A lot of people have never heard of Don Imus, but I had. He had been embroiled in controversy in the past where he insulted gays, Arabs and yes, Blacks. Some people wonder what’s different this time. He insulted African-American women who have bright futures ahead of them. They’re working hard, future career women who a preparing to become doctors, lawyers, etc. They were attacked for no reason at all. Not only that their glory was stolen from them by Mr. Imus.
I must commend two women one is Vivian Stringer, the Head Coach of Rutgers University ladies basketball team and Essence Carson who is the captain of the team. These women and the entire basketball team has conducted themselves in an intelligent and dignified manner.
Do I think Don Imus should be fired? At first I thought he should, but then I thought well he’s a shock jock. This is what a shock jock does. In a way, he has allowed the Black leaders to look at the influences from our black cultures. Oprah Winfrey had a Town Hall on her show to discuss these issues. This should have been done a long time ago. Come to think of it, he is not thing only one who has done this. Where was the outrage when Howard Stern was doing all this? Today, he continues to degrade women.
I do think that Don Imus should be ashamed of himself. He insulted women he knew absolutely nothing about. I refuse to believe that he was just being "funny" as he said. Don Imus is old and smart enough to know that what he said was wrong. He’s lived in America long enough to know what’s considered offensive.
Now, the coach and the young women has forgiven him. I don’t believe it is the end for Don Imus. I believe that he will be bigger and richer than ever. Think Howard Stern getting $50 million for Sirius Radio. Don Imus has since apologized, but we will only find out if he means it when he gets another show and doesn’t make anymore derogatory comments. That remains to be seen.
This issue also is allowing music executives to discuss the rap lyrics.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-04-18-imus-rapmusic_N.htm
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Hiring crisis for U.S. black youth
Hiring crisis for U.S. black youth
August 9, 2005
Seth Sandronsky
U.S. employers added 207,000 new jobs in July, while the national unemployment rate remained at 5.0 percent, the Labor Department reported on August 5. Yet for one group of workers in America, there is little to cheer about when it comes to being hired by employers.
The July jobless rate for America's black teens was 33.1 percent, up by 0.7 percentage points from June. In other words, black teens are out of a job at nearly seven times the overall national rate!
Skin colour matters in the U.S. labour market, which is promoted as the global model for other nations to follow. Under American capitalism, employment opportunity is supposed to grow when the private sector is freed from government regulation.
That is one theory. Social reality is another matter entirely for black teens living in the U.S. Their employment plight was apparently hardly deemed newsworthy in mass media reporting on the July jobs report – another failure of mainstream American journalism.
Black teens across the U.S. are experiencing joblessness at rates comparable to those experienced by the overall adult labour force during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
As my father told me, folks then had greetings that fit the hard times they lived. One common example was, "Are you working?"
Seven decades ago, he was one of the lucky folks who gained employment that paid him wages, labouring in rural areas for FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps. People’s organized resistance to the hardships they faced forced the federal government to respond when the private sector failed to create jobs.
Currently, the U.S. economy is growing. New jobs are being created in many sectors of the economy, including construction, real estate, restaurant and retail. At the same time, there is a festering jobs crisis for America’s black youth. They are living in depression-like times concerning employment opportunities, with their absence from payrolls failing to make front-page news.
Where is the outrage?
Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento Area Peace Action and a co-editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive paper.
August 9, 2005
Seth Sandronsky
U.S. employers added 207,000 new jobs in July, while the national unemployment rate remained at 5.0 percent, the Labor Department reported on August 5. Yet for one group of workers in America, there is little to cheer about when it comes to being hired by employers.
The July jobless rate for America's black teens was 33.1 percent, up by 0.7 percentage points from June. In other words, black teens are out of a job at nearly seven times the overall national rate!
Skin colour matters in the U.S. labour market, which is promoted as the global model for other nations to follow. Under American capitalism, employment opportunity is supposed to grow when the private sector is freed from government regulation.
That is one theory. Social reality is another matter entirely for black teens living in the U.S. Their employment plight was apparently hardly deemed newsworthy in mass media reporting on the July jobs report – another failure of mainstream American journalism.
