Feb. 22, 2015

Myth That There are More Black Men in Prison Than College is Debunked

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a 2013 column for The Root, Howard University professor and Congressional Black Caucus Foundational analyst Ivory A. Toldson said that the myth about there being more Black men in prison than in college is “the most frequently quoted statistic about Black men in the United States.” 

An article in the Feb. 12 edition of Vox.com talked about the myth’s source, its impact on communities of color and evidence that clearly proves the myth’s fallacy. Over the years, the myth has taken on a life of its own, being cited by everyone from civil rights leaders to Black scholars and local community leaders.

Its origins have been traced back to a 2002 report from the Justice Policy Institute titled “Cellblocks or Classrooms: The Funding of Higher Education and Corrections and Its Impact on African-American Men,” The report asserted that “[n]early a third more African-American men are incarcerated than in higher education,” an observation that both sent shockwaves across America and resonated with groups striving to boost Black male academic achievement and college enrollment. 

Vox.com pointed out that the statistic’s sobering ramifications were not lost on Barack Obama who mentioned it during a 2007 NAACP forum, saying, “We have more work to do when more young Black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America.”

Former NBA great Charles Barkley also used the false stat in 2012 to explain why he felt compelled to carry a gun, “You know, we as Black people always, we don’t have respect for one another,” he said. “You know, we’ve got more Black men in prison than we do in college, and crime in our neighborhoods is running rampant.”
The stat was so widely accepted that many Blacks began referring to jails and prisons as “the Black man’s university,” a thinly veiled reference to Black nationalist leader Malcolm X’s years behind bars.

Despite the wide acceptance of the “Black men in prison” myth, the numbers don’t support the myth. According to the U.S. Census, about 18,508,926 people in the U.S. population are Black males, of all ages. In 2013, 1,437,363 were enrolled in college, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.

As of the middle of 2013, there were 219,660 Black males were in local jails, and 526,000 Black males were in state or federal prison, totaling about 745,000 behind bars, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Prisoner Statistics Program.

Dr. Toldson believes that the 2002 “Cell Blocks Versus Class­room” report was based on incomplete data, adding that in addition to being inaccurate the 13-year-old data is now outdated. “I pulled the data from 2001 that the Justice Policy Institute used [for the ‘Cellblocks of Class­rooms ‘report] and I noticed that at least 1,000 colleges weren’t reporting their head count of Black males then,” Toldson told NPR in 2013. “And I also noticed that a lot of colleges that didn’t report any numbers, when the Justice Policy Institute wrote their report, were historically Black universities. They were big, state universities that I’m pretty sure had some Black males present at the time.”Essentially, the number of Black males enrolled in college was undercounted, providing an inaccurate view of the state of Black males in the U.S.

While the college numbers are not as dire as the 2002 report suggested, the recent nationwide protests show that there is still a great deal of room for improvement in the lives of Black males.

A wide assortment of programs aimed at improving academic performance and college among Black males are yielding positive results with statistics showing that the enrollment of Black males in college rose from 693,044 in 2001 to 1,437,363 in 2013.

While the “Black men in prison” myth was often used by policymakers, community organizers and leaders with the best of intentions, because it is a falsehood it has proven to be harmful to communities of color. It paints a negative picture of Black male academic achievement and feeds into the stereotype that Black males are predisposed to crime and violence.

Toldson summoned up the perils that come with allowing this myth to continue to live:”[W]e will not sufficiently support black male college students — nor college-bound students — if we simply keep perpetuating the myth that juxtaposes their needs with those of black males in the criminal-justice system.”

Feb. 22, 2015

The Billionaire Governor Goes After Workers
By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Feb. 22, 2015

To Be Equal 

Facing Hard Truths – The Rhetoric of Race at the Crossroads of Police Reform and the Word of FBI Director Comey
By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Much research points to the widespread existence of unconscious bias…We all – white and black – carry various biases around with us. I am reminded of the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" from the Broadway hit, Avenue Q: ‘Look around and you will find no one's really color blind. Maybe it's a fact we all should face. Everyone makes judgments based on race.’” – FBI Director James Comey in his speech “Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race,” February 12, 2015

It was in the wake of the protest-fueled aftermaths of the high-profile killings of Black men at the hands of police officers, along with the execution-style murders of two New York City police officers, that the nation’s sitting FBI director marked an unprecedented first.  FBI director James Comey – addressing an auditorium full of Georgetown University students on the celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday – delivered an unsparing, timely speech on the alarming state of policing in Black and Brown communities.

Comey, the son of Irish immigrants and the grandson of a police officer, addressed the historically-charged relationship between law enforcement and the communities of color they are sworn to serve and protect, and in doing so, gave his speech an authority that cannot be understated.  In fact, he made a sizeable step towards inserting this much-needed analysis into our ongoing conversation on race in America.

Unfortunately, rhetoric, even candid rhetoric on the devastating impact of racism or unconscious racial bias in law enforcement, cannot stop a fatal bullet or bring back those we’ve lost.  For Comey’s words to be more than acknowledgement of this dilemma, they must translate into policies that address the unsettling issue of police misconduct in minority communities.

Pointing to the ever-present influence of unconscious racial bias that seeps into the daily interactions between the police and minorities, Comey also recognized that “racial bias isn’t epidemic in law enforcement any more than it is epidemic in academia or the arts.”  He is right on that score.  According to the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, implicit racial bias “refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.”  The police, as well as the communities they serve, both come to the proverbial table with their implicit biases.

