Scout official there, said he's planning a retreat in which he will tell boys that Scouting's lessons about surviving in the wilderness originate from Zulus in Africa. He's also encouraging the use of kente cloth neckerchiefs, an item added in December to an official Scout catalogue.
I've been asked to attend that retreat, and if it's all possible, I'll be there for it.
"It really is an image problem," Curry said. "The image shouldn't be negative. We're trying to show how black Americans can fit into Scouting."
Some minority Scouts said that not enough is being done to help overcome a lack of racial tolerance among many of their peers.
Larry Bowden, 14, of Bridgeport, Conn., said a group of Scouts recently made racial comments in his presence.
"They were saying black people have wider noses, that kind of stuff," he said. "If it was more diverse, I think they would have more understanding."
Better Larry, than some other comments about what you eat, wear, and listen to!!*heheheeee*
Now, that's I've torn this article up and gave everyone a serious case of guilts (it's not my intention to do either but rather to place a broader light on the problem and the wayI see that it can be helped (never solved; we're always going to have this problem about minority membership...it was with us when the BSA started and it'll be with us well into the next century...) The followup contains some rather direct ways that you and I can give a boost to this "Urban Emphasis Program".
(Ralph, I know that you and several others have read this; this is for the entire forum so you might want to delete my followup posting here!)