Blog

ALC Recap: Black Males and Academic Success

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:29:28 +0000

Staci Cox recounts ALC "Breaking Barriers 2" panel discussion on improving black male academic success When a panelist asks, “How many of you know a black male who has dropped out of school?” and everyone in the room raises their hand, we have a problem. The current education system is failing our students. Nearly 60 percent of black males have been suspended or expelled from school. That number is approximately 25 percent for their white counterparts. Black males consist of less than two percent of the teaching force-- this depressing number is not because black men are neglecting their youth, but because black men are not graduating from college at an acceptable rate. Black men are fighting against a system that lacks funding and a society that does little to promote black educational excellence. Those who are currently in the battle-- fighting for black males to receive high--quality education, are not fighting together. Teachers, administrators, parents and black male students are not collaborating. As a result, the money that is there is not being used to improve the black community. So what can be done? Collaborate within the black community must take place inorder to empower black students. One panelist noted that black male students must also remain involved in the conversations and solutions. We must help black men graduate from college so black male teachers will be available to students. Ivory A. Toldson, moderator of the panel discussion and author of Breaking Barriers 2, explained the inverse relationship between the number of black teachers and the number of black student suspensions. “Research shows that more black teachers equal less suspensions and increased teacher -to -student bonding,” Toldson notes. Therefore, if we are going to improve the academic success of black males, there must be more black male teachers in the school system. In addition to collaborating and increasing black male teachers, the panel discussion was centered on educational funding. Questions were focused on how to receive funding. One panelist answered, “Schools must build bridges with foundations.” Meaning, schools must network with foundations and other philanthropic organizations in order to receive money. But networking is not the final step. Another panelist detailed what must occur after a school is able to arrange a meeting with a grant-giving organization. He says, “We must drop the welfare mentality when it comes to grant asking.” In other words, schools must frame the grant into an opportunity for the organization. What will the company gain from providing a grant (i.e., how will the grant support their mission and current activities?) The school must have a goal and a message. However, one must never forget that the opportunity, goal and message must be founded in research. A key theme throughout the panel discussion was that research is everything – the difference between receiving funding and being rejected is a well researched presentation and argument. But we must not only look towards organizations for educational funding. We must turn to individual black wealth. Research shows that half of all black households donate money. Yet money will not wholly solve this severe education disparity. Those who are in the struggle must work not only with their communities, but within their state legislatures to influence policy. Congressman Cedric Richmond (from Louisiana’s second district) briefly served as a guest speaker on the panel. He explained that black men must become involved in schools in order to provide black male students with a positive role model. He also noted that a person does not need a Ph.D. to mentor a child. His mentor was a janitor. He and all the panelists asserted that the only way to solve educational problems is to teach a child. I agree. There are so many successful individulas who escaped their negative situations because someone was mentoring them; someone was teaching them and pushing them. If given the opportunity to be that someone to a child, take it. You have no idea the kind of impact you can have or the kind of person that child can become because of you.

@ALC_Kyle Goes Inside the Annual Legislative Conference

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:16:29 +0000

CBCF Emerging Leader Intern Kyle Inskeep will "live-tweet" his experiences at this years Annual Legislative Conference "It is my goal to leave this conference with a better understanding of how I can both lead and serve the members of my community in the best way possible." - Kyle Inskeep [caption id="attachment_874" align="alignleft" width="403" caption="Emerging Leader Kyle Inskeep "][/caption]

Hello 2011 ALC Participants!

My name is Kyle Inskeep. I am a senior at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana majoring in Electronic Journalism. This semester I am living and working in Washington D.C. as part of the CBCF’s Emerging Leaders Internship Program. I have been placed in the Office of Congressmen Cedric Richmond (LA-02) as a press intern. While I’ve only been in the Nation’s Capital for a few short weeks, the CBCF has already helped me to build many professional and personal relationships that will last long after this amazing experience has ended. This city, and its residents, are full of excitement and activity, which is much different than what I am accustom to being from the Midwest. I am looking forwarding to being around even more of this positive energy this week during the CBCF’s Annual Legislative Conference. This will be my first time taking part in the ALC and I am excited to see what this week has in store for me and the other 10,000 conference participants. As a young professional hoping to work in the political arena someday, I am looking forward to learning more about public policy and legislative issues that specifically affect members of the black community. I have heard from several different people around D.C. that this conference is filled with sessions, seminars, and panels that provide participants with extremely useful information. I plan to take full advantage of this opportunity by attending as many sessions, discussions, cultural activities, and networking events as I possibly can. It is my goal to leave this conference with a better understanding of how I can both lead and serve the members of my community in the best way possible. I encourage all of this year’s ALC participants to do the same, and also to take the time to realize just how fortunate we all are to be attending this powerful conference. The majority of my time this week will be spent updating ALC participants about the different sessions that are taking place at the conference through Twitter. I will be “live-Tweeting” from several different sessions throughout the week using the hashtag #41stALC. I invite all of the 2011 ALC participants to follow me on Twitter @CBCFincIntern4 to receive constant updates on all of the conference happenings. If you want to be in the know about ALC, make sure to follow me.

