Men in the Making : Roland Gilbert took a rough road to adulthood. Now he enlists African-American men to teach pride and responsibility to boys on the same path.
Roland Gilbert had well-meaning school counselors. He entered job training programs. But he still used guns, robbed a bank and went to prison.
He participated in “tons” of rehabilitation and education programs. He obtained loans and grants for college and graduate school. Yet he smoked crack, slapped his girlfriends and lived a “me-first” lifestyle in South-Central Los Angeles.
It wasn’t until an extravagant binge and spiritual conversion 10 years ago that he was ready to change. Through the motivational programs he subsequently sought out, Gilbert came to believe a few simple truths about himself and other youths raised in the inner city. Regardless of their background, environment or circumstances, they can choose the life they want by changing their mind set; and crucial to the transformation is the love of committed, honest, nonviolent men with whom they can identify.
Now a mild-mannered real estate investor, Gilbert, 46, has for five years been applying his philosophy--an eclectic blend of New Age motivational techniques and the teachings of some black psychiatrists--through a mentoring program he designed in Oakland. It is a city where homicide nearly doubled from 1987 to 1992 and whose victims are disproportionately African-American.
“What he’s doing is just short of miraculous,” said Jack Wallace, chair of the Victim Advisory Council for the California Youth Authority.
Gilbert’s program, Simba--the Swahili word for “lion”--offers ongoing personal and business skills training to inner-city African-American men in exchange for an extraordinary commitment of 12 years to mentor African-American boys from age 6 to 18. Independent of government funding, his program has reached 100 boys in six Oakland chapters.
“Our boys are the lost ones, the ones that people give up on, the ones when you go to your car might be there waiting for you,” Gilbert said.
All have grown up in the city’s most dangerous area, West Oakland, surrounded by guns and drugs. Most of their fathers are absent--some are in prison, some on drugs, others have just vanished. A few boys’ mothers are addicted to substances. Discipline is often a matter of force.
“When you look out, and believe everything about you is wrong, then you have dysfunctional behaviors,” Gilbert said. “So African-Americans wind up being 12% of the population, yet we account for 64% of all robberies in this country and 54% of all murders.”
Gilbert argues that the solution to inner-city violence is to change the self-image of the adult leaders so that they in turn can model more positive behavior.
What he is doing, in a sense, is re-creating a family.
Gilbert said part of his program offers the boys one notion of manhood (a man is responsible for how he thinks, feels and acts) to replace another notion they may have come across more often (a man is tough and has lots of sex.) It includes a year-long, African-based “rites of passage” study program for 13-year-olds, similar in intent to a Jewish bar mitzvah.
Similar mentoring programs were introduced in the 1960s by black nationalist Maulana (then Ron) Karenga. Dormant for a while, they have grown consistently since the late ‘70s, according to Itibari Zulu, Afro-American studies librarian at UCLA.
Gilbert said he was inspired to create Simba Inc. by educational consultant Jawanza Kunjufu, author of “Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys.” Gilbert added insights from writings on black parenting by psychiatrists Alvin Poussaint and James Comer.
In twice-weekly meetings, outings to parks and cultural events, the Simba youngsters get to know the older men--men from the community who work at a variety of jobs, who talk rather than hit when they are angry, who apologize when they make a mistake.
To become a Simba volunteer, the men must undergo 66 hours of motivational training that Gilbert said involves intense exploration of personal feelings and attitudes.
“Hell yes, it’s hard,” said Donald Walker, a probation officer and volunteer. “It’s easy (criticizing) someone. It’s awfully difficult to talk about what’s hurting you.”
But as a result of the non-judgmental acceptance from their adult peers, the volunteers said they feel closer to one another than to their own relatives.
A Monday afternoon meeting at West Oakland’s Jubilee West Community Center opens with exercises embraced by New Age baby boomers: visualization, deep breathing, the recitation of memorized affirmations. In these sessions, the boys are taught to recognize the “Three Rs” of anger (revenge, resistance and resentment) and ways to manage it.
But the best opportunities to influence the boys come when they have a problem, Gilbert said.
During a recent afternoon at the park, a shoving match erupted between two 12-year-olds.
Michael Holland, a Simba volunteer and police officer, took one boy, named Markel, aside.
Holland: “You feel something, right?”
Markel: “I’d kill him if I get my hands on him.”
Holland: “You can say, ‘I want you to stop messing with me.’ That’s cool. That’s responsible. There’s nothing wrong with you telling him you’re angry. If you fight him, what’s going to come back to you?”
Markel: “Revenge.”
Another boy, Leroy, passed, mumbling to Markel: “You shoulda fired on him.”
Holland: “See? He wants you to be stuck in that program. It’s not a matter of strength to fight. It’s a matter of strength to find a solution. Get creative.”
So far, Simba’s success is measured in anecdotes: boys who say they have used these techniques when angry at a parent or teacher--parents and teachers who now see them as less aggressive.
Even though its effects on the boys have not been scientifically evaluated, Dr. Isaac Slaughter, president of Black Psychiatrists of America said he is convinced Simba is a good project. “The boys have found somebody who cares about them,” he said.
Moreover, he added, there is no doubt about the positive affects on the men who volunteer.
Gilbert said requests for new chapters are “coming in fast and heavy from all over,” including an association of group homes for abused, minority children in California. Three chapters have begun for women, one is being planned for Latinos.
According to Gilbert, it is a popular myth that African-American men do not want to help the inner-city community. He said he has a list of more than 900 men and women who want to become Simba mentors. He said his only roadblock to growth is the money he needs to train them.
“The boys are like our sons,” said volunteer Joshua Nichols, a former probation officer who joined out of frustration at watching increasing numbers of boys from the neighborhood go into prison and come out more violent than before. Mentoring 6-year-olds seemed like a good idea to him, but clearly it would take more than three years.
Twelve years may seem like a long time, said volunteer Walker. “But if you’re committed, you’re really committed for life. The situation is not going to change unless I do something to change it. . . .”