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What Lost Generation?
Black America’s future is in good hands

“They’re like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much, but producing nothing,” a quote from The Living Bible’s book of Jude is quite apropos to describe Black America’s young and restless “knuckleheads,” that all too often was summarily identified as “The Lost Generation,” which preceded the hell-bound “Hip Hop Generation.” That is, if we’re inclined to believe the psychobabble of Dr. Cliff Huxtable (aka Dr. William Henry Cosby, Jr.), who stirred a controversy when he declared, “People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

“People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up . . . and got all type of needles (piercing) going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a . . . thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back . . .. They are standing on the corner and they can't speak English. People used to be ashamed.

“Today, a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands,' or men or whatever you call them now. The idea is to one-day get out of the projects. You don't just stay there." Truth sets ye free notwithstanding, but one has cause to pause and ponder whether, or not, “Black folks” like Cosby are alluding to the upscale gated enclaves, where a majority of Black faces in high places reside, or the ‘hood from whence they came. Apparently they are, because it’s doubtful if they could negotiate the network of freeways back to the underserved, crime and drug infested urban jungles indigenous to disenfranchised, political apathetic, functionally illiterate, impoverished descendents of slaves that have fell through the cracks of their “Whole Village.”
For sure, African-American News&Issues isn’t aware that many of our young people are still falling through the cracks as we speak, but there is no proof, whatsoever, to validate the unfounded “Lost Generation” supposition. Truth is, Black America is often disparaged for having “a church on every corner,” but it might be a good place one should start looking for that “Lost Generation,” that far too many upward mobile brothers and sisters (wont to declare, “We’re not a monolithic people who…”), have prematurely given up on. Need we validate our premise with a myriad of examples? We could start with outstanding youths who’re energizing the NAACP, National Urban League, or even National United Black Front.

Why else would they criticize Cosby’s generalization? They realize we should embrace, rather than disgrace the most bedeviled generation in Africans in America’s history. Sadly, Cosby was focusing on the once invisible Black kids, which were ignored until federal dollars made them as valuable as those trapped in the criminal justice system, rather than our best and brightest. Even so, African-AmericanNews&Issues stands firm on our conviction that God ain’t through with our kids yet. Thus, we were delighted when we were afforded an opportunity to test our theory (that one can randomly find more good Black youths, even in the ‘hood), than bad ones at high noon, on June 5th, when we spotted a physically challenged White motorist.
He was stalled and blocking traffic (on the corner Tidwell @ Hollister), which included the old warrior. Good Samaritan aside, but when he pulled a wheel chair out of his junk heap, my ire changed concern. Not only was the thirty something, double-amputee, out of gas, but we learned later that he also was out of money. Fortunately the clunker died in front of a gas station. Unfortunately, a 70-year-old brother wasn’t about to push his ride under a steaming sun. God, however, moves in a mysterious way, therefore as a lark, I walked over to a nearby self-service car wash and asked five brothers if they wanted to practice a little Christian stewardship. There were no takers, but I caught one brother’s eye, before he hurriedly looked away.
Making a long story short, I prevailed upon him to become a Good Samaritan and he grudgingly complied (Probably to get me out of his face), but a steep incline made it obvious that we were going to catch hell trying to carry out our Godly mission.

Behold, a young White guy and a Hispanic stopped, rushed over and we became a mini-U.N. Divine intervention? Surely it was, when I put $10 on my gas card and told the amazed White fellow, “You can never again say that all Black males are bad news.” Then my journalistic instinct kicked in, therefore I couldn’t resist doing the unusual, which is the main reason African-American New& Issues has become Texas’ widest circulated newspaper with a Black perspective.
So, as usual we’re doing the unusual by turning the happenstance into an unusual, but positive rebuttal for every African American who bought into Bill Cosby’s “Lost Generation,” dichotomy. For sure, 25-year-old Kevin Ferguson is far from lost, insofar as he graduated from PVAMU in 2003 and has moved from Texas City to Houston to work. But there’s more. As usual, we applied our dig a little deeper (Story behind the story) policy and contacted Hunter’s Chapel CME, 7759 Carver Rd., where the young music major has been a lifelong member. We quickly learned that Kevin’s father, Floyd Ferguson, Jr., is not only an outstanding citizens, who also is musically inclined-- but his grandfather is Rev. Floyd Ferguson, Sr., a legendary minister.
Floyd, who is also the son of Valencia Johnson, was an outstanding student a LaMarque High School, according to a very nice Rhonda Alcorn, who took time to provide African News Issues with all of the background information we needed to complete the our article. She also asked us to put Texas City on our distribution map, so that her neighbors can be enlighten as she has become since accessing our Web Page (www.aframnews.com). And she can consider it done.
Meanwhile, we admit that there’s a preponderance of evidence supporting Jude’s reference to our confused, lost and looking kids. However, wayward kids are a universal common denominator for all races or classes.

And Kevin Ferguson is living proof that Black America’s future is still in good hands. In essence, Cosby, et al, should stop rushing to judgment and instead, adhere to the biblical wisdom, “For a good tree bringeth forth not corrupt fruit.”