We should stop allowing the media and pop culture to raise our children and teach them anything other than how to entertain.
Everyday, I am bombarded with images and lingo that teach our children nothing.
While it is not the responsibility of creatives and artists to censor and limit their work and vision, it it our responsibility to teach critical thought and action.
By teaching critical thought we do not limit nor eliminate certain types of artistry, we expand thinking and usher in greater and more complex thinking and creativity.
We must plan trips and outings for our children that show several images of what is possible.
When young girls see women as props, shaking their money makers and only being concerned with getting and keeping male attention, we invite an entire generation to focus on the physical aesthetic.
When this occurs, they ignore the struggle and joy in developing inner resources which incite victorious lives.
Pink, in her great song, Stupid Girls asks: What happened to the dream of a girl president? She’s dancing in a video next to fifty cent.
Young males do not escape the cultural brainwashing that says young males are aggressive, not to be trusted and can only take up space when they are thugs.
When young boys are provided with physical touch that is not sexual or aggressive they learn to navigate their bodies in ways that have nothing to with domination as the only representation of maleness.
Turn off the television and pick up a book.
Have a discussion.
Attend a community meeting where differences of opinion are loud, passionate and divergent.
Allow young people to see discord and confusion being addressed without physicality, shaming or belittling.