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Community Corner

Rev. Al Sharpton Calls For More Positive Black Male Role Models

Activist was guest speaker for Sunday Men's Day Service at West Hunter Baptist in the Historic West End.

Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton said young troubled black men don't have enough positive role models in their lives. 

The syndicated radio broadcaster congratulated the men of West Hunter Baptist Church for being positive role models in the lives of young men at the West End church, but too many black male youth emulate the negative role models they see in their homes and communities, he said

“If they only see negative images of manhood to look up to they will think that is what manhood is,” Sharpton said Sunday during the Men's Day Worship Service. “If all they see are gangbangers, criminal behavior and irresponsible fathers they will think that is manhood for that is the example set before them.” 

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“The best thing you can do for a young man is show him the right man to emulate,” he added. “The Bible said to train a child in the way in which he should go. He may stray but he can't return to something that has never been put in him.”

Sharpton also had a message for the adults to stop complaining about President Barack Obama is not doing enough for black folk. There is a growing atmosphere of discontent, he said. “Well what about us? Nobody is doing anything for black folk. What about our issues?”

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He added that God did not just give the president and ministers the power to effect change; he said everyone has that power but most people chose not to use it. There are some who complain about the few gains the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community and immigrants have made.

“Immigrants got out and marched on their issues by the hundreds of thousands. Gays did the same thing," Sharpton said. "You sit home like liberation is supposed to come through room service.” 

Sharpton and rappers have been having an ongoing discussion about their use of the “n” and derogatory names for females. They responded that he doesn't understand and that it is a “generational thing.”

“How you define yourself is how they will confine you,” Sharpton countered.

The founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN) a not-for-profit civil rights organization based in Harlem, New York, also hosts his own radio talk show which can be heard in the early afternoon in Atlanta on WAOK 1380-AM.

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