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IBNN NEWS and its affiliates; ON POINT, Black Focus and Black Politics in Minneapolis are proud to announce a long overdue conversation with real people. Black Men in America will be held on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, 4:30–6 p.m. K Building, Room K.3360 on the beautiful campus of Minneapolis Community and Technical College in downtown Minneapolis, 1501 Hennepin Avenue.
"Black Men in America"
by Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN NEWS and Black Politics in Minneapolis (also Vice Chairman of the Minnesota Alliance of Black School Educators – MABSE)
Twin Cities (IBNN NEWS/Real-Life Editorial/October 24, 2011)…This is a conversation that scares the pants off the mainstream. A conversation about Black men and the day-to-day struggles of being a Black in the United States. A conversation being held at an educational institution in Minneapolis.
It doesn’t get better then this.
IBNN NEWS would like to thank MCTC and the Student African American Brotherhood/Brother2Brother organization stepping forward to address disparities in wealth, education and economic development for Black men. We look for many more conversations to address ongoing institutionalized racism in Minnesota.
To read about the panelists and their bios, please click here.
The Economic Policy Institute reports that even before the recession, which began in December of 2007, African Americans (mostly males) in many metropolitan areas were experiencing very high unemployment rates. (This analysis is limited to the 31 metropolitan areas for which the data were sufficient for reliable unemployment estimates.) Distress before the downturn was concentrated in Midwestern metropolitan areas. The Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and St. Louis metropolitan areas all had average black unemployment rates of 10 percent or higher in 2007.
In education, what we know? Minneapolis is ranked as the worst in the nation with the widest failure (or achievement) gap in the country between Whites and Blacks. On a national level: Only 45% of Black men graduate from high school in the United States. 32% of all suspended students are Black. Black students (mostly Black males) are twice as likely as Whites to be suspended or expelled.
America was built on the backs of Black men. Another kind of slavery has taken place, which denies Black men, the freedom and the civil right of an education, opportunity and success.
Our elected officials have forgotten the need to address this serious issues facing not only Black men – our Black America will become extinct without a whisper.
This event is open to everyone. For more information: b2b@minneapolis.edu or 612-659-6000 ext. 4287
Part 2: A Black Solution for School
