Last month at the National Forum for Youth Violence Prevention summit on preventing violence, Baltimore presented its city-wide blueprint, “B’More for Youth! Building Baltimore’s Cradle to Career Pipeline.” As all eyes have been on Baltimore this April, all eyes should now turn to the blueprint. Hope and opportunity seem to be exactly what young people have been calling for in the streets of Baltimore. It is not just some police officers who have let these youth down; it’s the current cradle-to-prison pipeline, and insufficient educational and economic opportunities.
Consider that the unemployment rate for African-American men in Baltimore ages 20 to 24 was 37% in 2013; for white men of the same age range, it was 10%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And it’s not just Baltimore. Other cities that my colleagues and I have worked with to prevent violence are experiencing the same issues. The unemployment rate for African-American males in Kansas City is more than twice the rate for the whole city; while in Oakland it is 30% higher for black men than the average resident, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. New Orleans reports its unemployment rate for African-American men at 52%.
These statistics are not an accident. They are the expected outcome when school systems routinely subject their students of color to harsher discipline than their white counterparts, which depresses graduation rates and academic achievement. They are the outcome when federal housing policies differ by race, and stymy African-American accumulation of wealth.
It is not surprising, then, that a person without access to quality education and local wealth may need to turn to other means, such as underground economies and even violence, to meet basic survival needs.
[For more of this story, written by Rachel Davis, go to http://newamericamedia.org/201...a-dream-deferred.php]
Comments (0)