Helping America's Youth
The Oprah Winfrey Show | October 17, 2007
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Bill's co-author on Come On People, civil rights veteran and renowned Harvard psychiatry professor Dr. Alvin Poussaint, explains why they chose the subtitle, On the Path from Victims to Victors. "Our whole emphasis [is] on moving people out of victimhood and [getting them to do] the kinds of things they need to do to achieve and be successful. And not making excuses for themselves, no matter what the situation is," he says. Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Dr. Poussaint says many people have forgotten what the cause was all about. "A lot of people kind of fell into decadence that we see in the media all the time—the gangster rap, the people not caring about their neighborhood. Even since the civil rights movement, we have more black people hurting other black people, killing other black people," he says. "[There are] not enough people like Bill and others talking about what people can do for themselves." Dr. Poussaint says one of the major issues is the absence of father figures. "Many of these fathers are not present. They're absent. Many of them are even incarcerated. Many don't have jobs," Dr. Poussaint says. "And a lot of these young men don't even feel that it's important to be a father because many of them grew up in fatherless homes. The cycle just continues." |
