Black Jesus.com

Black Teens Vs White Teens - Jesus Wore A Hoodie And What This Says About The Killing Of Trayvon Martin

March 20, 2012

Three weeks ago, 17-year old Trayvon Martin was gunned down by self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Despite Zimmerman admitting to following, confronting, and killing Trayvon, he has yet to be arrested or charged with any crime.¹

Just minutes before Trayvon was killed, Zimmerman had called police stating that Trayvon looked "suspicious." Trayvon was unarmed and walking back to his father's home in Sanford, Florida when Zimmerman accosted him.

At the crime scene, Sanford police botched their questioning of Zimmerman, refused to take the full statements of witnesses, and pressured neighbors to side with the shooter's claim of self-defense.² As it turns out, Sanford's police department has a history of failing to hold perpetrators accountable for violent acts against Black victims and the police misconduct in Trayvon's case exemplifies the department's systemic mishandling of such investigations.³ And now, the State Attorney's office has rubber-stamped the Sanford police's non-investigation, claiming that there is not enough evidence to support even a manslaughter conviction.⁴

Trayvon's family and hundreds of thousands of people around the country are demanding justice.⁵ Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to take over the case, arrest Trayvon's killer, and launch an independent investigation into the Sanford police department's unwillingness to protect Trayvon's civil rights. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

Walking home from the store shouldn't cost you your life, but when Black youth are routinely assumed to be violent criminals, being randomly killed is a constant danger.⁶ Before Zimmerman decided to get out of his parked car — gun in tow — to pursue Trayvon on foot that night, he called the police to identify Trayvon as a "suspicious person" — apparently because he was wearing a hoodie and walking too slowly in the rain for Zimmerman's liking. Despite being instructed not to follow Trayvon, Zimmerman proceeded to confront and fatally shoot the boy in the chest within a matter of minutes.⁷

 Jesus Wore A Hoodie!

The case has been compromised from the beginning. When Sanford police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman was first approached by a narcotics detective — not a homicide investigator — who "peppered him with questions" rather than allowing him to tell his story without prompting. Another officer "corrected" a witness giving a statement that she'd heard Trayvon cry for help before he was shot, telling her she had heard Zimmerman instead.⁸ And beyond the questions of professional competence or even the police's disregard for the facts, Florida's notorious "Shoot First" law takes a shooter's self-defense claim at face value — incentivizing law enforcement not to make arrests in shooting deaths that would lead to murder charges in other states.⁹

Sanford has a history of not prosecuting when the victim is Black. In 2010, the white son of a Sanford police lieutenant was let go by police after assaulting a homeless Black man outside a downtown bar. And, in 2005, a Black teenager was killed by two white security guards, one the son of a Sanford Police officer. The pair was arrested and charged, but a judge later cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.¹⁰

Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to arrest Trayvon's killer and launch an investigation into the Sanford police department's mishandling of the case and when you do, ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

Thanks and Peace,

-- Rashad, Gabriel, Dani, Matt, Natasha, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
   March 19th, 2012

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

http://www.colorofchange.org/donate

Black Teens often complain of being treated differently than their white counterparts by teachers, police, restaurants, retail stores and adults. Now You Get To See What Many Experience Day To Day Thanks To A Recent Experiment Done By ABC's 20/20.

For smoother viewing hit start, then hit stop allowing the video red line  to fill to the right. Then hit start again.

Black, White Teen Vandals Break Into a Car, Generating Different Responses From Public

By CLEM TAYLOR and NATALIE D. JAQUEZ

Feb. 20, 2008—

Editor's Note: The last name of each "What Would You Do?" participant was removed to protect his or her privacy.

It was an early spring afternoon in a suburban New Jersey park. Families, couples, runners and dog-walkers populated the area.

Attention was turned to a group of three white teenage boys walking toward a car  an older, well-kept model in an open parking lot. They laughed at the car's "vintage" appearance.

Zac vaulted up on the car's hood and Justin K. looked around, furtively eyeing passersby. Meanwhile, Sam pulled a Jimmy stick from his pants and began breaking into the car.

Watch the premiere of the series "Primetime: What Would You Do?" Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 10 p.m. ET

"There it is! There it is!" The driver's side door popped open and the boys piled in, looking for anything worth taking.

People passed by but paid little or no attention to the mischief-makers, until the boys pulled out cans of paint and began spraying graffiti on the car.

A couple of women who engaged in brief conversation with the boys later said they were actually far more concerned about their well-being than they let on during the exchange.

"They [the boys] started getting increasingly strident and jumping on [the car] and pounding on it," said Laurette. "Then we said, 'Let's get away from this and call the police.'"

'You Got an Illegal Tool There!'

Shortly after, another couple of women noticed the boys. The women spoke, but both walked away from the scene.

While Maggie acknowledged, "I should have done something," Mary, the other woman, said she was reluctant to get involved.

"There have been times when I've been a witness to things and had to take off work, and it has been really involved. I try to mind my own business," said Mary.

Later, another middle-aged woman who seemed troubled by the teen vandals stopped a safe distance away from them and pulled out her cell phone. Was she typing a text message or contacting police?

When a fit middle-aged man who had just finished a run wandered past the boys and asked what they were up to, the boys bluntly told him to mind his own business.

As the man walked away, one of the boys yelled, "Adios, have a nice day," just to goad him. In doing so, the boys called the man's attention back to them and the car, angering him and heightening the confrontation.

And then he saw their Jimmy stick. "You got an illegal tool there! The cops would love to know that," he warned them. "That's a jimmy. That's an illegal tool. It's a felony. I suggest you pick it up and move on."