Black teens across the U.S. are experiencing joblessness at rates comparable to those experienced by the overall adult labour force during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
As my father told me, folks then had greetings that fit the hard times they lived. One common example was, "Are you working?"
Seven decades ago, he was one of the lucky folks who gained employment that paid him wages, labouring in rural areas for FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps. People’s organized resistance to the hardships they faced forced the federal government to respond when the private sector failed to create jobs.
Currently, the U.S. economy is growing. New jobs are being created in many sectors of the economy, including construction, real estate, restaurant and retail. At the same time, there is a festering jobs crisis for America’s black youth. They are living in depression-like times concerning employment opportunities, with their absence from payrolls failing to make front-page news.
Where is the outrage?
Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento Area Peace Action and a co-editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive paper.
New survey reveals unexpected duality in attitudes of black youth in America Black youth want to be politically active but believe government ignores them; they back sex education in schools and practice safe sex; they’re top consumers of rap music but disapprove of its violence and portrayal of women
Author Unknown
Feb. 1, 2007
Although African-American youth are just as politically motivated as Hispanic and white youth, believing that they have the skills to participate and can make a difference, they are skeptical of the political process, asserting that, “leaders in government care little about people like me.” This conclusion is the result of a new comprehensive national study of youth opinions, which also shows that black youth are more likely than Hispanics and whites to use protection during sex, are critical consumers of rap music and videos, and are more conservative in their social attitudes than other youth.
The study, titled the Black Youth Project, was launched to provide a more comprehensive and complex perspective of African-American youth, said Cathy Cohen, leader of the project and Professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. “There has been a lot of talk about African-American youth from people like Bill Cosby. Unfortunately, most of these comments are not grounded in any type of empirical reality. Similarly, there have been a number of other studies of African-American young people, largely focused on the outcomes of their behaviors that do not include the voices and views of young black people.
“The Black Youth Project is committed to making the ideas and attitudes of young people our central focus. By asking young people themselves about important issues like sex education, police discrimination, abortion or same-sex marriage, the Black Youth Project is able to provide data that will help build effective policies that can significantly improve the lives and prospects of young black people. This study is about research, not ranting,” said Cohen.
The team surveyed 1,590 black, white and Hispanic youth nationwide between the ages of 15 and 25 to ask them about their sexual behaviors and attitudes, about their views on social and cultural issues, and their opinions on government and politics, as well as other topics. The researchers also conducted in-depth interviews with about 40 young black people who completed the survey.
On political issues, the team found both hopeful and discouraging signs of political engagement among black youth. For example, the study found that 79 percent of young blacks feel that participating in politics can make a difference, a figure similar to that of Hispanics and whites. At the same time, a majority of young blacks and Hispanics agreed that leaders in government care very little about people like them. Similarly, nearly half (48 percent) of black young adults and adolescents agreed with the following statement: “The government treats most immigrants better than it treats most black people in this country;” while only 29 percent of white youth and 18 percent of Hispanic youth agreed.
“Black young people are trying to reconcile two conflicting perspectives. One perspective is based in the rhetoric of the government and other institutions, which suggests that we now exist in a color-blind society where everyone is judged merely on merit. The other perspective is rooted in the reality of discrimination that confronts far too many young black people. Given their reality, it is not surprising that a majority of black respondents also said that it is hard for young black people to get ahead because they face so much discrimination,” said Cohen.
The study also found young people embracing newer forms of political involvement. A quarter of black youth, nearly the same amount as those in the other groups, reported “buycotting” during the last 12-months (buying a product because of the company’s social or political values). Smaller but significant percentages of all young people reported signing either paper or e-mail petitions, and sending an e-mail or posting on a political blog.
When asked about their sexual attitudes and behaviors, the team found that most young people have positive attitudes toward sex and feel relatively in control of their sexual activities. Consistent with previous studies, the overwhelming majority of young people ages 18 to 25 in each racial/ethnic group reported having had sexual intercourse. About one third of the young people ages 15 to 17 reported having sex. Among all black youth, 77 percent reported using protection every time or almost every time they had intercourse, compared with 64 percent for Hispanics and 66 percent for whites.
