I live on a street where the other side borders a County Park with a par 3 golf course, a soccer field, and playground and basketball courts. Most of this summer the backboard and rims were taken down while the park was being renovated. As soon as they were put up there was a movement from some people bordering the park to remove them. First they said the renovated basketball “hoops”, as they call them, were a source of bicycle thefts in the park. They held a meeting last week that I was unable to attend. Yesterday the same small group that borders the park said that the basketball playing was the source of vandalism, noise, swearing and fighting, all things that as a frequent user of the park I have not noticed. They said they decided to take down one basketball rim and backboard so there can no longer be full court basketball games. What they did not say, is that the young adults who drive to the park to play these full court basketball games and then leave are mostly African American males. These groups of county residents who use the park were not consulted in this decision. The persons bordering the park say we neighbors cannot understand this issue because we live on the other side of the street, not bordering the park.
This decision to deny these young adults a place to play basketball, five on five, strikes at the heart of a concern that many of us share: the demise of the young African American male. They are dying on the streets, seven homicide vigils this week, or being locked in our prison system only to be let out on the streets in a desperate condition.
During one of the prayer vigils for homicide victims today a young looking African American male came by to pray with us. It turns out that he was walking to a church many blocks away that would help him with a bus pass to seek a job. Since our next prayer vigil was in the direction he was walking I offered to drive him part of the way. It turns out that he was just let out of prison after three years a few weeks ago for an illegal drug conviction. He was from East St. Louis and had been here visiting his mother when he ‘caught’ the time. Now his mother had moved back to East St. Louis and he was dropped off in Milwaukee from prison with nothing to his name and no family or friends in the area. He had a very temporary place to stay and was desperately seeking a job so he can have money for food and shelter.
The unemployment rate for young adult African American males in the Milwaukee area is over 50% and the rate of those with a criminal record even higher. I pray he can catch a break and find the employment he seeks.
So I may live on the wrong side of the street, but I feel compelled to fight for the one backboard and rim that might help some young man to enjoy life, stay off the streets and stay away from the crime and activity we all, on the wrong side and the right side of the street so fear.
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