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The National Black Catholic Congress
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Middle Class Values, Whose Virtues
What are we doing to our Youth?
By Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJ

Value and Virtue, what are they? The following definitions are taken from Webster's Online Dictionary:

Value

• (n) An ideal accepted by some individual or group; "he has old-fashioned values".
• (v) Regard highly; think much of

Virtue

• (n) The quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong.
• (n) A particular moral excellence.

I thought that it would be good to begin this reflection about values, virtues, and youth with a solid definition of terms. By doing this we might be able to gain more clarity by the time we reach the conclusion!

We often hear the term "value" used in public discourse. Politicians are particularly prone to couch their various programs in terms of one set of values or another, i.e. family, environmental, social, liberal, conservative, afrocentric, eurocentric, etc.

Contrarily, we rarely hear much talk about "virtue" in the same spheres. Perhaps some think that values and virtues are the same, hence to talk about one is to talk about the other. However, the definitions above and certainly the history of these terms as they have been used by philosophers and theologians show us that their meanings are quite different, albeit related to each other. Let us examine them a little more closely.

Values are values simply because someone values them! Did I really say something meaningful just now? Another way of putting this is that values are ultimately subjective-totally determined by the individual or group that esteems something. To say that something is a value is not to say that it is necessarily good or bad, it is simply to say that someone holds it in high regard. Tragically, some very bad things can be values. For instance, those who champion so-called "reproductive freedom" hold the current constitutionally sanctioned legality of abortion (Roe v. Wade) as a value!

Virtue, on the other hand, has a definitive connection to that which is good, moral, and true. A virtue can never be used to do something bad. We have another term for the quality of doing that which is bad, namely, vice. So virtues are not ultimately subjective-determined only by the individual-rather, virtues have an objective character which is determined by the end result, the good thing done as a result of the virtue.

This now takes us back to our topic, Middle Class Values, Whose Virtues? Think about the following statements:

• I don't want my children to go through what I went through!
• I want my children to have the things I never had when I was growing up!
• I will not raise my children the way I was raised, I want them to think for themselves and to be free!
• I don't force my children to go to Church; that is a choice they need to make for themselves!
• I will not force my children to go to school if they feel overwhelmed by the whole experience; they can find something more to their liking!

I suspect that many people will have some sympathy with the first three statements. Statement number four is a bit more suspect-especially for readers of the NBCC Website! I am certain that just about everyone will judge the fifth statement to be absolute hogwash! Yet each of these statements represents a definite value or value system.

Keep the first three statements in the back of your mind. Most adult readers of this article probably find themselves materially better off today than when they were children. Most adult readers are the children or grandchildren of folks who worked very hard, who in many cases struggled to make ends meet, and who sacrificed in order to raise their families, to provide basic needs, and to give them the guidance, discipline, and direction that was necessary for them to become responsible adults. Two Biblical passages would probably best describe this environment, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6) and "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him" (Prov. 13:24). Or, as the old folks used to put it "Spare the rod and spoil the child!"

Those raised under this value system remember it well because so much of it was drilled into them ad nauseum! In most cases this value system produced many virtues and virtuous people. Those who internalized the values learned to be polite and respectful. They learned to work hard and to appreciate both what they earned and what was given to them. The "value" of a good education was second only to the "values" of faith and family. It went without saying that education was the key to future success. Therefore, becoming an educated person was greatly esteemed and thus, valued.

The result of the virtues produced by this value system was a series of improvements and advancements in people's personal, social, economic, and political circumstances. This brings us to the present. Because there have been so many improvements and/or changes on so many different levels, some have begun to take a different look at those "old-fashioned" values.

Working at a school, I can see on a daily basis some of the changes that have taken place. Very few students at my school walk to school or ride the bus as we used to. Most are chauffeured and dropped off-red carpet style-at the school gate! An even greater change is seen in the number of students who drive to school, whether in their parents' cars or increasingly in "their own"! I put that in quotes because "their own" doesn't mean that they have jobs and worked to buy the cars, it means that mommy and/or daddy bought it for them just for being themselves! Although for the sake of full disclosure, the most common reason given for this fringe benefit is the "convenience" to parents who no longer have to do the chauffeuring I mentioned above.