WAKE UP: Wealth Gap Reveals Need for Greater Education Among Black Americans

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:06:54 +0000

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake up! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake up!” This was Dap’s plea in the closing scene of Spike Lee’s 1988 film School Daze. As the character, played by acclaimed actor Laurence Fishburne, ran through the quad of the fictitious Mission College bounding in and out of dorm rooms screaming “wake up” at the top of his lungs his purpose was clear: to rouse from slumber his friends, classmates, school faculty and anyone who would listen. “Please, wake up,” he said. Why? Because something in the way everyone was living had to change. Staring Down Our Wake Up Moment Faced with 15.9% unemployment and a 20:1 wealth gap between Caucasians and African Americans, black Americans find themselves faced with a tremendous wake up moment, only this time, we don’t have Laurence Fishburne on hand to get the movement going. There is something to his passion and methodology, however, which we can learn from in this time of social, political and economic unrest. Namely, education is key to our ability to change the present circumstances faced by our community. Wealth and economic opportunity among African-Americans has always been a particularly perplexing subject. Our history in this country, confounded by the legacy of slavery and the vestiges of institutionalized racism, is no doubt a complex subject, the discussion of which often raises more questions than answers. Why is it that although African Americans represent one of the oldest ethnic groups in this nation, surpassed only by Native Americans, black communities have always lacked the social and economic opportunities of their non-minority peers? Why do black students tend to fall dramatically behind white students when it comes to educational attainment, especially when we know that education, now more than ever, is a prerequisite to real economic opportunity in this country? Why is it that with each passing year since the civil rights movement, the socio-economic plight of the African American community has increased rather than decreased? The questions are many, and the only ways to propel our communities beyond present circumstances is by understanding the complex history that undergirds our existence in America and re-educating ourselves about the ways to create positive socio-economic outcomes. Recent revelations about the economic plight of African-Americans may be disappointing, but should come as no surprise given the long-standing issues faced by these communities. We have always been unemployed at higher frequencies than other groups in this country (the exception, of course, being during slavery when all black Americans were “employed,” albeit via chattel servitude). We have always made less money than our white counterparts – current estimates point to a $0.60 on the $1.00 ratio. And for years, our educational, thereby our economic, opportunities were diminished by segregation and the fallacy of separate but equal. Therefore, as we forge ahead, the task at hand of improving our communities requires not that we harp on how bad things are, but that we discern proactive solutions for moving things forward. Education Is A Catalyst for Change and the Improvement of Circumstances With most things in this country, the achievement gaps that separate the haves from the have nots depends on one’s exposure and resources – exposure to history, to context and resources to make possible one’s personal iteration of the American dream. Though ours beliefs about the best ways to increase exposure and resources may differ, it would seem that education, the most basic method of instilling new awareness and understanding about any subject, is a crucial yet oft-overlooked component of discussions around how we might improve the socio-economic status of African Americans in this country. Education is the key to closing the wealth gap and to creating new economic opportunity because it takes an educated person to appreciate and comprehend market forces, forecast new trends and develop products and services to accommodate the needs of Americans and our international counterparts. Education is not so much a guarantee of success as it is a prerequisite to success. It is through education that we can help people better understand the playing field, the odds against them and ways to develop new opportunities to overcome any challenge in their way. With each new door that education opens the prospect for new economic opportunity is not far behind. When we speak of education, though, we speak not of a lofty and esoteric set of principals and ideals, but of a measured three-prong approach targeted at increasing the odds of economic success for people of color. First, we need to re-educate ourselves about the history of economics in the black community. While it’s easy to focus on the negative, there is a long and powerful traditional of successful economic enterprise in our communities that we all too often overlook. By affirming the positive history and helping people better understand from whence they came, we reveal a new avenue of empowerment for African Americans. Prior to the start of the civil rights movement when we had not the opportunity to take part in mainstream commerce we were in essence forced to create and sustain our own economic universe. Post-abolition, during the era of reconstruction, in the face of Jim Crow and enduring the realities of segregation, black communities had an insular existence in which we were self-sustaining in every sense of the word. We were our doctors, our lawyers, our groceries, our accountants, our seamstresses and tailors, our transportation, our communications. You name it. We did it. Members of the community created every single good and service that was needed in the black community. We bartered with each other, we sold goods and created entire enterprises based on the immediate needs and demands of our communities, and because of that self-reliant economy we were able to survive and thrive. The story of the rise of black enterprise in this country needs to be told and reinforced time and time again, and we should also develop a new paradigm around creating and supporting black business in the modern American landscape. Second, we must place a greater emphasis on educating our communities. At a time when only 54% of African Americans graduate from high school, the need to instill the basics – reading, writing, math, and science – is critically important. Particularly when it comes to math and science, areas of competency which are essential to participation in our increasingly digital and globally competitive world, we must redouble our efforts at educational achievement if we hope to reduce the gaps in economic opportunity and wealth creation that our communities face. Finally, it is incumbent upon us to really learn and understand how finance works and what makes a good recipe for wealth creation. Having a job and making money, though necessary to attaining wealth, will not by themselves guarantee it. Far too many people of color are not well versed in the finer nuances of creating and growing wealth opportunities. So, we have a dramatic new opportunity in front of us to cultivate and spread as much information about wealth creation as possible amongst our communities. The path to recovery and true economic prosperity for black communities lays in the fierce advancement of our educational, and by extension our economic, agenda. If we ever hope to reduce and overcome the wealth gap between African Americans and our peers we must ensure that our communities are educated in ways to create and exploit new economic opportunities.

