"Whatever you do, make sure you TALK-INTO-THE-MIC". As a short blond haired woman placed emphasis on radio protocol, I sat comfy on a burgundy-cushioned seat, allowing my mind to run away with me. We're here. I wonder what they're going to ask us. I wonder if any of my family remembered to tape this... As my thought process wove in and out of the briefing, oddly enough I began to ponder what kinds of questions I would be asked on the WBAI 99.5 Morning Show. We were actually here-actually here-about to go on live radio, and here I was-wondering what kind of coffee the radio host was drinking. HmmÉperhaps it was still a tint of morning slump. Lately I've been waking up with my mental awareness obstinate to reality...Weird.

So here we are, waiting outside of the broadcast room for the cue to enter. There was another show wrapping up, and more than anything else, I'd say my most promiment emotion was curiosity. That's me-whenever a new experience or opportunity is presented, I seem to always find myself more curious than anything. Some people feel anxiety; others feel nervousÉI feel inquisitive. We take our seats, all lined up in a row, and adjust our headsets. Through some apparent introductory proceedings, the hour long Morning Show begins, and Marjarie Moare, the WBAI Morning Show host begins by asking us about our most recent stories. The discussion developed however into a somewhat serious dialogue on the impressionable young black males in the community today, and their views on the world. When asked about his concern in the world of today from the prospective of a pubescent black male, Clifton Taylor, one of the staff members here at HarlemLive, went on to cite his concern on video game violence. To Clifton, these games offered a release from daily stress and pressure--pleasure in the powerful ability to kill anything at will-despite its apparent lack of reality. When asked about his feelings on the Amadeu Diallo shooting, Clifton testified to feeling utter apathy, even going on to say how "It didn't really matter to me".

Now the purpose of my telling you about Clifton is not to go on and on about someone else's experience, but to give you the background to my contemplation process. As Clifton sat in his seat with his black headset on, I was wondering how a black male in our community could actually say that-or even more so-actually mean that. It definitely prompted some callers to call in, and what I found even more interesting was one caller in particular. The caller's comment was based on an observation that he'd been making throughout the entirety of the show. As Sienna (the third HarlemLive staff member present at the morning show) and I gave our opinions and views on various issues, shining light on the positive aspects of today's youth-as in "wow, young people actually do engage in positive activities out of their own free will", the milli-second a negative aspect was introduced into the equation-all attention swung that way. The caller went on to cite the overhead grievances of young black sisters who become discouraged when their positivity is overlooked in place of "the brothers who just can't get their act together".

I personally wasn't feeling neglected--to be honest, I was curious myself as to why Clifton was saying the things he did-but it made me think. I go to an all-girls high school, and haven't been in a consistently co-educational environment since grade school. What I've been hearing however, is that a problem in a number of these co-educational schools is generally-when children begin to experience adolescence, while moving on into more socially afluent environments, as in 6th through 12th grade, many girls tend to feel pushed aside as the males tend to dominate the classrooms-along with most of the attention. Well... I know me. I've always been respectfully outspoken, driven, confident, and pretty unflappable when it came to competition so I began to wonder. A question was introduced in my mind. I'm still thinking about it now somewhat-and through my thought process--this is what I've gotten so far:

When it comes to me- I know that I was raised with many of the values that I continue to hold today (not to say that I'm grown just yet mom..haha)--instilled by a strong mother who made sure that I knew how to articulate and represent myself whenever I needed, so boys have never served as much of a distraction to me. Do I notice them? Sure-but do I actually put males on this pedestal to knock me off of my flight of stairs? NO. So is this entire issue of it being "so unjustified" for males to acquire attention actually feasible? What's more of the issue? Is it because of the difficulties raising from the intransigent "the brothers who just can't get their act together" issue that genuinely subsides female accomplishment, or are we as females taking the rock in the road as an excuse to stop what WE'RE doing? Don't you expect those with problems to receive help? I would expect the same attention for a young lady who's going through things that need to be addressed as well. I'm not going to minimize the affect of having good work overlooked. No one likes that-and yes, being that a lot of our young men are going through these things-it's bound to happen somewhere along the line. However, we have to be able to realize when there's actually a battle-and when there's just smokeÑproviding us with an excuse to discontinue our journey. Therefore in closing, my time at WBLI was interesting to say the least--stimulating evenÑI definitely look forward to going back. Perhaps the solution to this issue, or even the first step to the solution is for people to include a strong sense of balance in their judgments. Sure you can try to fix what's wrong, but fully acknowledge what's right. It wouldn't kill ya you know...