The Plight of the African American Male

Posted by dogon in News at 11:05
BLACK ENTERPRISE is searching for solutions … share yours “One of the most alarming trends threatening the economic stability and wealth-building capacity of African Americans is the declining presence of black men on our nation’s college campuses,” wrote BLACK ENTERPRISE Chairman and Publisher Earl G. Graves Sr. in the January 2006 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine.“The result of this trend is as disturbing as it is predictable,” he wrote. “The price we pay as African Americans is enormous—measured in everything from unemployment and poverty to rates of incarceration—and amounts to a significant and unacceptable diminution in our capacity to build sustainable wealth.”As part of our ongoing commitment to providing information and tools to help African Americans build wealth and live better lives, this year’s BLACK ENTERPRISE Board of Economists will examine the lost potential of African American males. We hope to analyze the cost of high unemployment, underemployment, high prison rates and the loss of potential income among African American males to the United States and the black community.Full story at BlackEnterprise.com
http://www.blackenterprise.com/ExclusivesekOpen.asp?id=1565

Hello NAACP! Is Anybody Home? – Joseph C. Phillips

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has finally released a statement concerning the issue of illegal immigration. It is a rather anemic outline of certain principles the organization feels should guide immigration policy. These principles include “Support of protections for agricultural workers and a path to legal permanent residency and citizenship for college age students;” “Opposition to any efforts to require, encourage or deputize state or local police to enforce federal immigration laws;” and “Opposition to mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants without individualized consideration of whether detention is necessary.” The issue of immigration is the political equivalent of the Gordian knot, an intricate interweaving of security concerns, economics, social policy and race. There are approximately 11.5 million illegal immigrants in this country — 81% of them from Mexico and Latin America. The cost to the federal government is more than 10 billion dollars annually. The cost to local economies is significant as well. Illegal immigrants strain municipal resources for schools, healthcare and emergency services. At the same time, 31% of illegals are part of mixed families (one or more family members are American citizens) and they make up 5% of the civilian labor force. Clearly, this is an issue that suggests a bit more nuance than walls and mass deportation. But the NAACP’s position is not nuanced. It lacks substance and doesn’t nearly address the concerns of Black workers, who are impacted directly by the prevalence of black market labor. The plain math is that the abundance of illegal labor puts downward pressure on wages and in the words of Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University “diminishes opportunity for low-skilled American workers who compete in the same sectors as the illegal immigrants.” For those in the back of the room that means young Black men.
http://www.dogonvillage.com/african_american_news/Articles/00000458.html

New Black Panther Party Chairman Raises Issues Facing Black Communities � Black News

New Black Panther Party Chairman Raises Issues Facing Black Communities � Black News: “released on 04/11/06 at 09:02:33

Malik Zulu Shabazz, attorney and national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, raised many issues dealing with black communities and struggles while talking about the respected black leaders of the past and present.

Shabazz spoke Monday night at the opening ceremony of the 13th Annual African American Leadership Conference in the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Shabazz discussed the hardships and struggles that leaders such as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Dr. Martin Luther King, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X overcame to get the black community where it is today. Full Article “
http://www.star.niu.edu/articles/?id=22125