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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5264
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 09:56 am: | 
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Part of the BlackPressUSA Network
State of Black America: Future of Black Men Critical for ''American Family''
by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent
Originally posted 4/18/2007
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – National Urban League President Marc Morial, in NUL’s annual State of Black America address, this week, describes the underachievement of Black males as being among America’s greatest crisis.
“This state of underachievement, with its devastating and far-reaching
ramifications, is the most serious economic and civil rights challenge we face today,” Morial says in his report,
“The State of Black America 2007: Portrait of the Black Male,” a 260-page document, released this week. “It’s a problem with a major rippling effect. Not only does it impact individual Black men. It also hurts their families and communities. It’s not just a problem for the African-American community. It’s a problem for everyone in this nation.”
The SOBA report, an annual measurement of Black progress, outlines egregious statistics:
Black men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as White men and make only 74 percent as much a year.
Black men are more than six times as likely than White men to be incarcerated and their average jail sentences tend to be 10 months longer than those of White men.
At the end of 2001, 16.5 percent of the Black male population had been to prison compared to 7.7 percent of Hispanic and 2.7 percent of White men.
Young Black males between the ages of 15 and 34 years are nine times more likely to be killed by firearms and nearly eight times as likely to suffer from AIDS.
Of single parent Black households in 2005, only 12 percent were led by men.
More than two-thirds of Black children live in one-parent households in 2005, the majority headed by women.
More than 42 percent of female-headed Black households with children were poor, compared to slightly more than 9 percent of married Black households.
“The absence of the Black man in the Black family will only lead to greater poverty for our community as a whole,” states Morial. “It helps exacerbate the disparities already existing between minorities and Whites in the United States.”
The SOBA report includes op-eds by author, speaker and educator Michael Eric Dyson, and national child advocate Marian Wright Edelman. It also includes essays by NAACP Legal Defense Fund General Counsel Theodore Shaw and noted researcher Silas Lee as well as a foreword by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Black America is like two stories, states Obama, a leading Democratic candidate for president whom many view as a symbol of success. But, his forward tells two sides.
“One story celebrates the extraordinary fact that some of this country’s top financial institutions have Black chief executives, that a Black woman is president of an Ivy League university, that the current and previous secretaries of state are Black Americans, that a Black coach led his team to victory in the Super Bowl, that the college graduation rate of Black women has never been higher, that homeownership by Blacks is as high as it has ever been, and that Blacks have penetrated nearly every barrier in law, business, medicine, sports, education, politics and public service,” the senator writes in the SOBA foreword.
“But, another story must also be told about the state of Black America,” he states.
“A quarter of all Black Americans live below the federal poverty level, a poverty rate about twice the national rate. More than a third of all Black children live in poverty and almost two-thirds grow up in a home without both parents. In some cities, more than half of all Black boys do not finish high school, and by the time they are in their 30s, almost six in ten Black high school dropouts will have spent time in prison. Half of all Black men in their 20s are jobless, and one study a few years ago found more Black men in prison than enrolled in college. The typical Black household earns only about 60 percent of the earnings of White households and has a net worth only about 10 percent that of Whites. The HIV/AIDS rate is highest for Black Americans and Blacks are more often the victims of inadequate healthcare and preventable health maladies.”
This year’s SOBA focuses on the Black male, but it says Black America in general has made little progress since last year. Last year’s SOBA reported that Black America’s “equality index” was at 73 percent of Whites. This year it’s at 73.3, the report states.
“In other words, Blacks made minimal progress on the equality front in the past few years,” the report states, but it was dismal for Black males.
“While there are Barack Obamas and Lovie Smiths out there to prove just how far Black men can go, there are many whose futures are far from bright,” says Morial. “The equality index shows us that Black men continue to lag behind their White counterparts in every major category; a disproportionate number of Black men are underperforming in our society in a variety of areas for a variety of reasons.”
Despite the obvious crisis among Black males, there were key positives pointed out in the report.
“A higher percentage of young black children are enrolled in early childhood education programs such as Head Start than young White children – 66 percent compared to 64 percent,” the report states. “And the youngest blacks have made strong improvements in the areas of school readiness – scoring at 94 percent of that of Whites, up from 81 percent in 2006.”
But, then something happens after elementary school as Blacks - especially males - begin to fall behind Whites.
“Disparities in writing proficiency scores widen as Blacks grow older. At 4th grade, they perform at a level of 87 percent of Whites. By the time they reach 12th grade, their scores are at 74 percent of Whites. And after they reach adulthood, they’re the most likely to have dropped out – 15 percent compared to 12 percent of Whites. For Black males, the percentage rises to 18 percent compared to 14 percent of White males.”
The report outlines five specific solutions for the problems facing Black America; especially Black males:
Universal Early Childhood Education, especially for children “from disadvantaged backgrounds, a leg-up when they start school.”
Greater experimentation with all-male schools, longer school days and mentoring. The combination of “mentoring and longer days help keep young boys focused on their education and away from distractions that could lead them down the wrong paths,” the reports states.
More second chance programs for high school dropouts and ex-offenders. These kinds of programs would bring “ex-offenders and disadvantaged
individuals who are out of school and out of work back into the mainstream.”
Restore the Federal Summer Jobs Program to its previous state. A major scaling back of this program resulted when federal lawmakers changed the program from mandatory for states to an optional program. The Urban League proposes its restoration.
Drive home the message that education pays dividends. “Parents need to instill into their children the value of education in achieving their dreams and improving their financial prosperity.”
Concludes Morial: “Empowering black men to reach their full potential is the most serious economic and civil rights challenge we face today. Ensuring their future is critical, not just for the African-American community, but for the prosperity, health and well-being of the entire American family.”