A majority of young people, mostly young African Americans (76 percent), reported feeling very sure they could tell their partners what they felt comfortable doing sexually. Nearly 90 percent of young people in each ethnic and racial group felt they could convince their partners to use protection before having sex, the survey showed. More than 90 percent of all young people surveyed agreed that sex education should be mandatory in high schools.
Young people also reported confidence in their ability to pick up on negative messages in rap music, which is listened to daily by 58 percent of black youth, compared with 45 percent of Hispanic youth and 23 percent of white youth.
“The overwhelming majority of young people agree with the statement: ‘Rap music videos contain too many references to sex,’” Cohen said. The study found that 72 percent of black and Hispanic youth agreed with the statement, which was supported by 68 percent of white youth. Similarly, the majority of all youth agree that, “rap music videos portray black women in negative and offensive ways,” with black women and girls more likely to strongly agree with this statement. The study showed that 62 percent of black youth, 54 percent of Hispanic youth and 62 percent of white youth think rap music videos are degrading to black women.
On social issues, the surveys found that African-American young people are more likely to agree that homosexuality is always wrong (55 percent for blacks, 36 percent for Hispanics and 35 percent for whites). A majority of African-American youth also opposed legalizing same-sex marriages, (58 percent for blacks, 36 percent for Hispanics and 35 percent for whites).
More information about the survey is available at http://blackyouthproject.com. The Ford Foundation financed the Black Youth Project. The data was gathered by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Author Unknown
Feb. 1, 2007
Although African-American youth are just as politically motivated as Hispanic and white youth, believing that they have the skills to participate and can make a difference, they are skeptical of the political process, asserting that, “leaders in government care little about people like me.” This conclusion is the result of a new comprehensive national study of youth opinions, which also shows that black youth are more likely than Hispanics and whites to use protection during sex, are critical consumers of rap music and videos, and are more conservative in their social attitudes than other youth.
The study, titled the Black Youth Project, was launched to provide a more comprehensive and complex perspective of African-American youth, said Cathy Cohen, leader of the project and Professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. “There has been a lot of talk about African-American youth from people like Bill Cosby. Unfortunately, most of these comments are not grounded in any type of empirical reality. Similarly, there have been a number of other studies of African-American young people, largely focused on the outcomes of their behaviors that do not include the voices and views of young black people.
“The Black Youth Project is committed to making the ideas and attitudes of young people our central focus. By asking young people themselves about important issues like sex education, police discrimination, abortion or same-sex marriage, the Black Youth Project is able to provide data that will help build effective policies that can significantly improve the lives and prospects of young black people. This study is about research, not ranting,” said Cohen.
The team surveyed 1,590 black, white and Hispanic youth nationwide between the ages of 15 and 25 to ask them about their sexual behaviors and attitudes, about their views on social and cultural issues, and their opinions on government and politics, as well as other topics. The researchers also conducted in-depth interviews with about 40 young black people who completed the survey.
On political issues, the team found both hopeful and discouraging signs of political engagement among black youth. For example, the study found that 79 percent of young blacks feel that participating in politics can make a difference, a figure similar to that of Hispanics and whites. At the same time, a majority of young blacks and Hispanics agreed that leaders in government care very little about people like them. Similarly, nearly half (48 percent) of black young adults and adolescents agreed with the following statement: “The government treats most immigrants better than it treats most black people in this country;” while only 29 percent of white youth and 18 percent of Hispanic youth agreed.
“Black young people are trying to reconcile two conflicting perspectives. One perspective is based in the rhetoric of the government and other institutions, which suggests that we now exist in a color-blind society where everyone is judged merely on merit. The other perspective is rooted in the reality of discrimination that confronts far too many young black people. Given their reality, it is not surprising that a majority of black respondents also said that it is hard for young black people to get ahead because they face so much discrimination,” said Cohen.
The study also found young people embracing newer forms of political involvement. A quarter of black youth, nearly the same amount as those in the other groups, reported “buycotting” during the last 12-months (buying a product because of the company’s social or political values). Smaller but significant percentages of all young people reported signing either paper or e-mail petitions, and sending an e-mail or posting on a political blog.
