Soapbox Standing (18 Oct 10)

This was written on 29 March 2010;  I found it while looking for the Centennial March emails this morning.  I stand squarely behind what it says — and it says a lot for how the program I truly LOVE is treating markets that they should be more proactively going after!!

By the way, I STILL have that four-inch stack of Council Shoulder Patches (CSPs).  Nobody has taken me up on that bet —

I was replying to a series of emails sent to me by a longtime volunteer Scouter in the Monroe, Louisiana area.  John wrote in part:

“I have a great deal of experience as a Scoutmaster , Eagle, and Navy which is in dire need now out here in the country as well as inner cities. I have passed the back ground check for teaching. We have a Troop here in Monroe catering to basically white boys but none for the black boys which the Boys/Girls Club could sponsor.”

That has been a problem in the South for as long as I’ve been associated with Scouting, John. I served as a Commissioner in a district-within-a-district that I wrote about in one of my books.  The district was a “zone” and not a “district” in the purest sense of the word.  There were separate white and black units organized in the same town and while nobody SAID this out loud in public, the implication was that the “blacks go to the black troop in town; the whites go to the white troop in town and everything’s cool.  Just don’t try breaking up the streams.”

As a Commissioner, I am concerned with health of units….and when I saw that the smaller black units were struggling while the white ones were getting by and in some cases growing, I attempted to put the two units together.  All hell broke out when I attempted it, with BOTH SIDES saying “leave us alone and go do your commissioning somewhere’s else…”  I talked with the District Director of that District and he basically said “we’re not gonna get them to change…just let it go and take the loss.”

So I’m sure that is the attitude which is going on there in Monroe…but I would definately check into seeing if a black service organization — the Masons who were great to me when I attempted to organize predominately black units — and of course the AME church in town — would be willing to partner a Scout Troop.  Don’t forget that you can organize a Troop using the “group citizens residing in…” model too!

“We need Scouts, true Eagle Scouts more than ever. I have been getting pushed by God to jump back in.”

I agree with you 200 percent, John.  The problem is that we’re being drowned out in our own messages. 

(I’m going to jump onto my soapbox now…please forgive me)

Everyone is aware of the BSA’s 100th anniversary, but NOBODY is talking about the BSA’s downturn in membership, units and reach to the minority populations of this nation.  As I’ve told an audience in the States two months back, we’re turning the BSA from the “Baby Sitters of America” to the “BS of America”. Nobody believes that the BSA today is trying to attract Black and Hispanic youth — I’ve heard it from the mouths of volunteers and professionals. The current campaign is simply a way to attempt to influnce the current President into supporting the BSA — which officially, he HAS NOT come out and stated.  Until that happens, no matter how many Black, Latino and Asian faces that they show on their publications and on their commercials — there will be little to NO reaction from the intended audiences!

Why hasn’t President Obama come out like his white predecessors and have publically stated something to the effect that “Scouting is good for American youth — and especially for black youth?”  We may get that answer at the Jamboree this summer.  There is high hopes that the President will make an appearance.  I’ve got a four-inch stack of CSPs from all over the nation that says he WILL NOT ATTEND — and if he does, it’ll be by “remote control” and most Scouts won’t get the impact of a recorded or beamed address.  It’s too late for that anyways in my estimation.

To many Black families — and I can only really talk to Black families, John — Scouting has turned into the “white boys camping club” and its really unfortunate that this has occured.  Black folk can get in, they can participate, but there’s too much “hassle” to do so especially under the current circumstances.  Things are tight for Black families today because the impact of the loss of Black men is hitting many suburban communities right now and there are NOT a lot of Black Scouting role models out for the BSA to hold up and say “see, a success story!!”

As illustration, I can only point people to Jet and Ebony magazines.  The Johnson Publishing Company did a great job back in the 50s and 60s in promoting the BSA and the GSUSA through their publications.  In the late 60s the Ebony Fashion Shows which went around from black community to black community also included some workshops on how to organize Scouting units, especially in the South.  In the 80s and 90s however, such promotions ceased. I looked over Christmastime in an index of Ebony and could only find one story about the former National Commissioner, Earl Graves.

The BSA has not learned the lesson of “taking small accomphishments and compounding upon them” yet in this regard.  There ARE plenty of successful Black men who are former Scouts (and many of them are in the National Eagle Scout Association — which NESA has been a REAL disappointment if one asked me!).  The problem is that they are being looked at with the implication “we want your black face but we really don’t need your black hands…”

So the Black community can’t point their kids to a “real Scouting success story” as motivation to get their son — not a son in the “ghettos” but their son in SUBURBIA or RURAL AMERICA — to become part of Scouting.

(off my soapbox now…) 

I’m glad you posted me, John…and I hope that I’ve answered your questions and concerns. Stay in touch!