Police departments all over the country have opened outright war. It hasn’t been declared but that’s the nature of America’s new, improved racism. Back in the day, rabid dogs like George Wallace and Lincoln Rockwell came right out and said ”Ni**er.” They forthrightly stated that Black life wasn’t worth the breath in folks’ bodies. Today, politicians silently let courts get away with letting cops off the hook for gunning down, choking to death and otherwise viciously violating our humanity. And those politicians conspicuously include that HNIC sitting in the White House. Continue Reading →
Black males
Recent Articles
National study: Young Black males 21 times more likely to be killed by police
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How do local police measure up?
By Isaac Peterson
Contributing Writer
Racial tensions in the U.S. have reached the boiling point in the wake of the deaths of two Black males at the hands of police officers and the announcements in the last few days that grand juries declined to bring charges against either officer. Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson just weeks after Eric Garner was placed in a chokehold that resulted in his death by Daniel Pantaleo in New York. Both officers are White. The racial tension, already high, reached the flashpoint nationwide in the last few days following the grand jury announcements. Protests, some becoming violent, took place all over the country, including the Twin Cities, decrying a system that seems to allow police to murder Black males with impunity and with no repercussions. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Local, Black males, killings, police
Stereotypes thwart aspirations of young Black men
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MPS Black Male Achievement director gets some barbershop ‘real truth’
By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer
Shahmar Dennis plans to graduate next spring from Roosevelt High School. He also plans to continue his post-secondary education by studying computer science, with hopes to one day work as a computer programmer after earning a college degree at a school not yet decided upon. His hopes, dreams and goals mostly were self-directed and self-motivated, undeterred by some of his teachers’ stereotypical beliefs that Black young men are incapable of competent classroom achievement. When Dennis inquired about his school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a teacher discouraged him; but when a White student went to the same teacher, that student immediately received a pass to see a school counselor about taking IB classes. “I feel like teachers have the stigma about African American students on how they are supposed to act, speak, and how they perceive education,” recalled Dennis when speaking to the MSR soon after his appearance at the November 10 regularly scheduled Minneapolis School Board meeting. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Local, Black males, MICHAEL WALKER, racial stereotypes, Shahmar Dennis
Over 100,000 Black parents are now homeschooling their children
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By Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu
Guest Commentator
We hear so much about the plight of Black children and their low test scores. We have not heard that African American children who are homeschooled are scoring at the 82 percent in reading and 77 percent in math. This is 30-40 percent above their counterparts being taught in school. There is a 30 percent racial gap in schools, but there is no racial gap in reading if taught in the home and only a five percent gap in math. What explains the success of African American students being taught by their parents? Continue Reading →
Filed under: Editorial, 89.9, 89.9 FM, 89.9 KMOJ, Abraham Lincoln, academics, achievement gap, African American children
Few acting roles for Black females
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By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer
Final installment of a four-part series
12 Years a Slave made five out of nine top-10 films of 2013 lists by movie critics, and Fruitvale Station made two such lists; these two movies featured Black males as leads. However, only two Black females — Halle Berry (The Call, Sony Pictures) and Paula Patton (Baggage Claim, Fox Searchlight) — were leads in movies released by major Hollywood studios in 2013. “Critics don’t look at a film and notice that every one of the lead roles is White,” Uptown Magazine Editor Ronda Racha Penrice said in an October CNN.com article. A UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies released the “Hollywood Diversity Brief” in October and it stated that there is “a dearth of gender, racial and ethnic diversity in film and television — both in front of and behind the camera.”
Nicole Beharie (Sleepy Hollow) and Kerry Washington (Scandal) are the only Black female leads on prime time network television this season. “I’m 5’1 and an African American woman. I just didn’t think anyone would have me to play the cop,” said Beharie of her character in an Essence magazine interview. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Entertainment, 12 Years a Slave, african american actors, african american actresses, african americans in movies, angry black women, Asian, baby mama
Father’s Day Weekend honors positive Black dads
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By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer
A father of two daughters, Terry Austin wants all Black men to be more involved with young Black males and females. He says he was inspired to do something several years ago while attending church. Austin at the time was working for a pharmaceutical company: “I had this vision of health fairs in churches…passing out [health] literature to our people,” he recalls. “But what I quickly found out was that the need is with our youth.”
He later started his nonprofit Positive Image organization in 2004. It grew from a small group of men at a backyard barbeque four years ago to last weekend’s series of events, which included a golf outing and a public picnic for families at Zanewood Community Center Field last Saturday. Continue Reading →