Picture by The Black Star Project

 By Starla Muhammad-Staff Writer

Sep 10, 2012

(FinalCall.com) - Faulty equipment, fights in the hallways, overcrowded classrooms, failing grades, security guards, scarce resources and high suspension rates. This is not the description of a school in some Third World war torn country. It is the unfortunate yet glaring reality facing thousands of Black, Latino and poor children the United States educational system.

A gap remains in graduation rates between Black and White males with only 47 percent of Black males graduating high school compared to 78 percent of White males according to the Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males.

Data collected in 2009-2010 by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, says Black students were three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than White students and 70 percent of students involved in school related arrests or referred to law enforcement were Black or Latino.

One in five Black boys and one in 10 Black girls received an out of school suspension according to department data. Black students are less likely to have access to college preparatory classes but are quick to be ushered into special education classes. Black and Latino schools are grossly underfunded compared to majority-White schools.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Visits the University of Islam School (photo provided by The Black Star Project).

 A visionary when it came to the deficiencies he saw in America's educational system and how the consequences effected Black children, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his followers pulled their children out of public schools and began teaching them in what was considered a controversial and bold move back in the 1930s and 40s.

Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project and the force behind the Million Father March, which aims to encourage fathers to take their children to school on the first day of school recently blogged that the proper education of Black children is the responsibility of the community. If Black parents and communities in America are willing to allow Black children to be destroyed in American schools, "then we deserve what we get," he notes.

 "Black parents and Black communities are ultimately responsible for the education of Black children. Not teachers! Not schools! Not elected officials! We are responsible! If our children are being destroyed in American schools, it is only because we allow it," wrote Mr. Jackson.  

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By Jill Tucker

September 4, 2012 
 

In the first hour of the first day of school Tuesday, the sixth-grade Oakland boy was sure he was in trouble for goofing off.

His teacher, Peter Wilson, had stopped his lesson in mid-sentence and turned his attention to the African American preteen, who now wore an uh-oh expression as he braced for a rebuke.

"Did you eat breakfast this morning?" Wilson asked quietly as the confused boy shook his head no. "Your actions are telling me you're hungry."

The teacher, also African American, then promised to bring fruit and granola bars the next day and returned to teaching. The boy's behavior immediately improved.

That might not have been the result at other Oakland middle schools, where a third of black males were suspended at least once last year.

But at the 100 Black Men Community School, a new all-male public charter school, educators and organizers say they refuse to accept those odds - or any of the other statistics associated with black boys that include higher dropout rates, lower test scores and disproportionate placement in special education programs.

The school, started and financially supported by the Bay Area chapter of the 100 Black Men nonprofit organization, is open to all male students, but it was created specifically for issues facing black boys - including difficult family lives, street culture, community violence and lack of male role models outside professional sports and the music industry.

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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Tuley Park, 90th and King Drive

Chicago, Illinois

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ADMISSION: FREE

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Come and meet representatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide and colleges and universities throughout Illinois.

For more information, call the Chesterfield Community Council at (773) 651-3958 or visit: www.chesterfieldcommunitycouncil.org.

 

 

09/06/2012

Joseph "Lil JoJo" Coleman

Joseph Coleman, better known by his stage name "Lil JoJo," was shot in the back when a car pulled up while he was riding a bicycle in the 6900 block of South Princeton Avenue on the city's South Side around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Chief Keef, who signed to Interscope Records this summer, previously was sentenced to house arrest after he was arrested and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon last December.

Keef also targeted Lupe Fiasco in recent weeks after the fellow Chicago rapper said in an interview that the violence of Keef's and other young artists' lyrics was disheartening, according to NBC.

Lupe Fiasco

The area where Coleman was gunned down is located about a block from where the family of Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson was murdered in 2008. It is also located in one of the two districts that Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy this week held up as an example of where the city's gang-fighting, anti-violence initiatives are proving effective.

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Click Here to Hear Chief Keef with 3Hunna (explicit).

Click Here to Hear Lupe Fiasco with Bitch Bad (explicit) - positive.

Click Here to Hear Lupe Fiasco talk about "Ghost" in his community. (It is critical to watch this interview)

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Please call Interscope Records at (310) 865-1000 to let them know that you are against violence encouraged by or perpetrated by some of their artist, especially the violence by young Black men against other young Black men.