"We're not going nowhere," said Justin K., defiantly.

With that, the man walked off, and asked the woman with a cell phone to dial 911.

At that moment ABC News correspondent John Quinones jumped in, but the man, Brian, was pretty steamed at both the boys and at the "What Would You Do?" crew. When he finally cooled off, Brian and his wife, Dawn, stopped for a chat.

"I was keeping my eye on them. I was waiting for my husband to come back because I wasn't going to confront three boys by myself," Dawn told us.

Brian said he got involved because of a lesson his father taught him.

"You can't turn a blind eye or a deaf ear if somebody's in trouble," he said. "It wasn't [my property] but, you know, it was somebody's. We're all in this together."

Moments later, Brian and the actors exchanged apologies and handshakes.

Jack Dovidio, a psychology professor at Yale University, applauded Brian's actions, in spite of the possible risk he took.

"He took action that was selfless and was about stopping something bad from happening. He made a difference," Dovidio said. "I don't think it was the smart thing to do necessarily, but I think it was the good and right thing to do."

Sleeping Kids Generate 911 Calls

Three separate 911 calls were placed from the park that day: One was about the three white teens vandalizing the car, and the other two calls were from a man reporting the occupants of another car parked in a lot about 100 yards away from the scenario.

"There's a couple of guys in the car lying down, like, they look like possibly they're getting ready to rob somebody," the caller said.

A few minutes later, the caller was back on the line. "We got three black kids lying in the car," he said. "We have a lot of little kids around. I'm just keeping an eye on things."

As it turned out, the "three black kids" were the relatives of Justin C., a young African-American actor whom ABC News had hired for a later portion of the experiment. They were sleeping in the car while they waited for Justin C.

Justin C. said it was a hurtful reminder that racism is alive and well, and that people are still frightened by the color of other people's skin.

"Whether it's because of the media, because of history, we as Americans have an association with blacks and crime," Dovidio said, emphasizing that "both blacks and whites have that association."

Though Justin C.'s relatives were doing nothing more sinister than sleeping in their car, Dovidio said, "We can make that into a potential criminal act."

Black Vandals vs. White Vandals

Soon after those 911 calls were placed, the next phase of the experiment began. The three white teen vandals were replaced with Justin C., Jelani and "Matlok," three African-American actors. Would the responses to the vandals in this mostly white suburb be any different?

Just as the white actors had done, the three African-American vandals jumped on the car, spray-painted graffiti and used the jimmy stick to break into it. Almost immediately we noticed an increase in direct interventions and calls to 911.

A woman and a man walked by the scene at nearly the same time, and without much hesitation each pulled out their cell phones and reported the vandals to 911.

And while these two opted not to confront the boys directly, the next woman did. While walking her dachshund, Christina asked the boys what they were doing, to which one of them responded, "Having fun."

She walked a few yards further, called 911 to report them for "beating up a car," then continued on her way.

We spoke to all three of these passersby and while they expressed anger that many others had not gotten involved, they also seemed to understand the risk of doing so.

"I was shocked that the park had so many people and nobody was doing anything," said Robin, the first caller.

Thomas, who called around the same time, said he was just more comfortable calling 911 than confronting the kids directly.

"Teenagers are kind of unpredictable," Haller said. "Who knows? You hear all sorts of crazy stories. Moreover, he said, "They seemed like they weren't afraid of being caught."

Christina, in spite of having spoken to them, said she felt the boys were aggressive and therefore thought it best to call 911 instead of risking a confrontation.

"I wasn't going to go especially right up to them, because they had tools that could be used against me and there's three of them and one of me." And, she added, "my little dog."

Act First, Think Later

For every group of more timid souls, there was someone perfectly willing to confront trouble head-on, even at personal risk.

"Hey, is that your car?" yelled a woman who approached the boys with her husband and children.

"No, is it yours?" retorted Matlok.

"No, but you shouldn't be doing that," the woman scolded him.

Vanessa said she felt an immediate sense of outrage at the brazen act of vandalism.

"How dare you come in our backyard and do something like that in the middle of the day in front of our kids?" she said after her encounter with the boys.

"I don't care where you're from. I don't care what color you are," Vanessa added. "You know you're doing something illegal & you better believe I'm still going to call the police."

Vanessa's husband was concerned that she had put herself in danger by confronting the kids.

"My husband was right to say, 'What if those kids had a gun?' And at that moment, honestly, I didn't think about it. The way I am," said Vanessa, "if I see something, I do something right away."

"She was angry and she was willing to act on that anger in a way that jeopardized her well-being," Dovidio said. "People think some of the time, but we operate on emotion all of the time."

Acting Like 'A Good Parent'

As the black teenage boys continued to inflict damage on the car, not only were they generating more 911 calls than the white vandals, many more people began to stop and intervene.

"We got to a point where there was like three people calling the cops at the exact same time," said Jelani, one of the actors.

Those brave enough to directly confront the African-American teens sometimes asked how the teens would feel if someone were vandalizing their car.

But Matlok was quick to quip, "This car's a piece of crap anyway."

Another particularly gutsy woman, walked right up to the boys to ask if they were locked out, but on closer inspection she realized they were up to no good.

"Stop," said the woman.

"Why?" asked Matlok.

"It's illegal. Somebody's going to call the cops."

Sang engaged in a four-minute conversation with the vandals and, when asked, even told them her name.

One of the boys then spray-painted her last name on the left quarter panel of the car.

