Shaka Senghor Reflects On Trying To Rob The Man Who Tried To Molest Him

It's one of the reasons that I'm super sensitive when it comes to mentoring young people. And, you know, you see these kids who have been labeled as acting out, and because of my own experiences, I know that none of these things are without cause. And so in the case of cm, you know, this was a trusted family friend, and, you know, this guy attempted to molest me. And, you know, as a result of that, I literally broke into his house. And like, in my mind, I'm like, we're going to steal all this stuff, we're going to destroy it. And I ended up getting caught. And. And when I got caught, my parents was like, we didn't raise you like this and why would you do this? And so they were really upset. But the thing is, they had never created space for us to tell the full truth. Right. And so as a kid, you have something that violation of trust, and you internalize that. And it's one of the things, like, when I talk about why I wrote this book, I've met so many people who have internalized the behaviors of others. Whether it's childhood trauma, whether it's assault, whether it's violence, you take on that identity. That's where negative self talk comes from. And so when my parents, like, they punished me for the behavior, I internalized that even more of like, well, maybe I did something wrong or maybe it was my fault. And so for years I was angry with them. And, you know, and there was a shame attached to that. Right. I had got arrested in front of our whole block, you know. And they knew you. Yeah, like, they literally was like, what is you doing? What are you doing? Yeah. So now you got that embarrassment. And it's one of the things that, you know, for me, when I got to a space where I talked to my parents, this was like. I mean, this wasn't that long. It was like three years ago. I was like 50 years old when I called my dad and I was like, hey, I just want to talk to you about something that I realized I was still carrying this anger about that they never understood my why and they never even questioned it. And I'm like, if you know your kid to be good otherwise, and they do something that's so out outside of who you know them to be, like, you got to be patient and interrogate that. You know what I mean? Because otherwise it kind of imprisons them in the shame. And that's what happened to me. But when I. When I talked to my parents, it was. It was amazing, you know, that they were both present and willing to go on that journey. And especially, like, with my dad, like, that has to be hard as a father. Like, you're trusting your child in the care of another man who you respect, right? And then this guy attempts to take advantage of your child.