buckwheat
Well-Known Member
Something I saw on the Michael Baisden website. The link is posted below.
You may have to sign up to view this site.
http://www.minglecity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1156
America Has Lost A Generation Of Black Boys
By Phillip Jackson
Executive Director of the Black Star Project
Chicago, IL
[email protected]
There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or
apprehension about losing a generation of black boys. It is too late. In
education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and
parenting, we have lost a generation of young black men. The question
that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or
possibly every generation of black boys hereafter to the streets,
negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father
absence, crime, violence and death.
Most young black men in the United States don't graduate from high
school. Only 35% of black male students graduated from high school in
Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by
The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few black boys who
finish high school actually attend college, and of those few black boys
who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.
Young black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores,
and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these
young black men don't succeed in school, they are much more likely to
succeed in the nation's criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it
was discovered recently that even when a young black man graduates from
a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the
Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States.
Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie.
There are more black men in prisons and jails in the United States
(about 1.1 million) than there are black men incarcerated in the rest of
the world combined. This criminalization process now starts in
elementary schools with black male children as young as six and seven
years old being arrested in staggering numbers according to a 2005
report, Education on Lockdown by the Advancement Project.
The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America.
Other countries including England, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil and South
Africa are adopting American social policies that encourage the
incarceration and destruction of young black men. This is leading to a
world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from
the American or global black community.
Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the black
community concerning the future of our black boys. We do little while
the future lives of black boys are being destroyed in record numbers.
The schools that black boys attend prepare them with skills that will
make them obsolete before, and if, they graduate. In a strange and
perverse way, the black community, its elf, has started to w age a kind
of war against young black men and has become part of this destructive
process.
Who are young black women going to marry? Who is going to build and
maintain the economies of black communities? Who is going to anchor
strong families in the black community? Who will young black boys
emulate as they grow into men? Where is the outrage of the black
community at the destruction of its black boys? Where are the plans and
the supportive actions to change this? Is this the beginning of the end
of the black people in America ?
The list of those who have failed young black men includes our
government, our foundations, our schools, our media, our black churches,
our black leaders, and even our parents. Ironical ly, experts say that
the solutions to the problems of young black men are simple and
relatively inexpensive, but they may not be easy, practical or popular.
It is not that we lack solutions as much as it is that we lack the will
to implement these solutions to save black boys. It seems that
government is willing to pay billions of dollars to lock up young black
men, rather than the millions it would take to prepare them to become
viable contributors and valued members of our society.
You may have to sign up to view this site.
http://www.minglecity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1156
America Has Lost A Generation Of Black Boys
By Phillip Jackson
Executive Director of the Black Star Project
Chicago, IL
[email protected]
There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or
apprehension about losing a generation of black boys. It is too late. In
education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and
parenting, we have lost a generation of young black men. The question
that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or
possibly every generation of black boys hereafter to the streets,
negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father
absence, crime, violence and death.
Most young black men in the United States don't graduate from high
school. Only 35% of black male students graduated from high school in
Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by
The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few black boys who
finish high school actually attend college, and of those few black boys
who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.
Young black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores,
and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these
young black men don't succeed in school, they are much more likely to
succeed in the nation's criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it
was discovered recently that even when a young black man graduates from
a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the
Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States.
Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie.
There are more black men in prisons and jails in the United States
(about 1.1 million) than there are black men incarcerated in the rest of
the world combined. This criminalization process now starts in
elementary schools with black male children as young as six and seven
years old being arrested in staggering numbers according to a 2005
report, Education on Lockdown by the Advancement Project.
The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America.
Other countries including England, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil and South
Africa are adopting American social policies that encourage the
incarceration and destruction of young black men. This is leading to a
world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from
the American or global black community.
Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the black
community concerning the future of our black boys. We do little while
the future lives of black boys are being destroyed in record numbers.
The schools that black boys attend prepare them with skills that will
make them obsolete before, and if, they graduate. In a strange and
perverse way, the black community, its elf, has started to w age a kind
of war against young black men and has become part of this destructive
process.
Who are young black women going to marry? Who is going to build and
maintain the economies of black communities? Who is going to anchor
strong families in the black community? Who will young black boys
emulate as they grow into men? Where is the outrage of the black
community at the destruction of its black boys? Where are the plans and
the supportive actions to change this? Is this the beginning of the end
of the black people in America ?
The list of those who have failed young black men includes our
government, our foundations, our schools, our media, our black churches,
our black leaders, and even our parents. Ironical ly, experts say that
the solutions to the problems of young black men are simple and
relatively inexpensive, but they may not be easy, practical or popular.
It is not that we lack solutions as much as it is that we lack the will
to implement these solutions to save black boys. It seems that
government is willing to pay billions of dollars to lock up young black
men, rather than the millions it would take to prepare them to become
viable contributors and valued members of our society.