When asked about their sexual attitudes and behaviors, the team found that most young people have positive attitudes toward sex and feel relatively in control of their sexual activities. Consistent with previous studies, the overwhelming majority of young people ages 18 to 25 in each racial/ethnic group reported having had sexual intercourse. About one third of the young people ages 15 to 17 reported having sex. Among all black youth, 77 percent reported using protection every time or almost every time they had intercourse, compared with 64 percent for Hispanics and 66 percent for whites.
A majority of young people, mostly young African Americans (76 percent), reported feeling very sure they could tell their partners what they felt comfortable doing sexually. Nearly 90 percent of young people in each ethnic and racial group felt they could convince their partners to use protection before having sex, the survey showed. More than 90 percent of all young people surveyed agreed that sex education should be mandatory in high schools.
Young people also reported confidence in their ability to pick up on negative messages in rap music, which is listened to daily by 58 percent of black youth, compared with 45 percent of Hispanic youth and 23 percent of white youth.
“The overwhelming majority of young people agree with the statement: ‘Rap music videos contain too many references to sex,’” Cohen said. The study found that 72 percent of black and Hispanic youth agreed with the statement, which was supported by 68 percent of white youth. Similarly, the majority of all youth agree that, “rap music videos portray black women in negative and offensive ways,” with black women and girls more likely to strongly agree with this statement. The study showed that 62 percent of black youth, 54 percent of Hispanic youth and 62 percent of white youth think rap music videos are degrading to black women.
On social issues, the surveys found that African-American young people are more likely to agree that homosexuality is always wrong (55 percent for blacks, 36 percent for Hispanics and 35 percent for whites). A majority of African-American youth also opposed legalizing same-sex marriages, (58 percent for blacks, 36 percent for Hispanics and 35 percent for whites).
More information about the survey is available at http://blackyouthproject.com. The Ford Foundation financed the Black Youth Project. The data was gathered by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
'Our young men are dying' Pt 2
BY ANDREA ROBINSON
arobinson@MiamiHerald.com
Dwight Jackson longs for those days 30 years ago when young black men settled their disputes the old-fashioned way: with loud trash talk and occasional fisticuffs. When the dust- ups were over, the combatants walked away and went home.
Not anymore. Simple disputes now too often turn deadly.
Jackson, 47, sees it in the back room of the Liberty City mortuary where he makes mangled bodies presentable for public viewing. Jackson, owner of Richardson Mortuary, receives at least 10 young, black homicide victims a month; that's more than there were, say, 20 years ago, other longtime employees there remark.
''Inner-city [boys] are being killed over silly stuff . . . built on hate and envy,'' he said, shaking his head.
Forty years after the Kerner Commission report -- in the wake of the Watts riots in Los Angeles -- tried to sort out why young black men were killing each other, Jackson keeps wondering how things could have gotten so bad in South Florida and the nation.
A new, first-time Florida initiative seeks to find the answers and save at-risk black males -- who state Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, calls ``an endangered species.''
''This goes beyond public safety and prevention. It's public health. It goes to our mental condition,'' said state Rep. Frank Peterman, a St. Petersburg Democrat.
Peterman and Wilson sponsored legislation to create the Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, which former Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law last June and which first met in February. The council, located in the Attorney General's office and budgeted at $200,000 per year, will study a litany of condi- tions that negatively affect black males: escalating homicide, arrest and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, low income, the breakdown of the family structure and school performance and health issues.
And it will produce yet another report -- like so many other commissions have done around the nation over the past 40 years -- that will propose ways to change the driving forces that have left so many black males in prison or dead from Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and Jacksonville.
Wilson said the council will recommend legislative action to address the issues of concern. The first report is due by the year's end.
Peterman promises the Florida commission won't be a ''touchy-feely exercise'' and said it will examine the breakdown in the black family and the heavy toll it is taking on males. To do that, it will need solid information of the sort requested by council chairman Levi Williams last week. In a teleconference on Wednesday, Williams, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, asked the heads of state agencies for data on racial and ethnic disparities.
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Black males, Wilson said, are like Florida's panthers and manatees: dying young and at the mercy of human predators.