"Now we're going to say that you did it!" Matlok told her gleefully. "Now we're gonna call the cops on you." The boys broke into laughter.

"I didn't want to antagonize them any further," Sang said later. "They did have a stick  whatever they were banging with  so at that point I stepped back and said, 'Okay, let me go, you know, get a cell phone.'"

Dovidio commended Sang for her bravery, but also for her clever approach.

"It was about engaging them, instructing them," Dovidio said. "It was about being what a good parent would be to those kids; that you shouldn't be doing this and I'm going to tell you to stop doing it."

Skin Color and the Public's Response

Clearly the number of interventions and 911 calls with the African-American youths exceeded those with their white counterparts. So we asked those who approached the black kids or reported them to police, "Would you have acted any differently if the boys were white?"

Sang said, "I would have done the same thing. Maybe I would have stopped them sooner."

Joan A. and Martha had a similar response: "I did notice they were African-American young boys in a white neighborhood," said Joan A. "But if they had been white kids, I mean, I would have done exactly the same thing."

Martha agreed, "I might have done it quicker if they were white kids."

"Actually, I probably hesitated because they were black," said Joan D. "I don't like to assume that three black kids are up to trouble. But they were clearly up to trouble," she recalled, laughing. "But had it been three white kids I'd have done the same thing. I might have called quicker."

The Actors' Perceptions

After two days of shooting, the six actors  three white and three African-American  gathered to reflect on the experiment that had become a learning experience they hadn't expected. They told us they were baffled by the people who saw the damage, yet didn't stop or call 911.

"Some people & it seemed like they were kinda, like, too nervous maybe to say something," Matlok said.

Justin K., a white actor, observed: "I was actually shocked to see how many people would actually take a good look at what we were doing and just walk on by without even interfering at all."

But what the all of the actors found most troubling were the calls made to 911 to report Justin C.'s relatives for sleeping in their car while he prepared to start work.

"That was ridiculous. Pretty low," said Zac, another of the white actors.

"It's wrong," said Justin K. "I mean, here we are breaking into a car and there they are sleeping, you know?"

"I was offended," said Sam, the third white actor. "They weren't bothering anyone so it's really disgraceful."

For these young African-American actors, it was simply a troubling new chapter in an old story, but one that still hurt.

"These kids [the white actors] were destroying this car and trying to break in" Justin C. said. "They're not even worried about it."

"Meanwhile, they're worrying about Justin's family over there," said Matlok.

"Sleeping while being black," Justin C. said, finishing Matlok's sentence and shaking his head, looking more sad than angry.

Shopping While Black!

Black people need to stop spending money where we are not

welcomed or employed. But more importantly, as we approach

$1 trillion in buying power, we must start spending this money

with ourselves.

BET Television, Says Rapper Master P, Should Be Playing This.

For years many of the music videos played on  BET Television has had little redeeming value and have only served to denigrate young black men and women. Master P, trying to offer another video music option, has not been able to get this video played on this nationwide cable network. I wonder why. Could the  message be too positive and too thoughtful? In the video cartoon versions of Master P and Romeo present their homework assignment on African American heritage to the classroom and viewing audience. Read along with the lyrics in the video and discover the true reason for Black History month. "I wanted to make this song into a cartoon also so that it can reach kids. It's entertaining and is a fun way to learn about our heritage," said Master P. Master P also acknowledged the two animators responsible for the cartoon, Olatokunbo "Ola" Betiku, and Ryan Hutchinson. "Having Ola and Ryan on the team has been great because they're specialists in graphic art. They have great imaginations." Additionally, Master P will be releasing children's books, coloring books, and other educational resources as part of his Take A Stand initiative. Already, teachers and educators have been contacting him to say they will be using the video in classroom lessons. On his reasons behind the positive hip-hop video, Master P said, "I changed my life and I want to see our kids be able to grow and prosper. I'm doing this video because it's the RIGHT thing to do and it's more important to do what's right than what others necessarily want you to do or think you should do. This isn't about money - this is bigger than money. To be honest, I don't even have an outlet for this video. Black History Month is a special time for us to reflect and acknowledge how far we have come and how far we can still go. It only takes one person to make a difference. Put down the gun, stop the violence, it's time to educate our youth so they can be better than us. Let the kids grow."

Marin Luther King Speech

I had a friend of mind send this to me. Its was too cute and insighful not to post. It shows the tremendous potential lying inside all of Gods children when they are given the guidence and opportunity to shine. MLK Oratory 1st Place: Perri Jones Jones of Dodson Elementary won first place in the annual speaking competition honoring Dr. King. Video by Adam Ariganello. Jan. 18, 2008

