R.Kelly: Why a new mindset is the only defence young black women need

14th January 2019Afrowoman1Blog, Thrive & Strive0

Like a lot of people, I wasn’t happy to read the ‘alleged’ news story about R.Kelly ‘keeping young women in a sex cult’. When one set of parents appeared on tv saying they want their daughter back, this really made my stomach turn. Like everybody else you know I’m concerned for their welfare and I really hope that they’ll connect with their family soon and that they’ll be okay.

But I have to ask, What about the parents and those around these young women? Why weren’t they protected and supported by those close to them? What mindset are we encouraging our young women to have?

Why in these modern times do some young black women believe the only way to succeed is to ‘give themselves’ to older rich men?”

Is it the Parents or how these girls see themselves?

Some of these reports also saying that some of the parents took their daughters to meet him and that makes me question is this some of these parents who are putting this idea into their daughter’s mind or they don’t have the faith in their daughter’s abilities to get up and get what they want and the only way they’re going to do is if they meet a rich guy.

In general I would say the whole thing raises the question for me of how us black women see ourselves today in terms of our progress, building businesses of succeeding in achieving what we want to achieve in life. Are we still thinking that we’re not good enough? Are we conditioning our young black women to feel this way that they haven’t got enough to get it themselves.

A legacy that’s created a mindset of lack

Yes we know that lack of money and opportunities still affects black communities. Often the perks that our white counterparts take for granted are things that working class and poor black people struggle to achieve. We also know that when we go back several generations and more, we start to reach our slave legacy, where money was non-existent. So, it’s not a complete surprise that this mindset has hung-over our people at all.

I’m really feeling right now that we have to more than ever connect and support each other with our businesses and any good thing that we’re doing as we grow and develop. Especially for our young black women, to encourage them and give them that mindset to know that they are good enough and either they have all they need or they can go and get what they need to build the lifestyles that they want. They don’t have to give themselves to somebody to get anything in return.

The mindset our young black women must have

We know there’s nothing better than an ambitious black woman who refuses to be held back and is fuelled her dreams, goals and ambitions. This is the new mentality these young black women really need.

It’s that new mentality we need to build, grow and cultivate in all of our young black women – that recognises she is worth more than gold and good enough to succeed off her skills, talents and every thing inside her.

For me, this is the mentality that will move black women from being ‘unseen’ in western society to being valued and recognised for our achievements. When any older, predatory man will try to use our young black women, it’s this mentality that will tell him ‘where to go’! That’s the mindset I want to hear about and see happening.