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved :: Legal and Privacy Policy
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=12934&sID=3
http://www.kare11.com/news/national/national_article.aspx?storyid=251353
http://blacknews.com/pr/urban_league_black_men101.html
http://www.maximsnews.com/107mnunapril17marcmorialstateofblackamerica2007nationa lurbanleague.htm |
Enchanted
Veteran Poster
Username: Enchanted
Post Number: 800
Registered: 11-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 05:46 pm: |
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yawn
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Yukio
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 2298
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 09:13 pm: |
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enchanted:
LOL! |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9272
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 10:08 am: |
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Tonya,
Somehow I doubt you'd be as bothered about an article that asserted "State of Black America: Future of Black WOMEN Critical for ''American Family'". |
Yvettep
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Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1953
Registered: 01-2005
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 10:16 am: |
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I have a different beef: I am tired of the word "empowering." To me, nothing is more lacking in power than having someone else "help" to give you power. That is not power. It may be helpful. You may want it. But it is more of a gift that you receive (or not) at the discretion of someone who truly has power.
I wonder: is there a better way to frame these kinds of debates, gender issues aside? Can folks with power look at that, and perhaps see how they may be using their power to thwart those with less? Has anyone asked those who are supposedly in need of "empowering" exactly what they feel they need, or whether or not they feel they have power?
I do not know. I do know that I am becoming increasingly suspicious whenever I hear that term being invoked. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9274
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 10:25 am: |
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Yvettep,
I don't have a problem with the wording. I mean, foks can call stuff whatever they want. Ultimately, a thing is what it is and isn't what it's not.
But I would agree that power is seldom gifted or given. It's most often TAKEN.
So to me the real issue would be how to inspire Black men - Black PEOPLE - to TAKE power. |
Enchanted
Veteran Poster
Username: Enchanted
Post Number: 804
Registered: 11-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 10:28 am: |
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Quote Abm: So to me the real issue would be how to inspire Black men - Black PEOPLE - to TAKE power.Oh god now your sounding liek Kola Boof Abm this is a DEMOCRACY not a dictatorship and we hav to share power its not just blacks here. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9276
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 10:31 am: |
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Enchanted,
I don't mean power in the since that one wields total dominion over all others. I mean it with respect to being better able to live and be as one chooses to live and be. Power not something that only one or a few foks have. It's something MANY may have and share. I just wish Black foks had a BIGGER share of such. |
Yukio
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 2300
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 12:54 pm: |
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This is an important conversation that Yvettep has started about power. This is really a broader discussion of a popular conception of "politics."
Power is rarely just given, without the opposing group using their own power, though inferior, to obtain power from the superordinate group. But it is often a concession by the most powerful. For example, Blacks and some whites organized throughout the 40s, 50s, and 60s used their local and national networks, and pressure on the State to pass legislation and contributed to the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
This Story includes MLK and many, many others, and as some of you experienced, some us have read and viewed on documentaries, we were "empowered" by the the deeds of these "freedom fighters" and of King and others. BUT....these acts, at the end of the day, were concessions.
Thus the question comes to what ABM has proposed, which is how can we take it, that is, power. But what about the need for sharing, as Enchanted bemoans?
Well, I can't really take that word seriously in the case of the US of A. The word sharing is quite ambiguous, and we are only a democracy in the sense that we vote for representatives, but that doesn't mean that this "sharing," is based on equity or reciprocity.
And the real nature of power, and therefore politics, IS about the ability to control others and the question of sovereignty, especially through cultural means, which makes us believe that what we participate in is indeed democratic, that is, in the literal sentence, because this is a so-called democracy!
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Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1960
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 03:00 pm: |
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Interesting usage note on dictionary.com:
Usage Note: Although it is a contemporary buzzword, the word empower is not new, having arisen in the mid-17th century with the legalistic meaning "to invest with authority, authorize." Shortly thereafter it began to be used with an infinitive in a more general way meaning "to enable or permit." Both of these uses survive today but have been overpowered by the word's use in politics and pop psychology. Its modern use originated in the civil rights movement, which sought political empowerment for its followers. The word was then taken up by the women's movement, and its appeal has not flagged. Since people of all political persuasions have a need for a word that makes their constituents feel that they are or are about to become more in control of their destinies, empower has been adopted by conservatives as well as social reformers. It has even migrated out of the political arena into other fields. · The Usage Panel has some misgivings about this recent broadening of usage. For the Panelists, the acceptability of the verb empower depends on the context. Eighty percent approve of the example We want to empower ordinary citizens. But in contexts that are not political the Panel is markedly less enthusiastic. The sentence Hunger and greed and then sexual zeal are felt by some to be stages of experience that empower the individual garners approval from only 33 percent of the Panelists. The Panel may frown on this kind of psychological empowering because it resonates of the self-help movement, which is notorious for trendy coinages. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8373
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 04:04 pm: |
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To me, empowerment is a do-it-yourself dynamic. People never voluntarily empower you. You are empowered by their missteps or weaknesses. That's why the argument can be made that a white person is empowered when a black person becomes enraged at being called a "n i g g e r". Similarly females can empower themselves by acting indifferent rather than overwrought by male rejection. The male ego becomes a woman's ally in this tactic. It's not empowerment when you seize power instead of waiting for it to be doled out to you. Seizing power is a form of revolution. IMO |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5285
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 08:18 pm: |
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Abm,
This is what I'd like to see: "State of Black America: Future of Black women, children, and men Critical for ''American Family'".
Or
"State of Black America: Future of Black men, women, and children Critical for ''American Family'".
Or
"State of Black America: Future of Black children, women, and men Critical for ''American Family'".
Because, to me, it’s really about our future. And it's also about time we pay attention to Black women and what they might need to make things better. |
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