High School Drop Outs: 17 of 50 largest cities

50% of Blacks and Hispanics in this country each year drop out of high school.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released today. The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said. Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually. "When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance. His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. "We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community," he said. The Powells' organization was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates. The group, joining Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at a Tuesday news conference, was announcing plans to hold summits in every state during the next two years on ways to better prepare students for college and the work force. The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District. Researchers analyzed school district data from 2003-2004 collected by the U.S. Department of Education. To calculate graduation rates, the report estimated the likelihood that a 9th grader would complete high school on time with a regular diploma. Researchers used school enrollment and diploma data, but did not use data on dropouts as part of its calculation. Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs. Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools. In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their diplomas, well above their local city schools. Ohio Department of Education spokesman Scott Blake said the state delays its estimates by a few months so it can include summer graduates in its calculations. Based on the state's methodology, he said Columbus graduated 60.6 percent of its students in 2003-2004, rather than the 40.9 percent the study calculated. By Ohio's reckoning, Columbus has improved each year since the 2001-2002 school year, with 72.9 percent of students graduating in 2005-2006, Columbus Public Schools spokesman Jeff Warner said. Warner said the gains were partly because of after-school and weekend tutoring, coordinated literacy programs in the district's elementary schools and bolstered English-as-a-second-language programs. Cleveland's current graduation rates are also higher than the statistics cited in the new report, school district spokesman Ben Holbert said. Spellings has called for requiring states to provide graduation data in a more uniform way under the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law pending in Congress. Under the 2002 law, schools that miss progress goals face increasing sanctions, including forced use of federal money for private tutoring, easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff. States calculate their graduation rates using all sorts of methods, many of which critics say are based on unreliable information about school dropouts. Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them. The research was conducted by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda, Md., nonprofit organization, with support from America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The alliance is based on a joint effort of nonprofit groups, corporations, community leaders, charities, faith-based organizations and individuals to improve children's lives. This insiteful report explains how poverty is the root cause:

Collin Powell Fights for High School Drop Outs

America's Promise Alliance Launches National Campaign to Combat Nation's High School Dropout and College-Readiness Crisis

Report Finds  America’s Largest Cities Struggle to Keep Majority of Students in School with Big Disparities Between Urban and Suburban Graduation Rates

America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell Announces Nationwide ‘Dropout Prevention Summits’; General Colin Powell Says Dropout Crisis Affects Economy and National Security

WASHINGTON, DC – A report to be released today finds that only about half of all students served by the main school systems in the nation's 50 largest cities graduate from high school. Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation released today by the America’s Promise Alliance and prepared by Editorial Projects in Education Research Center further reveals that in the metropolitan areas surrounding 35 of the nation’s largest cities, graduation rates in urban schools were lower than those in nearby suburban communities. In several instances, the disparity between urban-suburban graduation rates was more than 35 percentage points.

The report was released by Alma J. Powell, chair of the America’s Promise Alliance (Alliance), which is kicking off a national campaign to reduce high school dropout rates and prepare children for college, work and life. The campaign will include a series of ground-breaking, high-level Dropout Prevention summits to be held in every state and 50 communities over the next two years. General Colin Powell, founding chair of the Alliance, joined his wife in making the announcement – citing the dropout crisis as a threat to our economy and national security.

Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high school students drops out before graduating. In total, approximately 1.2 million students drop out each year – about 7,000 every school day, or one every 26 seconds.

The lead sponsor for the Dropout Prevention Campaign is the State Farm Insurance Company. State Farm is joined by AT&T, The Boeing Company, Ford Motor Company Fund, Casey Family Programs, ING Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

In response to today’s report, Alma Powell was joined by Alliance Founding Chair General Powell; U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings; Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico); Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina); State Farm Chairman and CEO Edward B. Rust Jr.; National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial and others to launch the campaign. The campaign will bring mayors and governors, business owners, child advocates, school administrators, students and parents together to develop workable solutions and action plans for improving our nation’s alarming graduation rates. Several summits have already been held or are scheduled in Detroit, Tucson, Iowa and Mississippi. An additional 40 cities and states have committed. 

“When more than one million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe. Our economic and national security are at risk when we fail to educate the leaders and the workforce of the future,” said General Powell. “It’s time for a national ‘call to arms,’ because we cannot afford to let nearly one-third of our kids fail.”

Research shows that the more support youth have, both inside and outside of the classroom, the more likely they are to stay in school. Specifically, research demonstrates that the more young people experience five essential wrap-around supports, what the Alliance calls the “Five Promises” – caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others – the greater their chance for future success.

“The number one predictor of a young person’s future success is whether they graduate from high school,” said Alma Powell, chair of America’s Promise Alliance. “But just conferring a diploma is not enough. Students today must graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in college, work and life. We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community.”

Experts say that dropping out of high school affects not just students and their families, but the country overall – including businesses, government and communities. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that high school dropouts from the Class of 2006-07 will cost the U.S. more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. Young people of color are most affected, because nearly half of all African-American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class, while less than six in 10 Hispanic students will. Experts say that those who drop out are more likely to be incarcerated, rely on public programs and social services, and go without health insurance than those who graduate from high school.

“Economic success is dependent upon educational opportunities. If we are to compete, it is essential that we address America’s growing dropout crisis,” said Edward B. Rust, Jr., chairman and CEO of State Farm Insurance Company. “I urge other businesses to join us in this campaign to ensure that all young people earn a high school diploma and are ready not only for college, but to succeed in tomorrow’s workforce.”

In announcing the summits, the Alliance emphasized that they are designed to both raise awareness and develop actual action plans that will help put local high schools on the road to improved graduation rates with a curriculum that better prepares young people for the workforce. The Alliance also underscored that these state and local efforts would need to be buttressed by strong federal action, including passage of ‘The Graduation Promise Act’ and the ‘Every Student Counts Act.’ Similarly, the Alliance offered its own solutions to the dropout crisis rooted in work the organization already has underway around health care access and insurance, middle-school student civic and vocational engagement and using schools as hubs for the delivery of comprehensive resources to kids.

“The key to increasing graduation rates is to stop working in isolation and to start working together,” said Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance. “That’s why we are convening these summits. We need curriculum reform, after-school programs, efforts to improve health care and nutrition programs, increased resources and greater accountability. Most of all, we need to recognize that no one entity can solve this crisis alone, but working together, we can make enormous strides to ensure our children succeed.”

