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So, when we take this example and extrapolate it to other areas of indifference
facing African Americans, it becomes clear to us why Appreciative Inquiry is so
critical. As African Americans, we must learn to reinforce our race...our youth
and ourselves, as the adults in their lives. Our youth are critical because they
are our next generation. Therefore, it becomes important that we ground them with
positive thinking and dialogue, which are not new concepts and, as I stated during
the keynote address, are grounded in Biblical text. Otherwise, we risk loosing a
critical battle.
To help youth in gangs and African Americans at large develop a new concept of
themselves, we must teach them to throw aside the language that ensconces our
culture and emerge with a new language. Inherent in learning a new language is
also learning to dislodge the old language and metaphors associated with the
language (Gergen, 1994). However, one's ability to effectively dislodge the
existing languages and cultural associations that occur with language is not an
easy task. When we deconstruct existing paradigms and language, we have to be able
to replace the paradigms, language patterns, and metaphors with well-wrought principles
due to the inherent distrust which occurs when anything becomes unsettled or dislodged
(Gergen, 1994). Therefore, this dislodgment process is a challenge not only to gang
members but to society as well. Once the dislodgement begins, it becomes easier for
us to question why we accept situations in our lives. For example many of the youth
I worked with were not all from inner city communities that we tend to describe as
the "ghetto" or "the hood". A significant number of these children came from suburbia,
but were failing in school, to the point that they were placed in the alternative school
system and had a history of active gang involvement. In most cases, they came from middle
class families. Yet, these young people were not successful in the normal school setting.
Unfortunately, the gang environment attracted them, and perhaps in some ways began to
develop into their alternative reality in place of an environment where, for whatever
reason, they felt and communicated believing that they were locked out. The language
patterns that these young people internalized included concepts such as behavior
disorder, which many equated to being a bad person. The cultural norms they accepted
was that it is socially appropriate to emerge from a high-school environment and
not read at a normal grade level. Unfortunately for our youth, as the components
of deficit discourse is continually disseminated to the culture, they become
absorbed into the common language, a language that these young people internalized
(Gergen, 1994). Therefore, it was understandable why they called themselves
"niggers" or "demotes"...terms that they were very comfortable in using to describe
themselves. Even the term "at risk youth", a term with which society is very comfortable,
particularly when applying it to youth of color, has left the domain of the counseling
profession and entered the domain of public discourse, discourse that these young
people are exposed to on a daily basis, discourse that is extensively used throughout
the black community (Gergen, 1994).
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