Implicit racial bias is not a figment of imagination, and acknowledging its existence can be the difference between life and death for all parties involved. Understanding this, Comey noted that “if we can’t help our latent biases, we can help our behavior in response to those instinctive reactions, which is why we work to design systems and processes that overcome that very human part of us all.”

I applaud the FBI director for calling on the nation’s law enforcement community to do more than simply acknowledge the problem, but to also act on the knowledge we have.  In November 2014, the National Urban League released our “10-Point Justice Plan for Police Reform and Accountability.”  Among other recommendations, such as outfitting police officers with body cameras and a national comprehensive anti-racial profiling law, we advocated comprehensive retraining of all police officers.  We understood then, as we do now, that without addressing implicit racial bias, there is no policing tactic or theory that will change the status quo of law enforcement in Black and Brown neighborhoods.

Comey’s other policy recommendations, including the better and wider collection of data in police-involved shootings and increasing the dialogue between police and the communities they serve, are also initiatives that we put forward in our 10-Point Plan.  The plan also called for the implementation of a 21st century community policing model as well as mandatory, uniform FBI reporting and audit of lethal force incidents involving all law enforcement.

While our nation’s conversation on race relations both within and beyond the borders of law enforcement is one we have engaged in for decades, Comey’s voice and ideas are welcome ones in the ongoing fight for racial equality and justice.  But, of course, we need more than voices or ideas; we need a real commitment to policy change that trickles down to police academies, precincts and sheriffs’ offices around this nation.

America is at a crossroads.  We can choose to face and change the legacy of distrust of law enforcement in communities of color and vice versa.  We can choose to heal the wounds of that legacy and promote dialogue within these communities and with those charged with their protection.  As Comey concluded, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.”

Feb. 22, 2015

Blackonomics

Fifty Years of Economic Futility    
By James Clingman          

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - During the fifty year period from 1963 (“I have a dream!”) to 2013, Black people have been on a virtual economic treadmill.  Our relative economic position has not changed; our unemployment rate has consistently been twice as high as the White unemployment rate, which was 5% for Whites and 10.9% for Blacks in 1963, and today it's 6.6% for Whites and 12.6% for Blacks.  Our aggregate annual income is $1.1 trillion, but it’s not what you earn; it’s what you’re worth: The typical White family had $134,200 in wealth in 2013, while Black families had $11,000, lower too than Hispanic families, at $13,700.

The U.S. has a $17.7 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the world’s largest economy.  The total Gross Domestic Income (GDI), which some economists say is a better measure of an economy, was $9.3 trillion as of the 4^th quarter of 2014.  A recent Pew Research study indicates that the financial gap between Blacks and Whites is the highest it's been since 1989.  In 2010, the median wealth of white households was eight times higher than blacks; now it’s seventeen times higher.  The African-American economy, by either measure, GDP or GDI, despite reports of robust economic growth, remains mired in a recession.

You awake yet?  So what can we do about it?  Please.  Don’t take that fatal leap of faith in thinking the “guvment” will take care of it.  They are too busy counting our income as a huge part of GDP, because we spend nearly all of our $1.1 trillion on goods and services, which comprise 70% of GDP.

We must extrapolate a logical and appropriate response to the above information.  All the reports in the world will do us no good if we fail to learn from them and then act upon what we know.  After that, we must do our part as individuals to contribute to the collective economic/political uplift of our people and future generations.

What do we have, as individuals, to contribute to our economic and political success?  We have votes and we have dollars; and if we cast our votes with leverage and spend our dollars strategically we can achieve parity.  Let’s face it, to chase the illusion of economic “equality,” via income and wealth, will only keep us diverted from setting practical and achievable goals.

MLK was partially correct when he posited that by obtaining employment in White corporations and using either strategic consumption or boycotts as leverage, Blacks could secure economic equality, just as we had secured civil rights.  He was right about the leverage of our dollars, but wrong about the result of us getting jobs in corporate America. The above statistics prove that.  Chasing equality instead of parity is futile, in that we are always chasing someone else’s standard, a standard that can be elevated at any time, thus never to be attained by the pursuer.

We must use our own intellectual and financial capacity to change our shameful and static economic position in this nation since MLK spoke in 1963.  Fifty years of chasing an illusion are enough?  We squandered our economic base and abdicated our personal economic responsibility when we abandoned our businesses to buy from others.  We gave in to the notion that we could be equal if we elected Black folks to political office.  So it’s up to us to admit those near fatal mistakes and work together to rectify them by pooling our resources, locally and nationally, and growing our businesses to the point where they can hire our own people.

We must gather enough conscious independent-thinking voters who will cast their votes as a bloc for the candidate that supports our best interests.  Enough with the pre-election condescending rhetoric, kissing our babies, and coming to our churches at election time; they must explicitly state their support of our issues and follow through on that support.  If we cannot win, why play?

We must save more money, irrespective of how much or how little we have.  We must own property, or at least rent from one another.  Blacks collectively lost between $164 billion and $213 billion in housing wealth as a result of sub-prime debacle.  (And we are seeking “wealth equality”?)  Therefore, we must also invest in stocks, and not tie all of our assets to real estate.  We must find ways to decrease or eliminate our reliance on college loans, which will be a generational albatross around the necks of our youth, their parents, and even grandparents.  And while we are at it, we should be petitioning the “guvment” for a massive student loan bailout.  You know, the way the banks got bailed out of their debt.

Finally, go to www.iamoneofthemillion.com and sign up, and let’s get on the road to true freedom.