Report Findings:
Other findings of the analysis released today include:

Students in suburban (74.9 percent) and rural (73.2 percent) public high schools were more likely to graduate than students in the country’s urban public high schools (60.4 percent).

Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had a graduation rate lower than 50 percent in the principal (largest) school district serving the city.

• Those with the lowest graduation rates included Detroit City School District (24.9 percent), Indianapolis Public Schools (30.5 percent), Cleveland Municipal City School District (34.1 percent), Baltimore City Public School System (34.6 percent) and Columbus Public Schools (40.9 percent).

Thirty-five of the urban districts in the areas including and surrounding the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates below the national average of 70 percent.

• Those in which the smallest percentages of students graduate included Baltimore, Md. (34.6 percent); Columbus, Ohio (40.9 percent); Cleveland, Ohio (42.2 percent); Atlanta, Ga. (46.1 percent) and Denver, Colo. (46.8). In each, more than five in 10 students do not graduate with their class.
• Those areas in which the highest percentage of students graduate included Colorado Springs, Colo. (83.7 percent); San Jose, Calif. (80.9 percent); Nashville, Tenn. (77.0 percent); San Francisco/Oakland, Calif. (73.2 percent); Phoenix/Mesa, Ariz. (70.5 percent); and San Diego, Calif. (70.4 percent).

Seventeen of the metropolitan areas surrounding the nation’s 50 largest cities had a greater than 20 percentage-point gap between their urban and suburban graduation rates. Within 28 of those metropolitan areas, the urban-suburban graduation rate disparity was 10 percentage points or greater.

• Those with the greatest variances were Baltimore, Md. (47.0 points); Columbus, Ohio (42.0 points); Cleveland, Ohio (35.9 points), New York, N.Y. (35.5 points); and Denver, Colo. (34.1 points).

The report analyzes school district data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (2003-04). The country’s 50 largest cities are determined based on 2006 population reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.

# # #

About the America’s Promise Alliance
America’s Promise Alliance is the nation’s largest partnership alliance comprised of corporations, nonprofit organizations, foundations, policymakers, advocacy and faith groups committed to ensuring that children receive the fundamental resources – the Five Promises – they need to lead successful, healthy and productive lives and build a stronger society. Building on the legacy of our founder General Colin Powell, the Alliance believes a child’s success is grounded in experiencing the Five Promises – caring adults; safe place; a healthy start; an effective education; and opportunities to help others – at home, in school and in the community. For more information visit: www.americaspromise.org.

Graduation Rates for the Main School Systems in the Nation’s 50 Largest Cities

City	Principal School District	Graduation Rate (2003-04)
Mesa, Ariz	Mesa Unified District	77.1%
San Jose, Calif.	San Jose Unified	77.0%
Nashville, Tenn.	Nashville-Davidson Co. School District	77.0%
Colorado Springs, Colo.	Colorado Springs School District	76.0%
San Francisco, Calif.	San Francisco Unified	73.1%
Tucson, Ariz.	Tucson Unified District	71.7%
Seattle, Wash.	Seattle School District	67.6%
Virginia Beach, Va.	Virginia Beach City Public Schools	67.4%
Sacramento, Calif.	Sacramento City Unified	66.7%
Honolulu, Hawaii	Hawaii Department of Education	64.1%
Louisville, Ky.	Jefferson County School District	63.7%
Long Beach, Calif.	Long Beach Unified	63.5%
Arlington, Texas	Arlington ISD	62.7%
Memphis, Tenn.	Memphis City School District	61.7%
San Diego, Calif.	San Diego Unified	61.6%
Albuquerque, N.M.	Albuquerque Public Schools	60.8%
El Paso, Texas	El Paso ISD	60.5%
Charlotte, N.C.	Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools	59.8%
Wichita, Kan.	Wichita Public Schools	59.6%
Phoenix, Ariz.	Phoenix Union High School District	58.3%
Austin, Texas	Austin ISD	58.2%
Washington, D.C.	District of Columbia Public Schools	58.2%
Fresno, Calif.	Fresno Unified	57.4%
Boston, Mass.	Boston Public Schools	57.0%
Fort Worth, Texas	Fort Worth ISD	55.5%
Omaha, Neb.	Omaha Public Schools	55.1%
Houston, Texas	Houston ISD	54.6%
Portland, Ore.	Portland School District	53.6%
Las Vegas, Nev.	Clark County School District	53.1%
San Antonio, Texas	San Antonio ISD	51.9%
Chicago, Ill.	City of Chicago School District	51.5%
Tulsa, Okla.	Tulsa Public Schools	50.6%
Jacksonville, Fla.	Duval County School District	50.2%
Philadelphia, Pa.	Philadelphia City School District	49.6%
Miami, Fla.	Dade County School District	49.0%
Oklahoma City, Okla.	Oklahoma City Public Schools	47.5%
Denver, Colo.	Denver County School District	46.3%
Milwaukee, Wis.	Milwaukee Public Schools	46.1%
Atlanta, Ga.	Atlanta City School District	46.0%
Kansas City, Mo.	Kansas City School District	45.7%
Oakland, Calif.	Oakland Unified	45.6%
Los Angeles, Calif.	Los Angeles Unified	45.3%
New York, N.Y.	New York City Public Schools	45.2%
Dallas, Texas	Dallas ISD	44.4%
Minneapolis, Minn.	Minneapolis Public Schools	43.7%
Columbus, Ohio	Columbus Public Schools	40.9%
Baltimore, Md.	Baltimore City Public School System	34.6%
Cleveland, Ohio	Cleveland Municipal City School District	34.1%
Indianapolis, Ind.	Indianapolis Public Schools	30.5%
Detroit, Mich.	Detroit City School District	24.9%
50-City Average		51.8%

NOTE: Graduation rates are calculated using the Cumulative Promotion Index method with data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data. Rankings are based on non-rounded statistics.

SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2008

Graduation Rates in the Metropolitan Areas of the Nation’s 50 Largest Cities

City	Urban Graduation Rate	Suburban Graduation Rate	Urban-Suburban Gap (% points)
Baltimore, Md.	34.6%	81.5%	47.0
Columbus, Ohio	40.9%	82.9%	42.0
Cleveland, Ohio	42.2%	78.1%	35.9
New York, N.Y.	47.4%	82.9%	35.5
Denver, Colo.	46.8%	80.9%	34.1
Philadelphia, Pa.	49.2%	82.4%	33.3
Indianapolis, Ind.	49.7%	80.5%	30.9
Chicago, Ill.	55.7%	84.1%	28.4
Oklahoma City, Okla.	52.9%	81.2%	28.3
Milwaukee, Wis.	54.5%	82.5%	28.1
Detroit, Mich.	47.9%	75.0%	27.1
Tulsa, Okla.	50.6%	76.0%	25.4
Boston, Mass.	58.1%	83.0%	24.9
Omaha, Neb.	65.0%	87.3%	22.4
Jacksonville, Fla.	50.2%	71.5%	21.3
Wichita, Kan.	59.6%	80.8%	21.2
Los Angeles/Long Beach, Calif.	57.1%	77.9%	20.7
Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington, Texas	55.8%	74.7%	18.9
Minneapolis, Minn.	63.5%	80.7%	17.2
Fresno, Calif.	60.3%	76.2%	15.9
Atlanta, Ga.	46.1%	61.8%	15.7
Virginia Beach, Va.	59.2%	73.9%	14.6
Washington, D.C.	63.9%	78.2%	14.2
Sacramento, Calif.	65.7%	79.7%	14.0
Kansas City, Mo.	68.4%	82.2%	13.8
Portland, Ore.	62.1%	75.4%	13.3
Austin, Texas	64.7%	77.5%	12.9
Charlotte, N.C.	59.8%	70.5%	10.7
Seattle, Wash.	57.6%	67.4%	9.8
Houston, Texas	61.6%	71.0%	9.3
San Francisco/Oakland, Calif.	73.2%	81.2%	7.9
San Antonio, Texas	62.9%	70.2%	7.2
Nashville, Tenn.	77.0%	82.8%	5.8
San Jose, Calif.	80.9%	84.1%	3.2
El Paso, Texas	66.0%	68.0%	2.1
San Diego, Calif.	70.4%	71.3%	0.9
Phoenix/Mesa, Ariz.	70.5%	70.4%	-0.1
Tucson, Ariz.	66.0%	65.6%	-0.4
Albuquerque, N.M.	60.8%	55.9%	-5.0
Memphis, Tenn.	61.7%	55.5%	-6.2
Colorado Springs, Colo.	83.7%	73.5%	-10.2
Louisville/Jefferson Co., Tenn. *	—	69.4%	—
Las Vegas, Nev. ©	—	53.1%	—
Miami, Fla. **	—	53.6%	—
Honolulu, Hawaii ©©	—	64.1%	—
50-Metro Area Average	58.0%	75.4%	17.4

* The Louisville-Davidson County metropolitan area is served by a combination of suburban and rural school districts.

© The Las Vegas metropolitan area coincides with Clark County, Nev., which is served by a single school district classified as suburban by the U.S. Department of Education.

** The Miami metropolitan area is served by three countywide school districts, all classified as suburban by the U.S. Department of Education.

©© Honolulu’s metropolitan area includes all of Hawaii and is served by a single statewide school district, classified as suburban by the U.S. Department of Education.

NOTE: Graduation rates (2003-04) are calculated using the Cumulative Promotion Index method with data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data.

SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2008

Black children and white children learn self hatred and racism at a very early age.

This is the Martin Luther King speech we never hear about that we need to hear again today January 15, 2012 on this his 83nd birthday. The positive words he’s telling us here need to be repeated to ourselves and our children when we still see the negative images that so many of our children have about themselves and that to many Black adults have about one another. If Dr. King where alive today, I believe he would say that immediate change must come from us and in doing so it would force others to change.

A child who believes he is inferior, becomes an adult who believes the same. The one sided media images and history that's taught in most schools only reinforces lies.

See how white children reacted to the very same survey test.

Many parents, with the help of the media, pass along racists beliefs and sterotypes to their children at a very early age, creating a false sense of superiority based on skin color, or a lack there of.

Many whites today now use this new claim of  "reverse racism" but its apparent that many are passing on these same bias attitutes to their children that negatively effect Black people every day in employment, housing, health care, education and media in this so called system of equal justice and liberty for all we call America. What do you think?

Black Fathers Must Step Up To The Plate On This Father's Day

Barack Obama Talks About What Fatherhood Really Means

My own father died when I was 7. Despite my parents  divorce, I still remember those weekends he came to take me with him. Even as a young child, I felt a sence of strength and security when I was with him. He was always a heavy drinker. My mother would repeatedly warn him, that if she smelled alcohol or thought he had been drinking, she would not let me go with him. So I pleaded with him not to drink. He worked in the post office by day and went to drafting school at night ,hoping to get a better job. But one day alcohol got the better of him and he drowned. Despite being a good swimmer, after jumping off a manhattan tour boat , he could not fight the currents. 3 days later they found his body.

