Humans are the most social creatures on the planet. We are so social that if you put us in isolation we will literally go insane, humans who lack adequate social contact and stimulation have higher rates of disease and shorter lifespans. We are extremely social creatures.
Just as we have a need, not just a desire, but a need to be social; we are also very influenced by our social environment. Not just the people in our social circle and our workspace, but by the type of architecture, the quality of the plant life, the sounds, the smells, the textures.
When you look at the behaviors of a “bad lost chick,” or any other individual whom actions you find unbecoming, or dysfunctional you have to look at them and beyond them. You have to find out where they are coming from and where they seek to go. You have to understand their motivations, and what are the factors in their lives that reinforce their behaviors, preferences, and outlook.
It is all but impossible to “covert” or adjust the mentality of someone who has no interest in changing. What you determine to be “bad and lost,” may well be seen as “good and found” by this “chick.” What turns you off may turn others on, what’s see as negative in your social sphere can be an absolute necessity in the “chick’s” social sphere.
When all of that is understood and you still seek to “convert” this “chick,” your fist step is getting to know her, fully know her, non-judgmentally know her. You have to let go of the “bad and lost” labels, and just accept her as a woman.
Then you will have a better understanding of this “chick,” you can only fundamentally change what your fully understand; but there’s also the chance she will change you as well, and not necessarily in a bad way. To quote Common; “there’s a lot you can find in a lost Black girl.”
Once you get to know her, and if she is interested in knowing and engaging you, you can begin, together, to expand your social exposure and circles. You can begin to attend lectures, study together, improve your diets, exercise, explore you local landmarks, attend cultural events, cultivate a garden, start a small business, make art together, interact with people who model the behaviors and lifestyles you and the “chick” aspire to.
So it’s pretty simple, earn her trust, determine her willingness, and grow together. It’s not just about you converting her, but you evolving with her. You also have to understand and expose your flaws to her, the areas where you are “bad and lost” too; because I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you are not perfect either.
That is how I think you can best “convert” an individual, it is a simple but drawn out process.
They other way I would suggest is to fundamentally transform the system’s social relations, and setting them up in such a way where everyone has all of the needed resources to live a full and dignified life, setting up a society that is not based on Compounding Exploitation and the destruction of our ecosystems. That way we simply reduce the likelihood of producing “bad and lost” human beings in the first place, and if we do produce them, the society can be oriented to heal them; not punish, isolate, incarcerate, or promote them to positions of power.
The second method requires Revolution, it requires that you organize with those already oriented towards Black Empowerment, and give the majority of your focus to collective empowerment instead of individual conversion.
I’m not telling you to chose between the two methods, I would encourage you to do both, if you can only do one do the latter.
