What Is the American Dream to a Black Boy? Combating Juvenile Recidivism Through Service-Learning Programs Crystal S. T. Russell Doctoral Student Department of Instructional Support Programs Alabama State University
Tamara T. Venice Doctoral Student Department of Instructional Support Programs Alabama State University
Kiyomi Moore Doctoral Student Department of Instructional Support Programs Alabama State University
This paper addresses the challenges of one of our most vulnerable yet capable populations: justice-involved youth. Policies within many juvenile detention centers are counterproductive and ineffective in reducing recidivism. This is extremely unfortunate, because the conditions of the juvenile detention center provide the optimal environment for behavioral and cognitive change. It is the responsibility of these institutions to inspire reform in the students they serve. Servicelearning programs such as academic debate act as catalysts of change for minority youth caught in the system. Malcolm X discovered his voice while competing on a prison debate team and used that voice to change not only his life but the very fabric of this nation. He writes, I think that an objective reader may see how in the society to which I was exposed as a black youth here in America, for me to wind up in a prison was really just about inevitable. It happens to so many thousands of black youth. (X & Haley, 1965, p. 436) Utilizing debate to inspire cognitive transformations in adjudicated youth would play a monumental role in the fight against structural oppression and juvenile recidivism. Throughout American history, dreams have been a recurring motif that symbolizes opportunity, upward mobility, and prosperity. Unfortunately for Black Americans, this “dream” is more often than not a nightmare of systemic oppression. Today, the United States houses nearly 35,572 children in detention facilities, and Black males are severely overrepresented in this statistic (Sickmund et al., 2021). Black juvenile males make up only 14% of the American youth population, yet they account for 41% of those caught up in the juvenile justice system (Sawyer, 2019; Rovner & Nellis, 2021). These children are brilliant yet undervalued, creative but repressed, and innovative yet hopeless. Langston Hughes (1951) once lamented, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Dreams of adolescent Black males become the antithesis of their greatest selves. They sit in detention centers, gifted beyond belief, yet forgotten by America’s stalemated dream. While there, these children have the opportunity to develop self-awareness and purpose if exposed to service-learning programs, which integrate social awareness projects that address community needs into academic, criticalthinking activities (Dickerson, 2020). There are several examples of service-learning activities; however, this paper will specifically highlight public speaking and debate programs. 95