''We're so disproportionately affected by all of this [black-on-black male violence]. There are no men available to teach black boys how to become responsible men,'' Wilson said.
That sentiment is echoed by Beverly Colson Neal, executive director of the Florida NAACP office in Orlando: ``Our young men are dying. This didn't just start.''
Florida is among a handful of states, including Ohio and Indiana, to have panels looking for ways to stop the rising violence that is a festering national problem, one the U.S. Conference of Mayors also hopes to tackle. The mayors' meeting was held last month in Miami -- an appropriate venue to discuss violence because South Florida is a region under siege.
Consider:
• Figures provided by local law enforcement agencies lay out the scope of the carnage. Broward had 95 homicide victims in 2006, up 50 percent from the previous year. Miami-Dade had 258 homicides last year, up 40 percent from 2005. About 165 of those victims in Miami-Dade and Broward were black, the overwhelming majority male and younger than 35.
• Another telling figure, Wilson said, that spurred creation of Florida's council: Black males make up 51.2 percent of inmates in state prisons and 62 percent of the jail population. She cited figures from the Florida Department of Corrections.
• Nationally, it is difficult to determine overall numbers of black-on-black crime because police agencies do not keep such statistics. But in 2004 -- the latest year for which figures are available -- victimization rates for blacks were six times higher than rates for whites. Rates for black perpetrators were seven times higher.
THE CAUSES
There are a myriad of reasons, authorities say, for the uptick in local violence: poverty, a population spike for young men, police departments stretched thin on the streets, a proliferation of weapons. Police officials also lay blame on two key federal policy changes: the end of a ban on assault weapons, which put more high-powered guns on the streets; and the loss of funding for community policing and other programs that put more officers into neighborhoods.
Neal and fellow NAACP member Jamal Rose also blame much of the violence on the breakdown of black communities. Gone are many of the athletic and after-school activities that gave children something to do, Rose said. Gone too are many of the mom-and-pop stores, often replaced by chain convenience stores.
''The funds are being drawn out of the neighborhood but not being put back in,'' Rose said.
Too many successful blacks have left their old stomping grounds in favor of integrated suburban areas, Neal noted, leaving the poorest children often living among jobless felons recently released from prison.
Recognizing that, several successful blacks try to serve as role models for children. ''We know the challenges. Those stats are disturbing,'' said Willie Johnson, leader of a mentoring program at Koinonia Worship Center in Hallandale Beach's Carver Ranches community.
Johnson said the church and other segments of the black community must step up and fix the problem: ``The village ain't doing too good right now.''
For Jackson, the mortuary owner, the search for answers starts a lot closer than the mythical village: ``It's deep-rooted, and it starts in the home.''
Jackson sponsors and coaches Optimist football and basketball teams. He figures if boys are busy with school or sports, they have less time to get involved in seamier pursuits. Other civic leaders have hosted town hall meetings and teamed with local police departments in gun-buyback programs.
But individual efforts like these won't be enough to change things, social scientists say. What's needed, they say, is help from the system -- and that's something the new state council could eventually help.
For example, Harry Holzner, Georgetown University professor of public policy, says a sustained, comprehensive effort that begins with educating and mentoring boys as young as 3 years old is required so they don't fall off the radar screen when they reach adolescence.
''When they leave high school, you can plug them into services,'' he said.
FIRST-HAND VIEW
For young black men who have no formal job skills and no high school diploma, chances are slim of landing a job with a livable wage and benefits. Many of them don't expect traditional employment, said Miami native Gene Gesch, 27. Growing up in the inner city exposes them to deadly shootings. By the teen years, he says, they're desensitized to death and destruction.
Gesch should know. Instead of getting a low-wage job at a fast-food joint when he was a teenager, he opted for fast bucks. He started as a lookout for drug dealers, the way his Overtown and Liberty City friends did.
''That's the mentality of the youth,'' said Gesch. ``They want a Benz, a 745 -- the only way these young children think they're gonna get it is sell to work for someone else, selling dope on the corner or as a look out.''
