-
Why take the pledge?
Far too many Black youth continue to be demonized, criminalized and murdered.
Enough is enough!
In response to this intensifying crisis, the Black Youth Project (BYP) has launched “The Pledge.”
With “The Pledge,” we are asking individuals and organizations to close ranks around black youth and make a commitment to take action and fight with black youth as they confront a relentless crisis. We at the BYP believe that each person can make a difference by doing something!
By taking The Pledge we not only articulate our concern about black youth, but symbolically unite our voices with others who will work to confront this crisis.
If we each take action, whether it is starting a group, signing a petition, or mentoring a young person in your neighborhood, then we all become a part of the solution.
Stand With Black Youth!
-
Black Youth Project on Facebook
Recommended posts
Monthly Archive
Tags
2012 American Values Black Boys black community black feminism Black girls Black Men black women Black Youth Black Youth in the News capitalism celebrities Chicago Community Criminal Justice education Empowerment Fame Gender GOP Guns gun violence health hip-hop Homophobia Latino youth LGBTQ Media Men Money Music Police police brutality Politics Pop Culture Poverty President Obama R.I.P. race racism Sports trayvon martin Violence Violence Against Women Women
-
Archives
Most Popular Posts
- Mourners Gather at Memorial Service for Malcolm Shabazz
- “I Make HIV Look Soo Good”: The Politics of Disease, Stigma, and Self-Worth
- Scandal Finale Garners Show’s Highest Ratings Ever
- Standout Football Player Jay Harris Gives Up Michigan State Scholarship to Pursue Rap Career
- STUDY: Body Mass Index of Low-Income African Americans Linked to Proximity to Fast Food
- Candice Glover Wins American Idol
Most Commented Posts
- BLACKS SHOULD NOT ‘KNOW BETTER,’ AND HERE’S WHY
- Republican Sleeper Cells
- Happy Holidays 2011 to Emmett Till From the Cotton Rebel Era
- One Candidate’s Father Was Not Born In America
- Hadiya Pendleton’s Mother Featured in New Gun Control Ad
- Top News Stories About Black Youth from Across the Nation: July 23-28
Monthly Archive
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
Are You Free?
Many people have told me that I have an old soul. This may be true. I tend to retire early for bed, listen to NPR, and have a strong affinity for Motown music. Yesterday, I was listening to Donnie Hathaway’s song “Someday We’ll All Be Free”. The poignant ballad made really think about the concept of freedom. Was I really free in the “Age of Obama”? Has our country reached the apotheosis of equality? In some respects, it can be be argued that we have. It is no longer illegal for interracial couples to wed; women, for the most part, enjoy reproductive freedom; and immigrants are more incorporated in the United States polity than ever before. However, homosexuals are still treated like second-class citizens, policy brutality is still in an issue, and the incarceration rate of young Black and Latino men is too high. Are we really free? Or are we living in a guise of freedom, where high- ranking minorities fail to recognize institutional shortfalls for their own advancement?
The primary problem is that the concept of equal rights remains trapped in iconography of the 60s in the minds of many people and, therefore, is a project that takes on a “old” connotation with respect to the agenda, strategies, and tactics. However, the concept of equal rights or civil rights is defined as those rights that citizens in society enjoy that enable them to achieve their respective individual and group goals. Since Blacks enjoyed those rights unequally, the primary goal of the 60s struggle was to establish, through the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the principle of anti-discrimination and equality in the use of federal resources across the board.
This historical summary is just a part of the “pathway” to freedom” and doesn’t look as if it was focused on only one thing – political rights – but rather a wide range of rights. Even today there are those who would have you believe that there is a distinction between civil rights and human rights. Civil rights are human rights. The view of those who began the movement in the 30s was to stop lynching and the remnants of slavery; to attempt to close the gaps in pay between Blacks and Whites, and demand equal access to college and law school by bring lawsuits in court. Thus, the definition of equal rights changes with each age.
We are living today in the age of fads and quick changes in concept and culture for the sake of it. Pushed along by generational change and the technologies used to commercialize “newness” and deprecate “oldness.”
Civil rights are not old. They exist where there are gaps between Blacks and other disadvantaged groups and the dominate society. Such gaps exist where 48 percent of Blacks are incarcerated; where the Black/White wealth gap is now 14 to 1; where whites own homes at 70 percent and Blacks at 45 percent; where health gaps in major illnesses persists and Blacks disproportionately do not have health insurance; and where poverty reigns for 30-40 percent to such an extinct that it impacts on educational performance, crime and other aspects of life for many.
(While handcuffed, Juan Perez was kicked in the face by a police officer. However, the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota, Florida did not file battery charges against the police officer.)
Institutional leaders such as the new Black race-neutral mayors in Newark and Washington and other cities are held as the preferred style of leader. They are viewed as acolytes of Barack Obama’s race neutral management of his campaign and style of governance when he took office. However the lack of civility recently seen across this country, and even in the hallowed halls of Congress in discussions on health care and immigration serve to remind us all that the struggle for equal rights continues. Are you free?
No related posts.