When my mother told me what had happened, I was devasted. As I got older, my devastation turned into anger. I was angry that he did not have the strength to fight his addiction. But I had friends and neighbors who had strong Black fathers who were truck drivers, garbage, police men. I saw them getting up every day going to work and coming back home to be with their families. As the years passed, my anger at my father's alcohol weakness turned into a determination that I was going to be the father I didn't have. In my 20's I found out from relatives that my father's father was not around when he and my uncle were growing up.

This leads me to say that real Fatherhood is learned. Despite the unique obstacles and  challenges we face as Black men in a society that underestimates and does not expect much from us, we must expect and demand more from ourselves. Our children do need our financial support. But what they want most of all is our time and attention. When I talk with my teenagers now, what they remember most are our trips to the zoo and the museum. Our Sunday morning big breakfast and our long walks and talks. My holding up their bikes, as they learned how to ride. Fatherhood is about a committment of time and attention that will be pasted on to the next generation of Black fathers. I came across this interesting article about fatherhood and our daughters:

Black Leaders Empasize The Importantance Of

Father Daughter Bond

Kate Santich | Sentinel Staff Writer

Black leaders on Thursday called upon fathers across the country -- and especially black fathers -- to step up for their daughters, becoming their "rock" and "a living example of what a good man should be."

"When fathers involve themselves with their daughters, you see and know the difference," said TV journalist Ed Gordon, addressing the 100 Black Men of America annual conference in Orlando. "Be more than just a protector, more than just the bank for your daughter and your family. Be her nurturer; be a loving entity within the family."

"Daddy's Promise," Gordon's national initiative to celebrate the father-daughter bond, officially launches Sunday -- Father's Day -- with a Web site that allows dads to download a pledge of love, support and duty they can give their children. He also hopes families will upload father-daughter pictures -- and that the movement will spread via a cross-country series of panel discussions and events.

Alarming statistics on the rise of girls in gangs and black women in prison -- the fastest-growing segment of the prison population -- make the initiative especially important for the black community, Gordon said. But he emphasized that his message is for all fathers.

Alarming statistics on the rise of girls in gangs and black women in prison -- the fastest-growing segment of the prison population -- make the initiative especially important for the black community, Gordon said. But he emphasized that his message is for all fathers.

If white America doesn't want . . . to be involved in this," he said, "understand that it'll creep into your neighborhood. And it won't have anything to do with blacks moving next door. It's just the societal norm of what occurs as times change and things get harder for people."

Gordon, host of the syndicated TV show Our World with Black Enterprise, got involved in the issue after penning an essay for Essence magazine on the bond he shares with his daughter Taylor, now 14. The essay provoked an "overwhelming" response, Gordon said, leading to a book deal and the Daddy's Promise initiative.

Frequent CNN commentator Roland S. Martin, who helped lead a panel discussion on the topic, also called upon men to get involved in the lives of girls who otherwise would have no suitable father figures. Martin and his wife, for instance, are raising four of his nieces after his sister "married one of those sperm donors, and she finally decided enough is enough."

"Sometimes we have to admit . . . we have some sorry brothers and sisters, and we have to intervene for their kids," Martin said. "And, sure, they might be a burden . . . but raising those girls is far more important to me than sitting here having a bigger 401k."

The benefits, the panel agreed, go beyond the immediate relationship. A strong father-daughter bond helps sons learn the right way to treat women and keeps daughters from making bad choices about sex and relationships.

"My image of a black man is based on my dad," said Glenda Hatchett, a judge who now presides over court in her syndicated TV show. "He wasn't a man with a lot of money, a lot of prestige. He was a hard-working man, no bling-bling around his neck, who came home to the same woman for 50 years. And he paid his mortgage and he went to church, and he prayed for us. And that's what a lot of these young girls are missing."

For Orlando police Capt. Charles Robinson, a member of the local chapter of 100 Black Men and the father of two girls, the message hit home.

"I just basically try to be involved with my daughters -- whether it's piano or ballet or fishing," Robinson said. "My job is to show them how they should be treated as young ladies. My job is to be a good example."

Kate Santich can be reached at ksantich@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5503.

Police Brutality: Soledad O'Brien Talks about the police advice Black parents have to give to their boys

There are words of advice that Black parents of all socioeconomic levels give to their boys, that white parents don't give a second thought about.

Black In America: Roland Fryer brings mathematical economics to stubborn racial issues

'It's a way of taking politics, emotion, and anecdotes out of the analysis of racial inequality'

By Beth Potier
Harvard News Office

Roland G. Fryer Jr. is a brave man.

An economist and self-described math geek, Fryer plunges fearlessly into the roiling waters of racial inequality, often surfacing with findings that contradict conventional wisdom, political correctness, and even his own life experience.

"I take stubborn old questions of racial inequality that have been around for decades and decades and try to use simple mathematics to be able to answer those questions," says Fryer, assistant professor of economics and a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. "It's a way of taking politics, taking emotion, taking anecdotes out of the study of racial inequality."

Fryer's research probes issues so burdened with politics, emotion, and anecdote that many academics pass them by. Is black culture a cause or consequence of racial inequality? Can crack cocaine be blamed for the nationwide dive in black health and economic outcomes in the late 1980s and early '90s? Is color-sighted affirmative action more efficient than color-blind affirmative action?

