YouTube Interview with Yassir Payne

>> We're going right to the
street corners to get this data.

Right? And what are we finding?

We're finding in our interviews, we're
finding from our surveys, that the very people

that are dropping out, that are arguing not to
want and valuing education are the very people

in overwhelming numbers, at least from our
research, that want to be adequately educated.

I'm talking about guys on
the street selling drugs.

They actually want to go to school, they want
to go to college, they want to go to a place

where they feel that they're respected,
they want to go to a place where they feel

that they're nurtured, where
they feel that they're loved.

Right? Many of the children are coming from
homes that are, you know, rife with all kinds

of issues, so they make sure if we're hungry,

they make sure if we're wearing the same
thing a second or a third day in a row.

I think many of the children are grappling,
particularly the boys are grappling with issues

around school violence, or
other street activities

that are taking place within
a school environment.

I think, I think many of the children are
actually not being prepared to graduate,

not only high school, but
also to enroll in college.

And when you take home those
kinds of experiences, you know,

it keeps me up at night,
I'll be honest with you.

Lots of night sweats, you know, I have trouble
going to sleep at night, sometimes carrying some

of these stories, you know, to
interview a father and talk about,

and hear him talk about what it means to
be a father and lose your son, you know,

and to have an older man break down in front
of you, or have a mother break down in front

of you, you know, we've got all of this stuff.

You know? We've heard all these stories.

To be there with a young man, an adult,
you know, in his 20s, and for him to break

down crying in front of you
because he doesn't have a job

or he knows he can't support his
children in the way that he wants to.

But when I'm actually on the ground walking
through the communities, block to block,

really speaking with some of those guys
that's really out there doing X, Y and Z,

one of the things they really
want me to understand and capture

through this project is also the
community, the love that's in

or amongst street life oriented
community, communities,

which is inside a larger [inaudible] community.

But oftentimes these guys are involved with
caring for loved ones, siblings, in addition to,

you know, elders, parents, grandmothers,
uncles, aunts, oftentimes, you know,

they play a real role with respect to
organizing these communities, you know,

getting them out to events, you know, promoting
certain positive things throughout the scope

of a south bridge or an east side, oftentimes,
you know, and not to say it's necessarily right

or wrong, but we may see some of these young
men paying rent for grandma, for auntie,

for the young lady, or the older
lady who may be, who may have two

or three kids under her direction.

We oftentimes see them buying
bookbags for the children.

And at the end of the day,
very little change is created.

Not until we're able to create a scenario
where children can be fed properly,

where children can be housed properly, where
children can actually be educated properly,

will we really have an opportunity to
see the change that we all want to see.

2009, three years before we had one male from
this community that graduated from high school.

Jeez, that's crazy.

How did we even let it get that bad, you know?

So, I vowed, you know, [inaudible]
to kind of reverse these conditions.

But I vowed to be here, you know, throughout
the duration of my life doing any and everything

to make sure that these stories
and these voices get

out to the people that need to hear about them.

[ Music ]