Keeping it real with juveniles

Jet, May 9, 2005

KEEPING IT REAL WITH JUVENILES: Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University religion professor, leaves the Valentine Residential Community Home, a facility operated by the state Juvenile Justice Commission, after he spoke to the residents in Bordentown, NJ. The noted scholar and best-selling author of Race Matters told a group of teens at the juvenile detention center that young people who model their attitudes on TV images are not "keeping it real" for themselves, but for corporations that exploit them.

West advised the 50 boys and girls to reject the mind-set of the "survival of the slickest" in favor of building relationships with people who care about them. The facility houses juvenile offenders who are sentenced to supervised housing for as long as 18 months.