I went to visit my daughter in Kentucky recently. I love spending time with my kids, which has become one of my greatest joys in life. I also enjoy teaching my kids, at least when they decide to listen to me.
When my youngest daughter turned 18, I picked her up and drove straight to the post office. She wasn't sure why we were making this trip, but I explained it along the way. I let her know that we were going to do something that would take only 20 minutes, but would change her life forever: We were signing her up to get a passport.
Now the passport was a necessity due to the trip she and I were about to take to Haiti with the National Professionals Network (NPN), but this was also a teachable moment for me. I figured that if I was to learn the NPN principles of working together and thinking globally, I would force myself to impart similar views onto my child.
I had to wait until my daughter Carmen was 18 to get her passport, primarily because I am not her biological father. I "adopted" her after being her track coach when she was nine years old and realizing that her own father had chosen not to embrace the blessing of having such a wonderful child in his life. I believe that every child deserves a father, and this relates to my concept of the "fatherhood bailout," which calls on black men wishing to be dads to proactively mentor kids whose fathers have chosen not to do their jobs. In other words, you don't have to have a child in order to be a parent.
At any rate, I explained to Carmen that far too many of "us" have a hard time seeing outside our own neighborhoods. We live, work, grow old and die in the same city without ever venturing beyond our boundaries to see all that the world has to offer. I also explained that black women who get ahead in business and in life are more likely to have a global perspective. I think she got the point. But then again, it didn't matter, because we were going to get the passport anyway.
When it comes to our economic situation, African Americans who see the rest of the world realize that we are not nearly as poor as we'd like to believe. There are people in China, Africa and South America who struggle to find food each day, yet we have people in the U.S. claiming poverty while owning iPhones, Nike sneakers and Coach purses. You can't be a chubby kid with an Xbox and truly argue that you're poor, but that's what happens to some of us who become committed to the idea of self-pity.
Another thing that my daughter learned during our recent trips to Haiti and Mexico is that opportunities are out there if you are willing to hustle for them. She saw Haitian merchants using clever and assertive sales tactics to raise money from their customers. In China, I saw 60-year old men riding their bikes 20 miles each day to work while dragging a crate full of bananas. The point is that many people around the world have learned a level of hustle that we as spoiled Americans have yet to truly embrace. If citizens in economically impoverished nations can work to create opportunities where there are none, then we should certainly be willing to make something happen in the richest country in the world.
My point is not to say that African Americans don't have significant hurdles. It is to say that by giving your kids a global perspective and exposing them to a variety of cultures, you are giving them a tremendous advantage in their professional and personal lives. Every black child should get a passport, and you should demand that your children use it. The more you see of the world, the larger your world seems to be.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
