CHICAGO – One of the great failures of post-'60s liberalism was that it failed to offer blacks a pathway to meaningful development. Several of the Great Society programs, including the War on Poverty, promised to socially engineer blacks upward into equality with whites. But having endured four centuries of oppression, this was not really possible. Black people needed real development, not just the optics of equality. Though the government spent trillions of dollars on social programs, many blacks found themselves descending into the permanent black underclass where generation after generation was born into crippling poverty. Meanwhile, most of the white liberals that pushed these social programs received accolades for their "efforts" to help blacks while suffering no consequences for the failures.
These thoughts were the subject of conversation between Pastor Corey Brooks, King Randall and Travis Cochran on the 61st day of the 100-day rooftop vigil to raise funds for a community center designed to transform lives on the South Side of Chicago. Both Randall and Cochran are pursuing similar efforts in Albany, Georgia, with their organization, The "X" for Boys.
"I want to ask you, King, what do you think about the state of black boys in America?" the pastor began.
"I just feel like they’re being failed," Randall said. "They're all being failed by many of the institutions that are designed for them to fail. And not even just our boys, but all the boys that are included in these school systems."
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"Yeah, all boys," the pastor agreed.
"But these policies are affecting more of our black boys in particular, and its from liberal white racists," Randall continued. "These people are actually enacting policies that are messing up the children in our communities. But they're in bed with your pastors, they're in bed with people across the country, all your favorite activists who have their fist up saying Black Lives Matter. They're all in bed with each other, making sure that our communities stay oppressed."
In Albany, where Randall lives, 38.4% of black residents live below the poverty line. Randall’s answer for the community is for it to take fate into its own hands.
"Once people get in and start saying, ‘You know what? We want school choice. We’re going to open up our own schools. We’re going to start teaching our own boys how to do different skill trades,’" Randall said.
He is in the process of opening a new school called The Life Preparatory School for Boys.
"It'll be an all-boys boarding school in the city of Albany. We're teaching children different skilled trades, welding, firearms training. We're teaching them how to work on cars, work on houses, different projects, such as STEM," Randall said. An earlier version of the "program already has a 86% reading comprehension rate coming from a city where so many children can't read."
By opening his own school, Randall is making school choice a reality for his community. He hopes that others will rise up and create even more schools.
"Man, that is what I'm talking about," the pastor said excitedly. "The trades, that's what I'm talking about. Giving these young people opportunities and options and alternatives."
The pastor then turned to Cochran, a businessman, and asked why he was helping Randall.
"Because I feel like we have to attack these things from a two point side," Cochran said. "Even after we get skill sets, we need pipelines … So if I can bring welding companies, if I could bring film companies, if I could bring engineering companies to these kids after they've learned these skills at our school, then we can give them a pipeline direct to—It's almost like going to direct consumer, but instead it's going to direct to skill workers."
The pastor could not agree more.
"Do you think it is up to brothers like us to be able to save the day?" the pastor asked.
"They have to see they can do it, because a lot of them don’t believe they can," Randall said. "A lot of their pastors, a lot of their community leaders, a lot of their activists, will make them feel like the only way they can help their community is by putting their fist up and saying Black Lives Matter."
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"When you can start something yourself, you don't need a major movement, you can just do something," Randall continued. "You can go and take a child to school every day, go in and buy food for a family once a week."
He then added: "We're going to continue to see this same cycle if we don't understand that we can help ourselves."
That is the simple but all-powerful lesson that these individuals born into the era of post-60s liberalism must learn and, when they do, their fate will be squarely in their hands.
Follow along as Fox News checks in Pastor Corey Brooks each day with a new Rooftop Revelation.
For more information, please visit Project H.O.O.D.
Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter: @Hebro_Steele.
Camera by Terrell Allen.
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