The Recent Bombing You Never Heard About

On Tuesday January 6, 2015 an NAACP office in Colorado Springs, CO was bombed and nobody is talking about the event.  No major news outlets, newspapers, or radio stations have addressed this issue with the necessary coverage.  The fact that someone felt it necessary to place a homemade bomb in front of the building speaks to Home Grown Terrorism.  Why is it that when acts of terrorism take place against African-Americans little to no major media attention is given to the event?  This is a question that needs to be asked of media producers across the globe.  Please read NAACP Chapter Bombing to get the full story and read responses to this story that should garner some attention.

Great Opportunity

With the holiday season in full swing, this means our youth will be out of school and looking for things to do.  There is a great site that we have stumbled upon that can offer some academic support as well as fun for youth of all ages called Hour of Code.  Please pass this along to any youth you know as well as educators who are looking for academic supplement.

Detroit’s Water Problem

In what seems to be one of the most basic necessities in America there lies a problem in Detroit.  High unemployment rates coupled with even higher underemployment have crippled nearly half of the cities residents.  A recent article   Nearly Half of Detroit Water Customers Can’t Pay Their Bill has created an almost third world existence for those who cannot afford their water bill.  This entire situation should not exist in one of the greatest nations in the world.  America has to get a grip on the economic status of its citizenry before the glorious luster begins to fade from its world view.  Please read the above article for a more in depth look at the tragic situation in one of our nation’s greatest city’s.

Economically Crippled

During the past few years we have been hearing about the increasing wealth gap. We have watched the Occupy Wall Street movement morph into the Occupy Movement and slowly fade away with the assistance of local government aggression. Meanwhile the economic status of most Americans has continued to dwindle and more specifically the effects of this economic drought has devastated the African-American Community. A recent report titled New Report: Blacks are “Beyond Broke”shows exactly how dire the economic stimulation has become for African-Americans in this country. According to the article the liquid assets of African-Americans in America is a measly $25! How can an economy survive when a large portion of its population cannot afford to exist within its boarders? This is a resounding example of the systemic economic blockade that has been forged in our country. What will it take for this segment of the population to wake up and realize the horrendous condition in which they exist? These are the questions that we continue to ask, while still trying to bring to light the sad realty of a nation that has yet to acknowledge its own responsibility for the creation of the very system it denies to exist.  Please be sure to click the above link to see the full article.

Milwaukee’s Issues With The Black Male

Milwaukee, WI one of the great cities of America’s Midwest seems to be creating a negative environment for some of its residence, Black Males.  The recent article titled Signifyin’: The Black cultural, business wasteland that is Milwaukee gives some startling statistics that show Milwaukee as the most segregated city in the United States.  The article goes on to share information on how the quality of life statistics for Black Males in the city paint a dark picture.  From high dropout rates to high unemployment rates Milwaukee desperately needs assistance with this issue.  We cannot continue to have these numbers show up in major city’s across the nation if politicians of this nation are continuing to paint a picture of economic recovery.  Could it be the fact that this picture that has been placed before us is merely a false representation of what truly takes place in this nation that so prides itself on the seemingly unattainable “American Dream”.  Please click the link above for a closer look at the situation in Milwaukee.

The Sad State of Black Boys and Reading

At this point it goes without saying that Black Boys have been dealt a raw deal in terms of education.  Please see the below post from “The Black Star Project”:

If Only 10% of 8th-Grade Black Boys in America Can Read Proficiently, Why Are Schools Across America Closed on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday? 

 

2011 Reading Levels of 8th-Grade

Black Males  

from the Lowest-Performing

Large American School Districts*

 

City\Percentage of 8th-Grade Black Males Proficient in Reading*

Milwaukee – 3%
Cleveland – 3%
Detroit – 5%
Washington (D.C.) – 6%
San Diego – 7%
Dallas – 7%
Baltimore City – 7%
Chicago – 9%
Jefferson County, (KY) – 9%
Atlanta – 9%
Los Angeles – 9%
Philadelphia – 9%
Austin – 9%
Houston – 9%
Hillsborough County (FL) – 9%

Boston – 10%

Miami-Dade – 11%

Charlotte – 12%

New York City – 13%

 

Only 10% of 8th-grade Black males in the United States read at or above a proficient level.*  For those of us who are math challenged, that means, on average, that if you count any 10 Black males in your city, only one of them reads at a proficient level.  If you count 100, only 10 of them read at a proficient level.  In Milwaukee and Cleveland, only 3 out of 100 young Black men read at or above a proficient level. With statistics like this, why are the schools closed on Dr. King’s birthday?

 

* Source: Minority Students and Public Education by Dr. Michael Holzman

Another Military Coverup

Most of us have never heard anything about this story, which is a clear indication on the Military’s ability to hide cases within its ranks.  LaVena Johnson was the first woman from Missouri to die in the Iraq War.  The sad part is she did not die in combat or friendly fire she was murdered on her military base.  Her body was found in her barracks with a gunshot wound to the head, black eye, broken nose, and loose teeth.  The recent article Have You Heard The Story of LaVena Johnson chronicles the ordeal her family has endorsed trying to get justice for their daughter.  The fact that this story has virtually flown under the radar should enrage all of us and move us to action.  Please click on the above link and watch the video to get the full grasp of the story.

The Most Unequal Place in America

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/10/29/orig-ctl-opinion-sutter-income.cnn.html

This video gives us a clear example of the income inequality that plagues our nation. Please watch this clip and comment what you think.

Bionics???

We have seen new technology developed in recent years, but this one takes the cake.  Scientist have engineered a true “Bionic Man” if you can believe that.  Check out this post A Bionic Man?

A look at Unemployment Worldwide

We often think of unemployment in a local sense, meaning the unemployment rate in Detroit or Los Angeles.  Even when we are presented with a national number we often times try to immediately find where our local area fits into that statistical space.  The truth of the matter about unemployment is that this is a global issue that is affecting people around the globe.  More importantly this issue is taking a specific aim at our youth.  This means those individuals who are under the age of 25 yrs. old have the highest unemployment rate worldwide.  A new report in today’s issue of Huffington Post called “Unemployment Plagues Young People Around The World” sheds light on this epidemic and gives statistical and graphical information relating to this issue.  The greater problem here is that if this pattern continues there will be an entire generation of people who will be deprived of any work experience that could help them develop into productive citizens of society.  This type of behavior would lend to the further proliferation of over crowed social assistance programs and a global increase of individuals who have no other alternative than life in the streets as a survival tactic.

In order to curb this behavior there has to be a sense of urgency among the most improved industrial nations.  The G20 summit is held on a yearly basis and many of the nations mentioned in the above report are participants in the summit.  This then begs to question how can the most financially dominate nations also have some of the highest unemployment rates?  Why are these economies so top-heavy in the first place?  Primarily we need to look at those nations who pride themselves on the classic “Trickle Down” method of economics and see where they place.  Clearly this is a method that only serves particular groups, but in the end is creating a global epidemic that could potentially wreak havoc on our larger global community.