Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson and Habeebah Rasheed Grimes

I was invited to give a community-inclusive keynote at Case Western Reserve University this week. As a Detroiter and University of Michigan grad, I found it especially hard to make my way to Cleveland, Ohio, but alas, I obliged.

And I’m so happy I did.

In addition to discussing my usual research and clinical content, including racial discrimination and strategies families and clinicians can use to “dropkick” its impact on youth mental health, I had a chance to meet some real VIPs: the middle school students at the Boys and Girls Club. This specially invited group of absolutely beautiful and brilliant young people asked some tough questions—I mean, frontal lobe was thrown out by one of them at some point—and kept the post-talk panelists honest on whether we’re still funny. (Dearest reader, I fear that I may be slipping into the ‘not’ category).

One of the things they asked us was why we had so much faith in them. Habeebah, my colleague who offered remarks, and I both described the absolute hope we had that their generation would be able to make the changes that prior generations were unable to make, particularly to end racism. Their skepticism sounded eerily reminiscent of questions I heard a decade ago from New Haven youth who asked why on Earth I’d want to work with them during my clinical residency. It harkened back, too, to the sense of powerlessness my colleague witnessed in the young people she served through mental health treatment who couldn’t envision themselves reaching adulthood.

It’s not hard to imagine that young people right now feel targeted because people don’t have hope in them. The recent policies requiring curfews for young people in major cities, especially after the first few days of spring, are enough to help us understand their confusion. And yes, every generation has some version of this fear-mongering. Whether the influence of rap music on youth in the 80s or the myth of the superpredators in the 90s, or reemerging concerns over “wilding” in the 2000s, there has been a consistent campaign championing fear against teens, many of whom are Black and Brown, for generations.

Worse yet, we often fail to acknowledge the ways young people internalize society’s fear and loathing. By repeatedly labeling entire generations as dangerous, deficient, or disposable, we shape not only public policy but the internal worlds of the very youth we say we want to protect. As these youth form their unique identities, they rely on information and stimuli from the environment to make sense of their place in this world – and the extent of their belonging.

Sadly, in Cleveland and across this nation, news headlines and political blustering promote negative and racist attitudes toward our most vulnerable adolescents, undermining their capacity to believe in their potential.

“As a graying human who is no longer funny, I recognize that the torch should be passed to the next generation of changemakers capable of instilling and driving hope for what lies ahead.”

But for those of us who actually work with these youth, who were once these youth ourselves, we are fortunate to experience their beauty, resplendence, and brilliance every day.

When the young people asked us to expound during Q&A and after the talk, here are the three things we shared about the hope we have in them:

1. They’ve always been the ones who have made change. From the turn of the 19th century to the present day, young people have consistently pushed societies to reckon with their contradictions to achieve greater fairness and justice. In particular, Black youth were critical in the Children’s Crusade of the 1963 Birmingham Campaign, leaving classrooms en masse to willfully march, be attacked by firehoses and dogs, and be arrested – all to protest segregation. The images broadcast of the horrific treatment of these youth led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
2. Youth is the developmental period capable of such high risk and reward. Developmentally, their brains are uniquely able to see injustice clearly, question it boldly, and act with a kind of urgency that older generations often don’t and can’t. These risks also make them capable of extraordinary creativity, courage, and vision. When nurtured and supported by caring adults, this critical time can lead to an amazing degree of growth, meaning, and confidence-building.
3. Unique skillsets of the modern generation. Between technology and futurism, several factors push today’s young people toward beliefs that other generations simply can’t envision. Their fluency with technology, expansive imaginations, and desire to connect across differences enable them to actively design the world they want, rather than simply inherit the world as it is. Youth identity development is also reinforced by such activism, creating a feedback loop of who they are and what causes they want to champion as they age.

As a graying human who is no longer funny, I recognize that the torch should be passed to the next generation of changemakers capable of instilling and driving hope for what lies ahead. I am certainly not filled with hope every day. There are so many idiotic things that the federal government is doing that make me afraid that tomorrow will not even exist.

And yet, hope is not simply a feeling. It is a practice and a discipline. It is something we must hold with intention as we cultivate relationships with young people. It is demonstrated in how we see them, speak about them, and choose to invest in their becoming. It is demonstrated in our belief in the multitude of possibilities they contain.

In the same way, youth will continue to push against systems of inequity, and there is a realization of the steadiness amid these uncertainties. The sun will continue to rise, bringing with it the possibilities of a new day dawning. The youth will continue to rise, bringing with them the possibilities of a new reality dawning. That very real possibility is made ever-present by the young people we see around us every day.

They are not just the promise of what is to come. They are evidence, right now, of what is possible.

This article was reviewed and approved by Janice Robinson-Celeste, Publisher of Successful Black Parenting Magazine.