The state of our Black boys

On any given day, you can find Damondre Robertson, 25, picking up trash behind the building that is home to the Martindale-Brightwood Community Development Corporation (MBCDC). The nonprofit focuses on multiple pillars, including housing, education and employment, to help people just like him. “I’ve been on my own dang near since I was 16 because they [grandparents] were dying on me. The reason I started doing certain stuff I was doing was because I felt that’s the only way I could make it and survive,” said Robertson. RELATED: The angry Black man He grew up with his aging grandparents. His grandmother died when he was sixteen; his grandfather died when he was twenty-one.Robertson and his mother, who lived in another state, were never on good terms, and his father, who lives in Indiana, was once absent but came back into his life when he turned 16. He felt alone after both of his grandparents died, so he turned to the streets. “Just like gang banging and doing bad stuff; selling stuff and all that; getting locked up and just trying to make something happen. I was born in the hood, so it just be in me. I’m trying to grow...