Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude

education

Black Student Enrollment Lagging in Many of the South’s Premier College Campuses: Report

A new report reveals major disparities between the rate of black high school graduates and the rate of black students enrolled at flagship state institutions. Among the findings: Nine of the 10 states with the biggest gaps were found in the South. The Hechinger Report released an interactive look Monday at how many black and…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 29, 2018
We Need to Talk About How Schools Handle Racist Harassment Against Students

Just how many times must a student tell you that your school has a race problem before you believe her? Earlier this month, a senior at Elk Grove High School came forward to the Sacramento Bee about experiencing repeated racial harassment at her high school. The school had recently garnered national attention because one of…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 25, 2018
Virginia Lawmakers Want to Dismantle Their ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’

One of Virginia’s newest state delegates is working on a series of bills that would disrupt the “school-to-prison pipeline” in a state that recently led the country in referring students to the legal system. The Washington Post used the example of Ryan Turk, an eighth-grader from Prince William County, to illustrate the severity of Virginia’s problems.…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 19, 2018
Beauty + Style

Still in the Spirit: The Legendary Susan Taylor Wants Us to Love Ourselves Enough to Save Ourselves

Susan Taylor is legend. But the term “legend” is nowhere near adequate enough for this woman, whose tenure as editor-in-chief of Essence magazine transformed both of their names into global powerhouse brands followed by 8 million readers. Living in the now, at 71-fighting-years strong, Taylor founded the nonprofit National Cares Mentoring Movement in 2005; to…

By

Veronica Webb

Published

January 18, 2018
Ohio Teacher Keeps Job After Telling Black Student Classmates Would ‘Lynch’ Him if He Didn’t Behave

Renee Thole, a middle school social studies teacher who told a 13-year-old black student that he would be lynched if he didn’t behave, will not be suspended or fired. According to Cincinnati.com, Thole, who teaches at Mason Middle School in Mason, Ohio, made the comment in December. Thole submitted a statement during the district’s investigation…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 11, 2018
Black Student at High School Where Racist Video Went Viral Had Warned of Anti-Black Attacks for Months

Late last month, Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove, Calif., made headlines in one of the worst ways a school can: One of its students, posting a racist rant, had gone viral. A teenage girl had recorded herself on Snapchat, heart-crown filters and all, grinning into her cellphone camera as she said, “Black people…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 11, 2018
New Studies Find That Positive Feelings About Blackness Improve Academic Performance for Black Girls

Believing that “black is beautiful,” an important mantra of self-acceptance and self-love, could pay major dividends in school, a new study finds. An article in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education focuses on a new study from Sheretta Butler-Barnes, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, which finds that young black women with…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 10, 2018
Amid Freezing Temperatures, Baltimore City Students Go to Class in Unheated Classrooms

Updated Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, 3:39 p.m. EST: Baltimore County Public Schools announced that all schools would be closed today, BuzzFeed reports. Schools around the country have shut down on account of the historic “bomb cyclone” storm battering much of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions today. As BuzzFeed reports, BCPS didn’t make it clear whether…

By

Anne Branigin

Published

January 4, 2018
Beauty + Style

Sole Purpose: Gift Style With a Conscience for the Holidays

Christmas is only two weeks away, and I haven’t done a thing. (Don’t even ask me what to do about Kwanzaa; I’m hoping for some celebratory guidance from my new colleagues here at The Root.) But whatever you’re celebrating this December, these chic shoes from Uwezo add a dash of boho style to your closet…

By

Veronica Webb

Published

December 13, 2017
Politics, The National Interest

The Charter School Movement Is Complicit With Segregation

Charter schools didn’t create segregation, but the charter school movement isn’t helping to end it, either. When Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation,” he wasn’t suggesting that black kids need white kids and white teachers in the classroom with them to learn. King was acutely aware that segregation…

By

Andre Perry

Published

December 12, 2017