Radio star challenges black men

Nationally syndicated radio personality Michael Baisden told an audience of nearly 1,000 people Friday night that black men should start kissing their sons.

"They need affection," Baisden said. "Ask black men if they kiss their children, and they'll say they kiss their daughters, but not their sons. They don't want to turn them in to sissies."

Baisden, who is aired locally on Magic 107.3, brought his One Million Mentors Campaign to Save Our Kids to the North Charleston Performing Arts Center. He was accompanied by his sidekick, comedian George Wilborn, and a number of local black leaders.

At one point, Baisden picked out young black men in the crowd and asked them, individually, if they were men. "You're not a man until you learn what it means to be a man," he said. And responsible, adult men have to teach boys how to be men.

During one of his turns with the microphone, Wilborn, who said his son has been an honor student for three years, had all the honor students stand up and be recognized. After the applause died down, he told the crowd that 38 percent of the kids killed by other kids are honor students.

"My job is not done just because my kid is an honor student," he said. "I've got to help the other kid, the one out there that may want to kill my honor student."

One of the local speakers, Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson, said she's seen it all in her 15 years as a judge. "We are, as a people, losing a generation of children," she said. "Guns are not glamorous. Death is not glamorous."

Wilborn, during another turn with the microphone, told parents they need to start checking their children's cell phones, looking under their mattresses, asking them where they are going and what they are doing. "We are not being nosy enough with our kids," he said.

The purpose of Baisden's seven-month, 72-city bus tour is to get a million adults to become mentors. There were several local mentoring groups on hand and sign-up sheets in the lobby. To find out more, go to www.onemillionmentors.com or www.magic1073fm.com.

At the end of the show, Baisden presented a $5,000 donation to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of South Carolina.

Reach David W. MacDougall at 937-5655 macdougd@postandcourier.com..