K Myles to appear on 60 Minutes
I've been sitting on this post for several weeks now. I've been reluctant to say too much about it just in case it somehow fell through. But an hour ago, I finished taping an interview with Leslie Stahl for 60 minutes. 60 Minutes is airing a special on Mensa and they interviewed me for the show.Those of you who know me well, know that my true passion is and has been for encouraging our youth to achieve to the limits of their gifts and potential and freeing our youth from the quasi-cultural scourge of low expectations. In fact it was this passion, and my work within Mensa that ultimately led me to join the NAACP.
During the interview, I was able to speak to a national audience about the brilliance and potential of our children, the need for us as a community to combat our negative and self-limiting stereotypes, beliefs, and expectations, and offer my example as an emblem of what is possible. If I, a kid from Cleveland who made every mistake a young black kid could make, could still join Mensa (a feat of pure intellectualism) and move within the organization to become a Regional Chairman (a feat of organization and politics) then I can speak from experience about the illusory nature of the limitations we place on our ambitions. We are so much more than we have become... We just have to teach our children to embrace their potential and to hold on to their dreams. We have to tell the truth about the Hobgoblin of "talking white" or "acting white". Criticizing one another for academic achievement is among the worst types of black on black violence. It is an act of intellectual violence that sentences generations of our children and progeny to lives of mediocrity when they are capable of excellence.
I was also able to talk about specific initiatives we've launched, such as our youth Chess team, our 4-point plan for ending the achievement gap, and all of the other intellectual projects we are advancing through the Wichita Branch NAACP.
The special will air in September when the new season begins. I will post the air date here and through our e-network when it it is finalized.
.
.
Leslie Stahl (60 minutes) and Kevin Myles (Wichita NAACP)...