Gesch came of age during the 1990s, when the infamous John Doe drug gang ruled the area. Gang members were his friends. He found a role model in a guy named ''Convertible Bert,'' a local drug dealer who drove around Liberty City wearing flashy garments. Gesch wanted the same things. He saw himself as a popular poet/rap artist who also had a fatalistic bent.
``I didn't care. I was Tupac . . . it was you and me against the world.''
That attitude landed Gesch in Florida's adult prison system at 16. He served five years for aggravated assault with a firearm. He was in solitary confinement a lot, he says, because he often got into fights with other inmates.
Salvation of sorts came when he transferred to the Dade Correctional Institution. A pair of older inmates believed he was better than his past behavior indicated, and they directed him to the prison library. There he was eventually inspired to turn his life around. He even became a mentor: He lectured middle- and high-school students in Wilson's 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, counseling them not to follow his path.
After prison, Gesch moved hours away from Miami, to St. Lucie County.
He said kids have to know they can make money legitimately instead of selling dope -- if they change their environment. In his former community, he said, ``they have no hope in their mind.
``They see people get robbed, get killed. A lot of people have been to prison in that community. It's real hard. It's an ongoing struggle.''
Success stories such as Gesch's are the ones that council member Christopher Norwood of Miami Lakes wants to highlight as the group does its work.
''Too often we concentrate on the failures of black youth and do our research based on the failures. We don't spend a lot of time focusing on the successes,'' Norwood said. ``There's not enough research on the resiliency in black men. That's what I want our research to focus on.''
arobinson@MiamiHerald.com
Dwight Jackson longs for those days 30 years ago when young black men settled their disputes the old-fashioned way: with loud trash talk and occasional fisticuffs. When the dust- ups were over, the combatants walked away and went home.
Not anymore. Simple disputes now too often turn deadly.
Jackson, 47, sees it in the back room of the Liberty City mortuary where he makes mangled bodies presentable for public viewing. Jackson, owner of Richardson Mortuary, receives at least 10 young, black homicide victims a month; that's more than there were, say, 20 years ago, other longtime employees there remark.
''Inner-city [boys] are being killed over silly stuff . . . built on hate and envy,'' he said, shaking his head.
Forty years after the Kerner Commission report -- in the wake of the Watts riots in Los Angeles -- tried to sort out why young black men were killing each other, Jackson keeps wondering how things could have gotten so bad in South Florida and the nation.
A new, first-time Florida initiative seeks to find the answers and save at-risk black males -- who state Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, calls ``an endangered species.''
''This goes beyond public safety and prevention. It's public health. It goes to our mental condition,'' said state Rep. Frank Peterman, a St. Petersburg Democrat.
Peterman and Wilson sponsored legislation to create the Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, which former Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law last June and which first met in February. The council, located in the Attorney General's office and budgeted at $200,000 per year, will study a litany of condi- tions that negatively affect black males: escalating homicide, arrest and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, low income, the breakdown of the family structure and school performance and health issues.
And it will produce yet another report -- like so many other commissions have done around the nation over the past 40 years -- that will propose ways to change the driving forces that have left so many black males in prison or dead from Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and Jacksonville.
Wilson said the council will recommend legislative action to address the issues of concern. The first report is due by the year's end.
Peterman promises the Florida commission won't be a ''touchy-feely exercise'' and said it will examine the breakdown in the black family and the heavy toll it is taking on males. To do that, it will need solid information of the sort requested by council chairman Levi Williams last week. In a teleconference on Wednesday, Williams, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, asked the heads of state agencies for data on racial and ethnic disparities.
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Black males, Wilson said, are like Florida's panthers and manatees: dying young and at the mercy of human predators.
''We're so disproportionately affected by all of this [black-on-black male violence]. There are no men available to teach black boys how to become responsible men,'' Wilson said.
That sentiment is echoed by Beverly Colson Neal, executive director of the Florida NAACP office in Orlando: ``Our young men are dying. This didn't just start.''
Florida is among a handful of states, including Ohio and Indiana, to have panels looking for ways to stop the rising violence that is a festering national problem, one the U.S. Conference of Mayors also hopes to tackle. The mayors' meeting was held last month in Miami -- an appropriate venue to discuss violence because South Florida is a region under siege.
