The Effects of Your Surrounding Environment

English Homework

Adam Sparks

Professor Harris

December 3, 2021

The Effects of Your Surrounding Environment 

I feel that the future of our world is based on our youth and what they are exposed to at a young age.  Being a product of your environment is simply adapting to the living that surrounds you in order for you to survive.  Just because you accept/adapt to how things are around you, does not mean it is the right thing to do.  For example, a kid from the hood selling dope to make money because he sees everyone else who is older making a living off of that.  It does not mean that it is the correct way to live.  Another example is one from a book we read in class.  Bigger accepted that white people viewed him as dangerous and he became a dangerous person who killed multiple people.  These things are important aspects that I picked up from studying the black gothic.  And if we do not focus on that, each upcoming generation can pick up bad habits that we already face, causing the future of our world to be hindered.  

The Black Gothic can be easily confused with southern gothic because when you think of the south in today’s time, African Americans come to mind instantly.  When in reality, southern gothic focuses on kind of dark history of the south such as slavery.  The Black Gothic focuses on black people as a whole and what kind of struggles/setbacks black people have to face which can be found anywhere in the world.  Stereotypes are the biggest things that society puts on the Black community, which also impacts the youth and their characters.  The mind is a very powerful tool when it comes to growth.  Certain things that are told to be people about how society views them can negatively impact that person’s character.  They tend to live up to those standards.  So keeping the mind of our youth at a positive state of mind is crucial in building a better future.  

There was a song created by August Alsina named, “Benediction,” and one of my favorite verses that he said that expresses my topic was, “...it did not kill me, so it made me stronger.”  This verse is how the black community views a lot of growth which could be a positive or a negative.  We have to teach our youth that hard times help shape our character but that does not mean we pick up the negative traits that came with those hard times.  Just because we see our older generations making a living off of doing wrong does not mean we have to go down that road, although that may be the only thing that people in that area understands how to get through life daily.  One more song that brings light to this situation is, “The show goes on,” by Lupe Fiasco.  In this song he said, “5 in the air for the teachers not scared to tell those kids that’s living in the ghetto.  The the N**** holding back, that the world is theirs.”  This lyric from this song is huge and Lupe Fiasco is right.  In order for us to have the most impact on the youth, it starts with the teachers in the school.  Other than a kids legal guardian, teachers are the only other adults who see kids as much as their parents, which means they also have a huge impact on kids' characters.  A teacher telling a kid that it is wrong how they are living and pushing them to do more for themselves will help build a strong mentality for what the world throws at them.  

Being a product of your environment has its pros and cons but when we do not address the cons, they can grow as time goes on.  It is hard to know what is right from wrong when you see how older generations around you are surviving and feeding their families the wrong way.  That is why it is important for us to communicate with the youth to keep their thinking down the right path.  And allow them to know that tough times do not define people but how they grow through tough times.  That is what builds the characters that we expect from people, not scary stereotypes created by society.