Why I Serve

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:51:21 +0000

Vanessa Destime, a CBCF Congressional Intern, talks about the interwoven roles of leadership and servant-hood By Vaness Destime, CBCF Congressional Intern [caption id="attachment_871" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Vannessa Destime "][/caption] I do not believe you can lead without serving. In order to lead, you must understand the position you are in. You must realize that above everyone else, you are in the position to direct, advise, manage and teach those who look to you for guidance. You must also realize that in order to lead, you must be effective in your approach. This is not to say that no one makes mistakes but that as a leader, you learn from those mistakes and implement methods that will produce a better outcome the next time the task is conducted. A good leader not only uplifts the current status of the group they are leading but also helps to prepare those who will take the assumed position after his/her reign has ended. In order to do so successfully, one must serve. The way I characterize the word serve does not align with the usual connotation of subordination but with bringing benefit to those who are in need of it. Whether it is in the form of education or legislation, serving implements a means to do better for at least one individual, if not the entire common good. It means to give of yourself, your time and any reservations that another person might have towards the work you are doing.

2011 Congressional Interns Descend Upon the District

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:22:26 +0000

CBCF interns meet for the first time at CBCF Headquarters

Congressional Interns locked arms for a photo last week during their first meeting at CBCF headquarters. For many of the interns, this is their first time in the District.

As the 45 interns enjoyed a pizza lunch they shared stories from their first day in their Congressional office and got better acquainted with one another.

Spring 2011 Emerging Leaders Say Goodbye

Thu, 12 May 2011 18:54:26 +0000

Earlier this week, our Spring 2011 Emerging Leaders (sponsored by Walmart) met for the last time at B. Smith's restaurant in Union Station to celebrate the end of a successful term. Go to facebook for more photos. [caption id="attachment_831" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Dr. Marjorie Innocent (fourth from right) raises a glass in celebration of a job well done by CBCF interns."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_829" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="President and CEO Dr. Elsie Scott"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_828" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Special Guest Emily Crerand (George Washington University Program Specialist)"][/caption]

Many Differences, One Goal

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:56:56 +0000

CBCF interns discuss what they've learned after a Praxis exercise on coalition building By Vania Kinard, CBCF Emerging Leader Intern Office of Rep. Karen Bass In the United States of America where cultures are united and interlinked every day of our lives, coalition building is one the most essential aspects of unity in America. During our session, I learned that coalition building begins with a base of constituents, communities and ethnicities who share a common interest or goal. Their mission is to create an organization that empowers the voices of the people and advocates for change. During our discussion we explored how many districts need to utilize coalition building in order to sustain the proper recognition in their communities. Without coalition building communities can fall apart or chaos can erupt due to the lack of intercultural connectedness. Having the opportunity to work with the various organizations was an eye opening experience. Throughout the day we were able to interact and work together as a team despite the differences that we all have. While working on our exercise, I decided to look deeper into my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader and motivator in a group setting. Participating in this workshop encouraged me to go out into the community and start my own non-profit organization that is targeted to the general needs of my community. In addition, this exercise challenged my thought process and made me think more strategically. I learned that the first step to better serving the community is first understanding the challenges it faces. Organizing the community in a fashion that unites all voices is the most powerful thing any community can do and is in our Constitutional rights. I truly believe that after this event I will have better wisdom and stronger judgment on what it takes to improve my community and the rest of the world.

