An Act of Perseverance: Championing the Cause of Nurturing

“People with great passions, people who accomplish great deeds, people who possess strong feelings, even people with great minds and a strong personality, rarely come out of good little boys and girls.”
― Lev S. Vygotsky

The issues regarding “nature and nurture” has been greatly debated for centuries by philosophers and psychologist in regards to an individual’s personal development. As far back as the 17th Century when English philosopher John Locke theorized that as humans we all begin “tablua rasa” or blank slates that are molded and influenced by the behavioral traits acquired from experiences of our physical and social environment, to Jean Piaget who felt that nature, through genetic biological perspectives, played a far more extensive role. How we as humans take on this issue depends on which major perspective we subscribe to. For many, their social environment and economic status can determine if we grow or change throughout the course of our lives. As African-Americans we can argue proponents of genetic predisposition but there is no discounting the environment that many grow up in has much more to do with social outcomes than genetics.

From a psychological perspective, there have been a myriad of theories relating to the emphasis of environmental factors that influences one’s behavior. During the 1980’s a rethinking of a child’s development was theorized by psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner whose Ecological System Theory somewhat revolutionized how many of us think in regards to the influence of not only bio-genetics but the nurturing of the environment we live in. What are the influences of family, friends, school, peers, religion, neighbors, mass media, social media (an impact Bronfenbrenner himself could have not foreseen prior to his death in 2005), health services, social services, the attitudes and ideologies of different cultures. The looming question still exists, “are we who we are by what and who surrounds us?”

“We are’t born with the urge to be violent. We adapt to our environment…Success varies from environment to environment. Our issue is having the opportunity to change environments.” Ean Polke, 2016.

This question can be better answered by the following story and probably a good time to move away from child psychology lesson 101. Stories of this nature are not very entertaining, nor should they be, but are informative and provide the impetus for learning just how and where the concept of nurturing may or may not lead us. The story of Ean Polke is not only informative but inspirational to those of us who believe that only through our environment (nurturing) can there be an avenue for personal success and not solely through our genes (nature). For most African-American youth if reverted to the past to evoke Locke’s “tablua rasa”, many today would still have juvenile delinquency, crime, social deviancy and economic depravity written on their blank slates. Even though we are a country 240 years removed from the independence of the 13 colonies to statehood where slavery was legal in all 13, there is still a mindset, African-Americans included, that there is no escaping the thought that the environments which are lived in predisposes a significant number of individuals to a road and life aligned with a multitude of obstacles.

Enter Ean Polke. In 2004 Polke was a 22 year-old young adult on trial for the 2002 murder of Kevin Wilson a 17 year-old Trenton, New Jersey teenager. After spending 25-plus years myself working in the juvenile justice system in New Jersey, this story was far too familiar with the same criminal overtones. Another young black man in the wrong place, at the wrong time, where the place (the environment) always seems wrong and provides little hope of redemption only recidivism. In 2002 there were 24, 513 violent crimes committed throughout New Jersey, where 71% of those crimes were committed by individuals of color, 52% being African-American. Polke at his young age became nothing more than another categorical statistic waiting to be sentenced to the inevitable, time behind bars, though he was carrying a gun (as was Wilson) and claimed the shooting was in self-defense. As with most young defendants of color, without the financial means to secure adequate defense counseling Polke was destine to do what many do in this situation, take a plea deal. Even though the jury appointed to decide his fate could not reach a verdict and a mistrial was obtained, Polke was still sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

So often we see this type of justice because those who grow up in environments that are not socioeconomically in tune with the criminal justice system without provocation are considered guilty. Polke did something quite different than many defendants, while incarcerated he set out to prove people wrong. “I just wanted to show people coming up they can do something different”, he said. “We are all not savages.” If you were to speak directly to Polke, which I have not, he would probably tell you his environment provided him with little to no chance of being any more in 2002 than what he was. He didn’t consider himself a “thug” but knew the things necessary to survive in the environment he lived. He stated, “growing up in Trenton is all about environment… I wanted to move but my family did not have the means to do so. I was jumped twice, a third time had a gun pulled on me and the night I shot Wilson it was either I shot him or he was going to shoot me and my cousin first.”

Reluctant and not very interested in college though he did have a high school diploma, with help and some persuasion From Donald Roden a Rutgers's University (New Jersey) professor who began a prison college degree program where Polke was incarcerated, he began to take college courses and when released from prison in 2007 (he served 2 years in county jail before his trial and being sentenced to prison in 2004) left with 23 college credits. But sometimes your prior environment begins to trick you into believing that even when changing demographics, things are still the same. That slate has a new sentence written on it “you still can’t change things”, your mental approach to life remains status quo and you are “stuck” in a place that suspends your environment mentally. Not until 2010 after a three year hiatus did Polke decide to reenter the program, pay his own way, and with intense contemplation and commitment, complete his degree.

Ean Polke graduated from Rutgers University in May with President Barack Obama making the commencement speech and his mother in attendance. A mother who was unable to provide a more conducive, productive environment for her son to grow up in, but knowing that the environment he lived in and her son’s perseverance finally led him to this point nine years later at the age of 34 and fourteen years after his initial incarceration. I was not there to see the smiles on their faces but I know they were wide along with the joy felt in their hearts. Both mother and son, not torn down by the environment which they lived, but inspired as I was by the advantaged it indirectly presented. And I am sure Locke and Bronfenbrenner were looking from their vantage points wherever they may be saying, “nurturing, a job well done.”