Mia Jaye didn’t want to become an activist. The mother of Young Dolph‘s children, Jaye has shifted her focus to her for-profit organization “Black Men Deserve To Grow Old.”
Jaye recently stopped by rolling out to discuss the organization that focuses on cutting down on violence by donating a portion of its profits to mental health resources. More information can be found on blackmendeservetogrowold.com.
It’s been 11 months since the death of Young Dolph. How have you been holding up?
I’m holding up. I would say- finding the words for that. Some days, I’m cool. I feel like I’m cool because I’m accepting my life, how it shaped out and things like that, so I can be in a better place of acceptance.
Then some days, I’m not. It’s one of those types of things of, “I don’t want to accept this.” It’s like a roller coaster ride that I’m on right now.
It’s great to give Dolph his flowers, but we want to give you your flowers as well with what you’re doing with Black Men Deserve To Grow Old.
That was a campaign and initiative I started after losing my brother to gun violence in Memphis as well. I’m from Detroit originally, where a lot of crime was, especially in Black communities. I can remember as far back as being in fourth grade and my little fourth-grade crush, when we got to about ninth grade, I can’t remember exactly when but I was really young when he was killed by a gang member. I remember how that made me feel even then …
I lost my dad when I was 19, and it wasn’t gun violence or anything, but it was just tough having to process and accept it. I just ran from it. It was like, “I don’t want to talk about him. I don’t think about him. I want to go on with my life. I don’t want to feel this hurt or pain.” I was 19. I didn’t know.
When I lost my brother, I was 31 years old. I’ve come so far in terms of experiences to really understand life a little bit more…he passed in May 2020…in August 2021, I wanted to do something to honor him, so I started this campaign Black Men Deserve To Grow Old and I released it on his birthday … When Adolph was taken from me, I had no idea how I would accept that … There are certain things I’m going to have to learn to accept and push through to accept, but I don’t want to continue to have to accept this because of how our communities are. I have to do something about it even more.
And I don’t want to have to do something about it anymore because I just want to be able to heal. This is not easy. I don’t want to be the face of something that brought me an immense amount of pain, but I feel like in the deepest parts of me, I don’t have a choice because I’ve been forced to accept something so real and hurtful.