From One Hill to Another

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:55:09 +0000

By Denisha Richardson Former CBCF Communications intern talks about the success her internship has afforded her In fall 2009, I was accepted into the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Communications Internship Program sponsored by State Farm. My time in D.C. was not only exciting but life altering. During my internship I served as a press intern for a Member of the House of Representatives and a press agent at the Annual Legislative Conference. Having the opportunity to intern on Capitol Hill through the CBCF was an extraordinary blessing because it enabled me to learn how politics influence our actions and lifestyle as well as exposed me to the challenges that Congress has of ensuring the representation of diverse perspectives and people. It was through these roles that I was able to interact with influential policy leaders and learn more about the issues that are affecting the black community in the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora. Through team building exercises my cohort acknowledged that we have been awarded with great privileges and that we were obligated to give back. Collectively we decided, “We the ambassadors of today are committed to creating a liberated world where people are empowered by being conscious, empathetic, and humble.” I decided I would use our mission statement as motivation to go abroad and increase my knowledge about those who have been disenfranchised outside of the U.S. in order to be a voice of reason and encouragement. That led me to where I am today-- the University of Cape Town in South Africa where I am working towards a Master’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in Intercultural and Diversity Studies. The University is situated on Devil’s Peak at the foot of Table Mountain, a scenic splendor, which my legs bear the burden of tracking daily. I’ve only been here a short while but I have grown so much. The country is beautiful and the people are so diverse, yet the remnants of apartheid are still present. Many South Africans want to forget about those troubling years and move on; while others cannot move on because their lives have been forever altered. To be a young black American in South Africa (post-apartheid) has been fascinating and challenging. I am angered by the wrong that is being done against people because of their skin color. Therefore, I believe it is only right that I dedicate my time and talents to enhance the welfare of the very people who need it most. I have joined two university organizations: the United Nations Association South Africa (UNASA) and Love Your Neighbor (LYN). Both strive to improve the quality of life for those who are less fortunate. Through LYN, I go to one of the largest townships in South Africa called Khayelitsha and volunteer in one of the informal settlements. There is no electricity and the people have no legal rights to the land. We go and provide food, coordinate activities and lead a tutoring program for the children. Thanks to Dr. Scott’s contact, Michael Sudarkasa, I am able to continue my civic duties to my nation through the Democrats Abroad South Africa chapter and I have decided to focus my thesis on the Coloured people of South Africa and how they relate to the African Diaspora. To get where I am today has involved a lot of prayer, preparation and hard work. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve as a CBCF intern. This opportunity has motivated me toward a career which focuses on bringing awareness and change to the social, political and economic injustices done against diverse people.

A Prelude to the Black Women’s Health Gathering

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:43:51 +0000

Vice Admiral Dr. Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA is the 18^th Surgeon General of the Unites States Public Health Service. In this capacity, she serves as a nationally recognized symbol to improve the health of the Nation through education, and by advocating for disease prevention and promotion programs. She oversees the command of 6,500 officers of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps and advises the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on critical public health issues facing the Nation. Dr. Benjamin has a BS in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans, which is a historically black university (HBCU). She received her MD degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, an MBA from Tulane University and has eleven honorary doctorate degrees. Dr. Benjamin is the Founder and Former CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama (a small shrimping community along the gulf coast) and spent several years moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes to keep open what was initially a solo practice. Serving through Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she often put up her own money to cover expenses. This is a testament to her undying commitment to service and underscores her mission to improving the public’s health. Dr. Benjamin was the former associate dean for rural health at the University of Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile. In 1995, she was the first physician under age 40 and the African American to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. In 2002, she became President of the Medical Association of Alabama, making her the first African American female president of a State Medical Society in the United States. Dr. Benjamin has received numerous awards of distinctions and is a member of a vast number of boards and committees including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and Morehouse School of Medicine. In 1998, Dr. Benjamin was the U.S. recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She received the 200 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa and is a member of the Catholic Health Association. FACT: Did you know that an Office of Women’s Health has been established in the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services through the Health Reform law? The new office is charged with developing goals that relate to disease prevention, health promotion, service delivery, research, and health care education; provides expert advice relating to women’s health; and monitors activities concerning women’s health. Lauren Thompson Program Coordinator Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.

CBCF President - Should Blacks Celebrate Civil War History?

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:23:35 +0000

Via Politic365.com, CBCF President and CEO Elsie L. Scott, Ph.D. discusses how African Americans fit within Civil War history.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson started Negro History week in 1926. It later became Black History Week and has now become Black History Month. A proclamation is now issued by the President of the United States. And in 2011, some wonder why we still celebrate it. After all, we have our first African American president, our first African American attorney general, the third highest ranking congressional Democrat is an African American and the former chairman of the Republican National Committee is African American. Many argue that we are now living in a post racial society. So why do we still celebrate Black History month in February?

To read the entire article, visit http://politic365.com/2011/02/22/should-blacks-celebrate-civil-war-history/