And, recently, are black youth faring worse than whites in school because of the social stigma around "acting white"?

Black Americans acting white

Underlying the hotly contested acting white phenomenon, which Fryer explores in a to-be-published paper co-authored by Harvard graduate student Paul Torelli, is the assumption that blacks do not value education.

"I thought that was crazy," says Fryer. "I didn't think there were racial differences in how people value education. I mean, black people were being lynched to be able to try to learn how to read 300 years ago."

Armed with a massive new data set, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, or Addhealth, and some powerful mathematical tools such as spectral graph theory, Fryer launched an empirical study of acting white that aimed to quantify what historians and sociologists, ethnographers and politicians had been observing and speculating about for two decades.

Not only did Addhealth boast a large sample - more than 90,000 junior high and high school students from 175 schools around the country - it provided detailed information on friendship networks within schools. This friendship data allowed Fryer to construct an objective measure of social status, something missing from previous studies of acting white. One such study, which negated the existence of the acting white phenomenon, relied on the self-reported popularity of its subjects, a method Fryer describes as worrisome. "Asking 12-year-olds how popular they are is tantamount to asking them how much sex they're having. You're going to get an answer, but it's probably not going to be the right one," he says.

Fryer's empirical analysis found - contrary to the popular beliefs of many - that a stigma attached to "acting white" does exist. In integrated schools, black students' popularity rose with their grade point averages but declined when their GPAs rose above 3.5. The disconnect between popularity and academic success was even more dramatic for Hispanics, whose popularity took a sharp dive once grade point averages reached 2.5.

Yet the research also found something that confounds many of the popular assumptions about acting white: In predominantly black schools and integrated private schools, black students' popularity kept pace with their GPAs. Acting white is nearly nonexistent in those situations.

This finding dispels the notion that black students don't value education and ridicule those who strive for academic success, says Fryer. "If you thought that the entire achievement gap was due to acting white, you're wrong. It can't explain why black kids in all-black schools aren't performing well," he says. "However, if you're wondering why black kids in Brookline don't do well ... this could indeed be it."

What is the "blackest" thing we can do? Blame the white man, wait on our front porches for the mailman to bring us a 'Reparations Check' or get serious about higher education?

Fryer and Torelli hypothesize that acting white is due to what they call a "two-audience signaling" problem. There's a tension, Fryer says, between wanting to demonstrate to future employers that you're productive (via academic success) and wanting to show peers that you're fun to hang out with. The tension is more intense in interracial settings because, says Fryer, "if you're in an all-black school, there's no white guys to emulate. It's when you're in a mixed school and you've got to decide which part of the lunchroom you're going to sit, that high grades might be a signal that you want to hang out with white students."

Geeky math meets racial inequality

Fryer's analysis of acting white turns on what he calls "geeky math guy techniques" applied to the rich data of friendship networks. Such techniques give him a unique perspective on questions of racial injustice and inequality, primarily the provenance of humanities scholars and other social scientists.

"Economics and the humanities are like peanut butter and jelly," he says. " Economics has some very powerful techniques. The sociologists and the humanities have the interesting questions."

As a graduate student at Penn State University, Fryer was drawn to the power of mathematical research tools. "Unfortunately, they're used to study things like optimal corn growth," he says. "I thought the power and elegance of the technique was being applied to the wrong problems." Indeed, Fryer boasts that he knows or cares nothing about corn futures or interest rates.

Not surprisingly, Fryer calls W.E.B. DuBois, who applied a mastery of several disciplines to the experience of black people in America, his hero. His inspiration, he says, comes from his own background. Marked by family instability, legal skirmishes, and lackluster academics, it bears more resemblance to the upbringings of the troubled black youth he studies than to those of his Harvard colleagues. As Fryer ascends rapidly through the ranks of academia, landing not only an appointment at Harvard but also a plum spot in the Society of Fellows while still in his 20s, friends and family from Florida and Texas are doing jail time.

"I was and still am friends with a lot of people who I thought had incredible talent from where I sat but did not realize their full potential. The question is, Why? What happened? Why did I somehow get out of there and none of my friends did?" he says. "That is my motivation. I'm working to try to understand the condition of me, my friends, and other black Americans."

Bill Cosby Dishes Out Tough Love

Bill Cosby has been critized by some for airing the dirty laundry of inner city Black America. But I agree first hand with what he talks about. I grew up in Harlem in a 6 story walk up. None of my neighbors had more than the rest, but we had a sense of pride, hope and history. As children, we knew that all adult eyes were watching us when our parents weren't around. And if we acted up, we would be quickly corrected by another nearby adult who also told our parents what had happened. My mother would tell my teacher at each meeting, "You get him at school, call me and I'll take care of him when he gets home." 

We competed to do well in school because it is what was expected of ourselves and our parents. And we spoke the king's english better than the king, because we heard Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker,Thurgood Marshall , Dr. Martin Luther King and our parents speak in clear understandable english. Listen as Bill Cosby tells us " Black Children today are trying to tell us something, but were not listening." I think it's a hunger to know that their history is far more than slavery.  We have allowed everyone and everything else tell them that they are nothing. So many act as they feel.

The author of The African American Guide To Better English says "Stop blaming the white man for your economic woes. When you don't pick up a book and read it, the fault is yours, if you can't speak English correctly you're not going to get a good job. If you want to use your Ebonics or black English amongst yourselves, that is fine. But don't bring black speak into the work place because you will be denied opportunities.  "  BlackEnglish.com