By IAN BETHEL BENNETT

When thinking about role models for youth a slew of names come to mind. These thoughts were stirred at a memorial service for a man who had served the country for many years in many capacities. We are not talking about someone who was unreal. He was, I reckon, like everyone else, very human. However he seemed to have certain characteristics that are ultimately out-dated or old fashioned, when compared to today’s role models.

For many young men today, basketball players, American football players and baseball players and, of course, the perennial pop stars or movie stars are the consummate role models. They have come from rags to riches, or, at least, many of them. Their stories are often marred with drugs and violence, but they are celebrated, not because they are terribly well spoken or educated, intelligent, represent good courses or promote peaceful resolution to conflict; they are famous because they are rich and have created controversy.

Along the lines of 50Cent, Movado, Eminem, Chris Brown, among others, these men are often seen to have abused women and done or dealt drugs. They are tough, have bling, are badly behaved and rough spoken. This is an image.

Today, being educated and well-spoken if one is male is viewed with suspicion. To be violent and full of wrath is celebrated. When these thoughts came to mind I thought of Mr. Donaldson and other men like him: Kendal Isaacs and Sidney Poitier, for example. They were quiet kinds of role models for some young men. Where are the men like them now? They were people who did their part to build community, to build a nation. How many young men today value that kind of commitment? How many of them look up to someone who has a university degree or two?

How is it that culture can value what must be brawn over brain, bling over presence and cash over wealth embodied or otherwise? Value is placed on the number of Fbombs that can be uttered in any one sentence and the number of “hoes” that can be laid and talked or tweeted about.

The above mentioned men were human; they would have had their good and bad days. It was exceptional, though, if one would hear them discuss exploits in public, let alone express such sentiments on international television. They were gentlemen and did it quietly and represented the country well. Where are the men who have followed in their footsteps? How is it that so many male role models today are simply famous because they are famous? They are famous because they talk about killing niggas and bedding hoes.

The apparent value of education, honour, self-respect, where one is concerned about one’s image in public is gone. We have been consumed with the tweets and the chats that push bling culture and show that there is no need to be educated or even polite.

As I thought about Mr. Donaldson, it gave me pause. He was simply human and did his best at whatever he did. He was an intelligent, well-spoken gentleman who was able to fit in anywhere. It also made me think of, as Charles Carter once said, about Bain Town. How many people came out of Bain Town and are respectable, intelligent, well-mannered and well-spoken individuals. What has made Bain Town so ill-famed or infamous today? How is it that society can determine that suddenly anyone who hails from Bain Town is a criminal, yet praise the bad man?

People say they don’t go through Bain Town, yet they celebrate the drug lord. There has been a devolution of culture into the popularising of ghetto, the glamourising of bling and the valorisation of violence. This basically goes against everything that was held dear by a generation of men, those role models that youth of an earlier generation would have grown up with. This is not about being perfect, but rather people who knew the difference between public and private, for example. Men who knew decorum and were not ashamed to speak well or embrace education; men who valued hard work and success.

Sadly, the young men of today have few of these role models. The Basie Donaldsons, Charles Carters, Kendal Isaacs and Cyril Stevensons have been replaced by men who are famous because they kill people, or because they beat women in public, or because they tweet about how many hoes they have had. However, the more tragic part of this is that the latter are the shining examples of masculinity that the nation’s youth emulate unchecked by society. The former group have apparently lost their relevance despite their massive successes and their gentle and often understated greatness.

This is not a tribute to anyone in particular; it is not event a lament for the loss of respectable public figures. It is, rather an exploration of how great the value shift in positive male models has been from the twentieth century to now. Some may have looked up to TV stars, but learned from the day to day examples around them, society would have accepted nothing less.

• Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett, Associate Professor in the School of English Studies at the College of the Bahamas, has written extensively on race and migration in the Bahamas, cultural creolisation and gender issues. Direct questions and comments to iabethellbennett@yahoo.co.uk.