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What Black High School Grads Need to Hear
(The Root) — During a graduation speech this month at Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School in Nashville, Tenn., Michelle Obama told students, “When something doesn’t go your way, you’ve just got to adjust. You’ve got to dig deep and work like crazy, and that’s when you’ll find out what you’re really made…
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Black Male Teachers: Becoming Extinct?
(The Root) — Many media sources have propagated the view that black male teachers are “becoming extinct.” Currently, black males represent less than 2 percent of the nation’s teacher workforce. One article suggests that black males are underrepresented in the teaching profession because they prefer to pursue more lucrative careers. The article also postulated that…
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Retire the Myth: Black Men, Jail and College
(The Root) — “There are more black men in jail than in college” is a line that has transfigured our understanding of persistent problems among black men in the United States. Many activists and scholars recite it to invoke urgency to fight unjust social structures, while culture critics say it to condemn the social failings…
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More Black Men in Jail Than in College? Wrong
(The Root) — What does the line “There are more black men in jail than in college” have in common with the Jheri curl? Answer: They were invented by white men (Jheri Redding and Vincent Schiraldi, respectively) and adopted enthusiastically by black people, and they left a nasty stain on the shoulders of millions of…
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How Will Obama Handle HBCUs?
(The Root) — Between now and the inauguration on Jan. 21, The Root will be taking a daily look at the president’s record on a number of policy issues, including his first-term accomplishments and what many Americans hope to see him accomplish in a second term. Today: the war on drugs. See previous postings in…
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Massacres, Mental Health and Black Kids
(The Root) — The suspected mental-health issues of the Newtown, Conn., man who killed 26 people before killing himself on Dec. 14 has many scrutinizing the resources available for people who suffer from psychiatric disorders. The shooter, Adam Lanza, was only 20 years old, and all of the victims, except for his mother, Nancy Lanza,…
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How Race Matters in the Classroom
(The Root) — Recently, the media reported that Florida and Virginia are attempting to close the “achievement gap” by setting different performance standards for black and white students. These controversial and misguided proposals demonstrate a dreadfully shortsighted assessment of race and achievement in the United States. Instead of dealing with the complicated racial nuances that…
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Coming of Age Amid the Ashes of the Black Power Movement
In a piece for EmPower magazine, Dr. Ivory Toldson reflects on the effect his relationship with his own stepfather (a member of the Republic of New Africa) and with Tupac Shakur’s (a prisoner at the penitentiary where Toldson worked as a psychology intern) had on his own understanding of oppression and activism. By the time…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
