Bloomington Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Section C7

Writer hopes book helps young black men reject the gangsta life

By Steve Hinnefeld, H-T Staff Writer

Renford Reese describes how many young black males have embraced a self-destructive culture of underachievement in his new book American Paradox: Young Black Men.

But Reese, a professor of political science at California State Polytechnic University (Pomona), wants to do more than just describe the problem. He wants the book to be a catalyst for changing behavior.

“This book is a manifesto to get young black males to open their eyes,” he said.

Reese was in Bloomington Monday for a lecture series organized by an Indiana University class on issues in black education. The title of his talk was “The Gangsta Thug and Educational Underachievement: A Dialogue on Education, Race and Popular Culture.”

“This book is a manifesto

to get young black males to

open their eyes.”

Renford Reese, author

In an interview, he lamented that young black men have unwittingly accepted an idea of masculinity based on toughness and menace. The problem, he said, is that, “if you present yourself as a thug that’s the way the world is going to treat you.”

For his book, published by Carolina Academic Press, Reese had 756 black male teenagers rate prominent black figures, many of them athletes, on what he called a “realness scale.”

The results, he said, were disturbing if not surprising. Rated most “real” were figures known for thuggish behavior: basketball star Allen Iverson and the slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

Golfer Tiger Woods was seen as “fake” by the teens. David Robinson, a star in the same sport as Iverson but with a reputation as thoughtful and multitalented, “was right down there with him.”

“David Robinson should be the quintessential black role model,” Reese said.

Reese wouldn’t seem to lack credibility with his audience. He’s black, male and young enough--in his 30s. A star defensive back in the 1980s on Vanderbilt’s football team, he lectures at prisons and counseled Los Angeles police beating victim Rodney King.

But he tells a story that shows how strong cultural anti-intellectualism can be.

About 10 years ago, pro football legend Jim Brown invited him to a board meeting for his Ameri-I-Can program, which helps former gang members. The men in the room introduced themselves, recounting their gang affiliations and prison terms. When it was Reese’s turn, he said he was a graduate student at the University of Southern California.“I felt like I had just said, `Hi, I’m Opie Taylor and I represent the Boy Scouts of America,’” he said. “It was like I was from another planet.”

In his book, Reese takes what he sees as controversial positions -- for example, faulting black leaders for “being imprisoned by ideology, that they have to play by the liberal playbook.” He said there’s anger in the book resulting from the fact that he started writing after visiting the 400-year-old Elmina Slave Castle in Ghana, West Africa, where captured Africans started their journey to America as slaves. First he was angry at Europeans for what they did to his ancestors. Then he was angry at young blacks for failing to appreciate the suffering of the past, and for thinking they have it tough.

But he’s encouraged by the“discourse and dialogue” the book seems to have started. And he is cheered that among its readers are young black men who want to reject the thug life.

He produced a letter, typed on a manual typewriter, from a 31-year-old man serving time for manslaughter at California’s Centinela State Prison. The former gang member said he read the book in a single sitting and looks forward to meeting Reese when the author visits the prison next week.

“These are the people I’m trying to reach,” Reese said.

Reporter Steve Hinnefeld can be reached at 331-4374 or by e-mail at shinnefeld@heraldt.com