Consider:
• Figures provided by local law enforcement agencies lay out the scope of the carnage. Broward had 95 homicide victims in 2006, up 50 percent from the previous year. Miami-Dade had 258 homicides last year, up 40 percent from 2005. About 165 of those victims in Miami-Dade and Broward were black, the overwhelming majority male and younger than 35.
• Another telling figure, Wilson said, that spurred creation of Florida's council: Black males make up 51.2 percent of inmates in state prisons and 62 percent of the jail population. She cited figures from the Florida Department of Corrections.
• Nationally, it is difficult to determine overall numbers of black-on-black crime because police agencies do not keep such statistics. But in 2004 -- the latest year for which figures are available -- victimization rates for blacks were six times higher than rates for whites. Rates for black perpetrators were seven times higher.
THE CAUSES
There are a myriad of reasons, authorities say, for the uptick in local violence: poverty, a population spike for young men, police departments stretched thin on the streets, a proliferation of weapons. Police officials also lay blame on two key federal policy changes: the end of a ban on assault weapons, which put more high-powered guns on the streets; and the loss of funding for community policing and other programs that put more officers into neighborhoods.
Neal and fellow NAACP member Jamal Rose also blame much of the violence on the breakdown of black communities. Gone are many of the athletic and after-school activities that gave children something to do, Rose said. Gone too are many of the mom-and-pop stores, often replaced by chain convenience stores.
''The funds are being drawn out of the neighborhood but not being put back in,'' Rose said.
Too many successful blacks have left their old stomping grounds in favor of integrated suburban areas, Neal noted, leaving the poorest children often living among jobless felons recently released from prison.
Recognizing that, several successful blacks try to serve as role models for children. ''We know the challenges. Those stats are disturbing,'' said Willie Johnson, leader of a mentoring program at Koinonia Worship Center in Hallandale Beach's Carver Ranches community.
Johnson said the church and other segments of the black community must step up and fix the problem: ``The village ain't doing too good right now.''
For Jackson, the mortuary owner, the search for answers starts a lot closer than the mythical village: ``It's deep-rooted, and it starts in the home.''
Jackson sponsors and coaches Optimist football and basketball teams. He figures if boys are busy with school or sports, they have less time to get involved in seamier pursuits. Other civic leaders have hosted town hall meetings and teamed with local police departments in gun-buyback programs.
But individual efforts like these won't be enough to change things, social scientists say. What's needed, they say, is help from the system -- and that's something the new state council could eventually help.
For example, Harry Holzner, Georgetown University professor of public policy, says a sustained, comprehensive effort that begins with educating and mentoring boys as young as 3 years old is required so they don't fall off the radar screen when they reach adolescence.
''When they leave high school, you can plug them into services,'' he said.
FIRST-HAND VIEW
For young black men who have no formal job skills and no high school diploma, chances are slim of landing a job with a livable wage and benefits. Many of them don't expect traditional employment, said Miami native Gene Gesch, 27. Growing up in the inner city exposes them to deadly shootings. By the teen years, he says, they're desensitized to death and destruction.
Gesch should know. Instead of getting a low-wage job at a fast-food joint when he was a teenager, he opted for fast bucks. He started as a lookout for drug dealers, the way his Overtown and Liberty City friends did.
''That's the mentality of the youth,'' said Gesch. ``They want a Benz, a 745 -- the only way these young children think they're gonna get it is sell to work for someone else, selling dope on the corner or as a look out.''
Gesch came of age during the 1990s, when the infamous John Doe drug gang ruled the area. Gang members were his friends. He found a role model in a guy named ''Convertible Bert,'' a local drug dealer who drove around Liberty City wearing flashy garments. Gesch wanted the same things. He saw himself as a popular poet/rap artist who also had a fatalistic bent.
``I didn't care. I was Tupac . . . it was you and me against the world.''
That attitude landed Gesch in Florida's adult prison system at 16. He served five years for aggravated assault with a firearm. He was in solitary confinement a lot, he says, because he often got into fights with other inmates.