Thankfully at my school our students wear uniforms, which significantly cut down on wardrobe expenses! However, if weekend dress is a good indicator, at any given point, the typical middle class teenager is wearing $150 in footwear, $75-$125 in shirt and pants, $60-$75 in watches, earrings (boys and girls these days!), gangsta chains, grills, and other accessories. This ensemble would be incomplete without the prerequisite $200-$300 cell-phone/camera/video recorder. And the whole thing is topped off by the $150-$350 I-pod. I don't have time or space to add in all the home-based items such as electronic games, entertainment centers, and the like. Do the math. That's a lot of stuff, and a lot of parental money!!!

That is definitely a part of the lifestyle of many of our youth today-not all, but many. Yet that lifestyle is supported by adults. Those who provide that lifestyle for them have been frequently heard to utter the sentiments expressed in those first three statements above. The majority of the providers of this level of comfort for today's youth did not have anything comparable to this phenomenon in their own adolescent years. Hence, new circumstances have brought about new values. Today, it is very important to have all the things that one can get access to. That seems to be the predominant value underlying today's culture of perpetual indulgence.

In reference to the fourth statement, many of those same adults who "grew up in church" no longer participate themselves or do not require the youth living in their homes to attend. Mind you, these were people who had no choice about church attendance when they were kids, but "times have changed!" Examine for yourself. Attend the church of your youth and see what the congregation looks like today. Is it larger or is it smaller, more or less vibrant? How many children are present? Bill Cosby had this to say about the matter:

There is another thing that little boys don't do anymore: go to church. When we were kids, once a week we had to get dressed to the nines in clothes we'd rather not wear and spend an hour sitting and kneeling quietly in a place we'd rather not be. But this was a useful and necessary discipline. We learned how to sit still. We learned how to sit quietly. We learned self-control, and we knew the consequences if we didn't. . . .Today, many boys don't go to church and couldn't even put their clothes on straight if they did. (Cosby, excerpt on ABC NEWS Internet Ventures)

Times have changed indeed, and with times, so also values.

Now when we get to that fifth statement, I have to admit to something. I just made that one up! I have never heard anyone say that in real life. I made it up for a reason, though. It is so obviously insane that it probably caught your attention more than the others. Isn't it interesting that regardless of how we may have accepted the other changes, there are few among us who would advocate making school optional. So even the new generation still insists on education, right?

Yes and no! It is no secret that among the many crises we are facing with African American youth, one of them is the educational gap. Black students are lagging behind their white, Hispanic, and Asian counterparts at alarming rates. Consider the following quote from African American journalist and political commentator Juan Williams:

Before the Brown decision, only 24 percent of blacks under age thirty had finished high school, about half the rate of white Americans. Initially school integration opened doors to better schools for more black people. Large numbers of black Americans who had been held back by segregation jumped to get their diplomas and this has pushed up the official graduation rate.

But that progress has been stalled for more than twenty years. Official graduation rates for blacks have not significantly changed since 1982. . . .The fact is that many of those [alternative] high school degrees are worthless in a competitive global economy. According to federal data, the average black American twelfth grader scores worse on basic skills than 80 percent of white twelfth graders. That is a serious gap. It is a mortal threat to the race. (Williams 93-94)

Williams goes on to cite statistical evidence of lower GPA's of black seniors headed to college when compared to white, Asian, and Hispanic students, and of lower standardized test scores (Williams, 94-95).

Now we can address the relationship between values and virtue. It can be argued that the change in values from the "old" system based on a strong work ethic, personal responsibility, accountability, and delayed gratification to the "new" system of lavish indulgence, unearned rewards, and instant/constant gratification has resulted in a loss of certain virtues which produced good results and the development of a new set of vices which is wreaking havoc among our youth.

No longer motivated by the need to get out of poverty, no longer regularly required to do household chores, no longer expected to be respectful of and obedient to adults because they recognized as possessing a wisdom brought about by age and experience and thus serve as authority figures, no longer universally given a clear set of moral principles to judge right from wrong and good from evil, no longer motivated to be twice as good in order to get a fair shot, no longer connecting personal educational achievement with the maintenance of a certain quality of life, too many, nay, far too many of our youth have become willful underachievers!

