April, 2012

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Men of the Tenth Inc. Teaching the Truth to the Youth

R.I.P Trayvon Martin

The shooting of Trayvon Martin took place on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American who was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a man of mixed ethnic descent (Peruvian and white American). Martin was unarmed, walking from a convenience store to the home

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Hoop Dreams

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Ignorance Must Go

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Hip-Hop Quote of The Month

of his father's girlfriend when Zimmerman, a community watch coordinator, began following Martin and called the Sanford Police Department to say he witnessed suspicious behavior. Soon afterward, there was a physical altercation, which ended when Zimmerman fatally shot Martin.

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APRIL 2012 THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC.

Hoop Dreams By: LaVon Williams

Growing up in the Bronx I was like most black males from the inner city, I wanted to rap, dance, play a sport, and be cool. Although I was able to do all of those things, one thing I did not do was schoolwork. If I did any schoolwork, it was only enough to obtain a passing grade. I had the mindset that if I did the bare minimum to stay academically eligible to play basketball everything else in life would work itself out. While that was my thought process over 15 years ago today, too many black males have that same mindset. Unfortunately, this

mentality results in the creation of “hoop dreams” that affects too many black males. Too many black males think they can be the next, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, or Dwight Howard when in actuality it is only a dream that about 30 individuals experience a year. Hip-hop artist, Lauryn Hill once said “fantasies like this are what people want, but reality is what they need.” Here is the reality when it comes to black male student athletes; we are killing families, our culture, and ourselves pursing hoop dreams. For example, there are to many cant miss NBA prospects like Lenny Cooke in our community and not enough individuals like Jay Williams, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, and Kemba Walker. All of these individuals have both NBA experience and

college degrees. They define a student athlete and were so dedicated to their studies that they graduated from college at the end of their junior year instead of their senior year. They took advantage of their athlete scholarships and now have the academic credentials to have other careers outside of being a professional sports player. For example, Jay Williams, who suffered a career ending injury from a motorcycle accident was able to recover and use his communication degree to become an ESPN college basketball commenter. Despite losing some of his NBA money, Jay was able to survive because he had the academic credentials for employment in another field. Jay and others are examples that playing a sport is great, but being a student athlete is better. In order to be a student athlete you must put school first. If you don’t believe me just do a Google search for Lenny Cooke and you will see how far your talent can take you without an education. If you do agree with this message, continue to work on your academics just as hard as you work on your game because if something goes wrong like it did for Jay Williams, you will have the academic credentials to move on and become a professional baller in another career.

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APRIL 2012 THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC.

IGNORANCE MUST GO!

By: LaVon Williams

Earlier this month I witnessed behavior that has been causing harm to our community. This harmful behavior has existed for generations however, this behavior seems to be increasing. The increased harmful behavior is called ignorance and many people in our society are falling victim to it. Ignorance is running rapid in our schools, at work, in homes, and within the youth. It is now cool to be a fool. Recently, I witnessed this ignorance at the release of Tyler Perry’s movie Mr. Deeds and concluded that the core of this behavior is due to the lack of education. The education that people lack can be learned at home, in books, and through common sense. Somehow people seem to have lost this level of education or have never received it. For example, while at the movie theater there were several people having conversations during the movie. There were women drinking alcohol out of the bottle, men

answering their cell phones, and children running wild. Their behavior made me stop and question myself about where I was at because; it was behavior that is unacceptable at a movie theater. Moreover, this behavior made me question where did these people learn this behavior was acceptable? Is this behavior caused from being a product of your environment or is it laziness that stops them from acting right? History has shown that individuals that do not obtain an education have been taken advantage of by the wise. So how can and individual put a stop this self-destructive behavior? The simply answer is for people to read. Reading is a part of learning, and learning is the key to life. If individuals commit to reading then what they learn will open many doors for them and ignorant behavior shall be no more.

Groundbreaking artist Justin BUA is internationally known for his best-selling collection of fine art posters--The DJ being one of the most popular prints of all time. Born in 1968 in NYC's untamed Upper West Side and raised between Manhattan and East Flatbush, Brooklyn, BUA was fascinated by the raw, visceral street life of the city. He attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and complemented his education on the streets by writing graffiti and performing worldwide with breakdancing crews. BUA went on to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California where he earned a B.F.A. and taught figure drawing at the University of Southern California for ten years.

“To many rappers, athletes and actors and not enough brothers in NASA” --- Nas from America

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The Men of the Tenth Inc.

THE MEN OF THE TENTH INC. APRIL 2012