Adam over at the Freechild Project has called me out from an entry I posted on One and Four where I said the following:

I do agree with integrating youth in with the adult community though. That’s one of the many positive benefits that youth rights holds for the world.

While many of Adam’s points were unclear, I think the basis of his argument is that the assumption that youth and adults are not already integrated is a myth. Or perhaps that it is a myth for people who aren’t middle-class and white. He didn’t present any evidence of this, and I am highly suspicious as to what he bases his claims on.

From my perspective the segregation of young people and adults seems quite clear. This segregation is enforced by law and tradition by adults eager to exclude youth from their world, and indeed employed by youth as a defense mechanism to escape from oppressive, patronizing adults around them. From what I’ve seen this segregation exists at all levels of society and socio-economic levels.

Young people are locked into schools where they live separated off from adults. Adults are off in the working world, rarely relating to young people. For most hours of most days these two groups spend time with their on age-cohorts, and not around those much younger or much older than then. Exceptions do of course exist. Kids have parents and other family members. Students have teachers. Young church members have youth group pastors and so on. However in nearly all of these situations there exists a command-obey relationship. To call these situations truly integrated is blind to reality.

The simplest way to put this is to ask who your friends are? If you are going to go out to a movie, or go grab a bite to eat, or go to a party, or just hang out for the evening doing who knows what, who do you hang out with socially? My guess, with few exceptions, are people generally of your own age group. And before Adam tries yet again to paint me (and indeed all NYRA) as sheltered in an upper-middle class white world, I will point out again that my above point holds true for all my friends be they poor black, upper-middle-class white, poor white, middle-class Hispanic, or any other combination.
(more…)

Comments(0)