Salvation of sorts came when he transferred to the Dade Correctional Institution. A pair of older inmates believed he was better than his past behavior indicated, and they directed him to the prison library. There he was eventually inspired to turn his life around. He even became a mentor: He lectured middle- and high-school students in Wilson's 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, counseling them not to follow his path.
After prison, Gesch moved hours away from Miami, to St. Lucie County.
He said kids have to know they can make money legitimately instead of selling dope -- if they change their environment. In his former community, he said, ``they have no hope in their mind.
``They see people get robbed, get killed. A lot of people have been to prison in that community. It's real hard. It's an ongoing struggle.''
Success stories such as Gesch's are the ones that council member Christopher Norwood of Miami Lakes wants to highlight as the group does its work.
''Too often we concentrate on the failures of black youth and do our research based on the failures. We don't spend a lot of time focusing on the successes,'' Norwood said. ``There's not enough research on the resiliency in black men. That's what I want our research to focus on.''
'Our young men are dying' Pt 1
2-day summit tackles gang violence
A think tank convened in Liberty City on Monday, preparing for a two-day summit to battle gang violence and deal with the release of felons.
BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@MiamiHerald.com
The set-up: two round tables on a small stage at the Carrie P. Meek Cultural Center in Liberty City. At one table, four concerned parents. At the other, drug dealers and gang members.
But who was who? As an audience of law enforcement agents and residents met Monday to discuss reshaping how South Florida handles gang violence and the hardships of felons returning to society, that was among the questions they faced.
'Good afternoon. None of y'all know me -- but your kids know me. I been takin' care of your kids, scoopin' your daughters up, cuz guess what I need 'em to do?'' said one man, who identified himself only as ``Mr. M.''
The audience applauded. And ''Mr. B,'' at the other table, was infuriated.
''I'd appreciate it if y'all don't applaud these people. Y'all are sick,'' he said. Nobody clapped.
But the men had reversed their roles, for effect. Mr. B was former Philadelphia gang member Fabian Walker. Mr. M, Green Bay Packers strong safety Marquand Manuel.
The lesson: Perception often isn't reality. But for people like Francisco Guerra a former Latin Kings gang leader in Chicago, the reality is that once you become a convicted felon, jobs and acceptance are tough to come by.
Monday's gathering was a peek into a two-day summit that begins today in Miami that will be attended by more than 200 criminal-justice professionals from around the country. The goal is to create new strategies for helping felons reacquaint with society and for dealing with gangs.
FLORIDA FELONS
A recent study by the Governor's Ex-Offender Task Force concluded that Florida has the third-largest prison population in the United States, with more than 30,000 felons trying to reenter the workforce each year.
The task force determined that under current conditions, most ex-offenders will not abide by the law after they return home.
Guerra argued Monday that South Florida doesn't have a real gang problem. What it has, he said, is a debilitating drug problem that law enforcement fails to keep up with.
Guerra, 40, said raising two kids the past 16 years has been a struggle, with him often working odd construction jobs at low wages. For some, the struggle is too much.
''Everybody wants to get out. They just don't know how. There are a million reasons I can give you,'' he said. ``We need help, starting in our homes. Grab 'em and school 'em. Don't grab 'em and treat 'em like gang bangers.''
Artis Brown spoke of spending a decade in prison on drug charges. Two years ago, he got a criminal justice degree. He's still looking for work, he said.
''Give him a job in gang violence,'' Brown said pointing to Guerra. ``Give me a job as a motivational speaker.''
Then it was back to the Packers' Manuel, a local high school graduate and University of Florida alum who runs a mentoring program each year at Booker T. Washington High School.
One of 18 children, he told of how tough it was growing up in the inner city.
COCAINE AT 9
''I was holding cocaine at 9 years old. I didn't know what it was. My kids have to grow up here. I want to intervene before it gets to that point,'' he said.
Earlier Monday the same group met with inmates inside West Miami-Dade's Turner Guilford Knight correctional facility. Wayne E. Rawlins, who coordinates Project Safe Neighborhoods, a group that fights gun violence, said they spoke mainly with juveniles charged with adult crimes.
''There is no parent. There is no home. And foster care is not an option for them,'' he said.
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