Too many bright and intelligent young people are wasting their native talents by refusing to discipline themselves in order to achieve the minimum academic standards, much less to achieve academic excellence. The virtues of hard work, diligent study, sacrifice, and the quest for personal excellence are no longer valued by contemporary black culture as a whole. Yes, we still want the result. We still "want" to be successful, but we no longer value the means to truly become successful, we are no longer cultivating the virtues needed to achieve success. Hence too few of our talented youth are achieving their full potential.

Couple this with the pervasiveness of the hip-hop culture and its incessant vulgarity, misogyny, raw sexual promiscuity, and violence, and again we have a different set of values that are not producing the kind of virtues our young people need to succeed. The hip-hop apologists are quick to say that not all hip-hop is vulgar, etc. This is true. There are some hip-hop artists who are decent people with decent messages. For the record: THEY ARE THE EXCEPTION!!!!! Simply go to a teen-age dance that has an uncensored DJ and you will quickly find out that the rappers for Jesus are a definite minority among the hip-hop crowd! Others will point out that kids of other races listen to hip-hop as well. True again. The hip-hop poison is being pumped multi-culturally, but the deleterious effect on African American youth is lethal. Again, Juan Williams has some helpful insights:

Too much hip-hop has become soulless music. It revels in the pathology of black life, degrades our women, and reduces our men to murderers. With the help of corporate backers, hip-hop does its damage to vulnerable black minds, plants negative attitudes about black people in white American minds, and also sends the message around the world, damaging the image of black people in a global economy. (Williams 146)

Yet, with all the push for "old skool" music and other things nostalgic by the older generation, how many of the same adults have bought into the hip-hop mentality, or at least resigned themselves to its presence in the life of our youth, making no attempts to counter its venomous influence. In some instances, modern day Pied Pipers who were raised under the "old" value system have carefully exploited young people's attraction to the "thug" life made popular by hip-hop and continue to enable its crippling influence among black youth.

I have provided a few examples of how a shift in values has led to a loss of virtue. There are many others that could have been listed. Issues of chastity and sexual morality, honesty, and personal integrity could have easily been included among the examples given. Values are still present. There are many things held just as dearly and with a high degree of esteem today as there were things valued and esteemed in earlier generations. The change has been in that which is valued and that which is esteemed.

The question we must now ask concerns virtue? Do the current prevailing values in African American culture produce virtues, the kind of virtues that have been the hallmark of African American culture since our ancestors were brought to these shores? Are the values that produced the Harlem Renaissance, the same ones that underlie hip-hop? Are the values that supported the virtues that created the Buffalo Soldiers and the Tuskegee Airmen the same ones that underlie the culture of the athletic and entertainment "role models" of today? Are the values of faith and family, prayer, devotion, generosity, and respect for life that traditionally characterized the African American community the same values that shape our youth today? The move from diligent work to the fast and easy, from discipline to indulgence, from obedience and respect to unbridled freedom of expression is taking its toll on our youth. The tragedy is that to the extent that they are not performing as well as they can (virtue), they are the VICTIMS of our shift in values!!!

The youth are not primarily the ones to be blamed for their current predicament. WE ARE! Collectively, we adults are responsible. This reflection is not a charge against our youth, rather it is a call to arms to those who have been entrusted with the sacred duty of "Training them up in the way that they should go…" It is amazing that so many of them continue to do the great things that they are capable of, given the kind of leadership and guidance we have given them in recent years. They remain as talented as they ever were. They are capable of doing far greater things than previous generations. They have the breadth and width of today's opportunities available to them. But have we thoroughly prepared them for it? Or, have we allowed a change in our values to deprive them of the ability to cultivate the virtues they need for success, not only in the world, but also in the Kingdom of God? Middle Class values are not enough. Sometimes they are deadly, killing our youth with the misguided kindness of overindulgence. Gospel values, rooted in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, lead to Christian virtue and Christian virtue leads to eternal life! We must reclaim those values, to reclaim our youth.

Works Cited

• Cosby, Bill. Come on People. Excerpts on ABC News Internet Ventures. 16 October 2007.
• Websters Online Dictionary
• Williams, Juan. Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead End Movements, and Culture of Failure that are undermining Black America-and What we can do about it. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006

Fr. Raphael is the principal of St. Augustine High School (Josephites) in New Orleans, LA