Aisha Latiker, 17, says that she wants grownups to listen. She says that is what young people want from us, and as long as we don’t listen, we’re never going to make any headway in helping stem the tide of murders of young people in this city.
The tragic number is 23. That is 23 Chicago Public Schools students murdered this year. That compares to 36 killed last year. Unfortunately, that is not the sum total. There are other young people, who are no longer a part of the school system because they have dropped out, who also figure into the total.
We’ve heard all of the theories for why it is so dangerous for our young people, and we’ve heard all of the hack theories on how to reduce the number of homicides. None of them have worked yet%uFFFD not stepped up police involvement, not more men on the streets, not anti-gang intervention and not more basketball courts and swimming pools.
Aisha says that the key is to involve young people in the solution. And I believe her, because Aisha is involved. “If they would stop lecturing and start listening. We don’t want people lecturing us and coming in and talking down to us,” she said. “We need people to listen. Aisha is listening, and talking. She goes out and talks to other kids and speaks to adults.
She raises her voice wherever it can be heard, even though she knows that speaking out is not “cool.” She’s heard from the young people themselves why it is so dangerous out there, why the lure of gangs is so strong, why peer pressure drives so many bad youth decisions. “Many of them go to gangs and violence because they are not getting that feeling of family at home,” Aisha told editors at the Chicago Defender.
That is not the case at Aisha’s home. Her mother, Diane, isn’t waiting on some government agency or some school district program or a church ministry to try to save at-risk kids. Diane founded Kids Off the Block, her own program designed to reach out to those that society has written off. She goes out and literally gets kids off the block, kids whose sole activity is hanging out on the corners, usually who have no homes to go to.
She opened up her own home to them and provides them family, attention, love and hope. “I am kind of an outcast,” says Diane. “I go and get these kids that most people say can’t be saved. Kids Off the Block only takes in thugs and gangbangers. Well, those are the ones we have to go after. They say they are criminals, animals and they like to see them put away, out of sight. I am not going to give up on them. They have talents, they have a future.”
She takes issue with labeling our young people with negative labels. “(Chicago Public Schools CEO) Arne Duncan called them ‘urban terrorists.’ That doesn’t serve any purpose, and those kids start to believe what they hear,” she said. And the kids are watching, and listening. That is what got Aisha involved. She saw her mother bringing these kids into the house.
She watched them eating food she thought she was going to eat, taking up space in the house, and, taking up her mother’s time… time she thought would be hers exclusively. “So I got involved to see what it was my mother was doing all the time,” Aisha said.
She is now her mother’s best ally. Diane and her daughter know they can’t save everyone. Their home is only so large. Diane has contacted area churches to see if they will house some of the kids, but so far, she is not getting a lot of support.
Even the churches, whose mission would seem to be to go after the unchurched, go after the children, don’t want to be involved because they are afraid of these young people. But she is now in line to get some additional funding for her efforts through a state-sponsored program called Safety Net Works “I’m not going to let them go,” says Diane.
“I’ve been fighting for them for almost five years.” There is hope in turning around these tragic numbers, even if it is just one young person at a time. Diane Latiker is part of that hope, as she gives that hope to young people. Her daughter, Aisha, is a manifestation of that hope. If only we would listen to them. Lou Ransom is Executive Editor of the Chicago Defender.
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