Young Men Of Color Analysis

Young Men of color are being brainwashed into accepting a new and wrongful norm. This new norm includes bullying and racism, not just in school but in our environments and everyday lives. In the documentary “A New Normal: Young Men of Color, Trauma and Engagement in Learning” we listen to young men of color expressing their encounters with bullying, racism and discrimination, and how they were raised to adjust and let it become a new norm. We also learn that the young men in the video all had something in common besides going through racism, bullying and being forced into this new norm, they also shared the lack of courage to seek professional help when dealing with any problems or going through a death.

Kashif, one of the young men that

participated in the documentary, explains how unintentionally segregated some environments have become. He talks about how if you’re living in one neighborhood, 172 and Sheridan for example, you can’t go to the other side, 161, because that’s where the Latinos were. Basically what Kashif is trying to establish is that even though segregation ended years ago, the fear of gang violence has somehow found its way to unintentionally segregate us. This kind of segregation is not only happening in environments, but school as well. Another young man from the documentary named Rilwan gives his perspective of how this is new norm had its effect in school. He talks about the negative comments other classmates had to say about him, and this later resulted in Rilwan not having the courage to participate in any class activities. He also talks about the fear he feels that him other young men of color goes through when adapting to new environments, he says that if they make the wrong impression, it will stick to them for the rest of the school year, so this would lead them to stay isolated from others and not socialize.
Kareem, another male from documentary, tells us about his experience in a school where the majority of the population was white. He says he would walk into school and the word “nigger” would be written on his locker. Situations like these is what Kareem tells us is what got him to become violent. He let all his emotions and anger build up inside him and instead of speaking to someone he started letting out his anger and emotions physically. Bullying situations like these should be a concern to community health advocates because according to the national bullying prevention center, 64 percent of the people who are bullied does not speak to anyone about it and more than half (57%) of the bullying situations stop when the victim speaks up. Although in this documentary most of the young men said they rather deal with problems with themselves than to talk to someone, this shows that seeking professional help will avoid and teach the young men better ways to deal with their life issues.
In school people are not only discriminated by race but also by their education level, the way they dress and the way they talk.

They’re so many different ways school students are judged. According to Dr. Carlye from the film he mentions that many young men, especially young men of color are being pushed out of the school system for various of reasons. He says this is causing these young men to take the wrong path into criminalization, violence and emotional trauma. A perfect of example of this is Triston, a young male who was a special education student for most of his life in New York schools. Triston told us in the film from his perspective how it is being a student with any kind of mental disability in New York schools, he tells us that teachers would not teach the students, and allow them to think and solve problems on their own, teachers would give the students that answers for test and read to them without allowing them to learn or try taking test on their

own.
The young men in the film all learned to adjust to these new norms.

They adapt to these life challenges by using their own resources. For example, students who suffer from a friend or relative passing away they tend to keep to themselves and not get professional help. Like Denzil for example, he says when he is going through something he lets his frustrations out on something or go out for a run to blow off some steam. This happens so much that the young men of color get used to it and manage to live with the outcome because it’s a normal thing for them. Denzil later on mentions he lost a friend to street violence, although he was hurting inside, he decided not to get professional help because as a young man of color this is something they would have to live through and move on because they think this is their new norm. Some of these young men in the film even uses these life crisis and experiences as a life lesson. Young men of color are surrounded by death all their lives, that these traumatic events will eventually become a daily routine for them, to the point where they won’t show emotions or it would lead them to do worse. This is why having professional help is important, we should allow others to have someone to talk to about their issues because professional help will change the way they think and instead of the young men accepting this new norm they can realize it does not have to be that

way.
“Racism, social injustice, intergenerational trauma, issues of poverty and inequality of educational opportunities, have all been linked to stress, depression, psychological distress and anxiety for African American youth.” This quote from the film summarizes what each and every student that participated in this documentary went through. It proves that even though the students are dealing with it and adjusting to what they call this new norm it will later hunt them and have their effects on how they live their lives. Community mental health advocates should immediately provide help for students who are dealing with problems at home, violence or educational issues. To conclude, this new norm that young men of color are adjusting to are causing them to live in fear of losing someone, not being at the social level they want to be because of bullying and other reasons and not getting the appropriate education opportunities because of racial issues and mental issues. This should be a priority mission to community mental health advocates to provide help and demonstrate that helping makes a difference.