Boys of Baraka

Boys of Baraka Essay: After viewing the documentary Boys of Baraka, Cosby makes two of many claims. His first claim is that having people watch over you and make sure your on task with your education and acting appropriately will make you a success. His second claim is that people need to act and save kids, like the Baraka students! I agree with both of Cosby’s claims because every student has the potential to succeed and the Baraka students and Cosby are proof of that.
Cosby claims that having people watch over you and make sure your on task with your education and acting appropriately will make you a success, saying “They needed someone to put a body on them” (Cosby 1). Brandon Harlee was one of numerous victims of the corrupt abyss of inner-city Baltimore. His mother was shot and paralyzed by his father when he was only two years old, becoming fatherless soon after and grew up in a neighborhood plagued by drugs and gangs. Without much support from his family and the lack of good influences in his life, he did poorly in school, scoring “Ds and F’s in his classes and was constantly in trouble for fighting with other students” (Goldstein 1). Brandon’s future was grim, and most likely was in a jail, where “nearly 50%” of the “two-thirds of black males in Baltimore who don’t graduate from high school” ended up in (Goldstein 1). But he wouldn’t end up being a part of those statistics. Instead, he would end up attending a school in rural Kenya, the Baraka School, where black boys like Brandon would be disciplined and educated, with plenty of adult attention for two years. After attending Baraka, Brandon “was named Most Improved Student” and “aced his first Latin test” at “a highly regarded magnet school in Baltimore” (Goldstein 1). But Brandon was not the only Baraka graduate to experience success. Kevin Prem “won five awards for academic excellence” and plans on being “a prosecuting attorney, so he can put in jail ‘people who sell drugs to kids’” (Goldstein 3). Daryl Stewart is “a sophomore at prestigious City College High School” in hopes to become “a professional photographer” (Goldstein 3). All these kids were able to turn their lives around, leaving behind the gangs and the drugs to fulfill their dreams. This miracle, however, could not have been achieved by the kids themselves, but with the help of the Baraka School. Baraka had promising effects on its students, but only because cared enough to try to help. If no one had stepped in to save these kids in the first place, Brandon, Kevin, Stewart and other Baraka graduates would have lived very different lives. Robert Embry, head of the Abell Foundation, asked local middle school principals about what they needed the most. They didn’t need new computers, new school programs, or billions of dollars. Surprisingly, what they all needed was to “remove the 5% of students who are disruptive and make it impossible for the other 95% to learn” (Goldstein 1). The 5% of students includes the Baraka students, raised in “broken homes and little discipline,” and screaming for help (Goldstein 1). Abell answered that call by coming up with an “innovative solution: send some of the class cutups and brawlers 6,000 miles away to a school the foundation dubbed Baraka,” which would transform the once corrupt kids to students with bright futures (Goldstein 1). I myself underwent a similar transformation during this summer. School would start in a couple of weeks and I had yet to start on my first homework assignment for the summer. I had also ditched my studies for the ACT and wasted day after day at parties and in front of my computer. My mother, noticing my self-destructive habits, took my computer away and forced me to study at the library every day until school commenced. Although extremely reluctant, I pushed myself to get my work done and told myself to read a lot. Then it dawned on me the first day of school, with all my summer homework completed in my backpack. If my mom had not stepped in to help me I would not be as well off at school as I am now. Same applies to the Baraka graduates. If Abell had not stepped in the first place to help them, they would not have been as well off as they are now. Cosby says, “This movie requires that people get up and save these children” (Cosby 1). With the Baraka School, much of the success attained by its students, such as Brandon, was made possible. With Abell, the Baraka School was made possible. This shows both of Cosby’s claims, that these children need help and that they need people to step in to help them, are both true. Based on this, I agree with both of Cosby’s claims.