By Dedrick Muhammad, Sr. 

Dedrick Muhammad

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It’s May, which means the end of the school year is near. Many youth and young adults (and probably most parents) are pondering the question, “What will I do (with my child) this summer?” Popular options include vacationing and spending time with friends. But, youth and young adults should also use the summer to begin securing their financial future.

Whether it’s a summer job, internship and/or volunteering, encouraging youth to commit to a project that develops and strengthens their workplace skills and competencies is more important than ever. The immediate gains – money and a sense of responsibility –  are important; but even more crucial are the long-term economic benefits of establishing a work pattern between the ages of 16 – 24.

Since the early 2000’s, the youth employment rate for young adults, ages 16-24 has steadily climed, particularly in African-American and Latino communities.  The consequences are long-lasting as youth who experience unemployment at an early age have years of lower earnings and an increased likelihood of unemployment ahead of them.

With African American and Latino communities already experiencing disproportionately high rates of unemployment, its important to seize opportunities that position our youth to compete in a 21^st century global workforce.

Additionally, as youth begin to collect a steady paycheck, it’s fitting to teach them about solid money management habits and how to make informed financial decisions.

There are several resources available to connect youth with exciting summer opportunities.  Below are a few to help you get started:

Summer Jobs+

Last year, the Obama Administration launched Summer Jobs+, a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth.  It’s website, Summer Jobs+ Bank, is a one-stop search tool for youth to access postings for any participating employers.

Youth Works Programs

Many cities (including Balitmore, Philadelphia and Los Angeles) offer summer youth employment programs that offer educationally enriched work opportunities to in-school and out of school youth primarily between the ages of 14-21. These programs challenge youth to develop work experience and skills sets while preparing them for potential college and career success.

Idealist

Idealist is an online portal that serves as one of the best places to find volunteer opportunities, nonprofit jobs and internships.  It also has a career center, which offers tips for job searching, developing a compelling application, interviewing and closing the deal.

Serve.Gov.

Serve.Gov is an online portal to identify and sign up for service projects nationwide. Volunteering is a great way to explore interests, gain experience, and make new networking connections that can potentially lead to a job.

Guidance Counselors/Career Development Offices

Make sure to utilize the resources in your own backyard. Whether in high school or college, guidance counselors and career development offices have a wealth of resources and relationships that may get youth and young adults one step closer to landing that dream summer job or opportunity.

Dedrick Muhammad is the senior director of the NAACP Economic Programs. To learn more about preventing foreclosure and personal finance, check out the NAACP Financial Freedom Center Facebook Page or on Twitter @naacpecon.

To Be Equal

By Marc Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are…for all the land that you see I will give to you.” Genesis 13: 14-15

University commencement season is a time of high hopes and great celebration.  I was again reminded of that this past Saturday when I delivered the commencement address at Huston-Tillotson (HT) University in Austin, Texas.  This coming weekend, I will also speak during graduation ceremonies at Tuskegee University and Alcorn State.  

Perhaps best known as the university where Jackie Robinson served as athletic director and basketball coach before he set out to break the color barrier in baseball, Huston-Tillotson is the oldest Historically Black College and University (HBCU) west of the Mississippi.  For 137 years, it has opened doors of educational opportunity that might have otherwise been closed to many African American students.   The enthusiasm and optimism I saw in the faces of this year’s HT graduates – and that I expect to see at Tuskegee and Alcorn – reaffirmed my belief that the future is indeed in good hands.

My message to the graduates was simply to make sure that in addition to emerging from college academically prepared, they should also embrace their obligation to pave the way for the next generation and leave this world better than they found it.  I am all too aware that this is easier said than done.  So, I also shared three key observations, or better yet life lessons, to help them navigate this next phase of their journey.  I call them the three C’s – courage, choice and compassion.

The class of 2013 is graduating at a pivotal moment in American history.  Fifty years ago, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King shared his passionate dream that America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.  That same year four little Black girls were killed by a terrorist bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, and civil rights hero Medgar Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.  Now 50 years later, we have witnessed the second inauguration of the nation’s first Black president.  As I told the HT graduates, we’ve come a long way baby, but we still have a long way to go.

While many of the legal impediments to equal opportunity have been eliminated over the past half-century, new challenges including voter suppression, criminal justice abuses, economic inequality and opposition to common sense gun safety legislation, have risen to take their place.  All of these problems will require this generation of graduates to muster the kind of courage shown by people like Jackie Robinson, Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and National Urban Leaguer Heman Sweatt, who fought the battle to integrate the University of Texas in 1950.  

They each found the courage and made the choice to devote themselves to a cause greater than themselves.  They each demonstrated the kind of compassion required to act beyond individual interests and clear obstacle-laden paths so that those who followed could have better opportunities.  The baton is now passing to a new generation, and I have no doubt they will rise to the challenge.  

The National Urban League has always engaged young people in our empowerment movement.  For more than 40 years, our Black Executive Exchange Program (BEEP) has been cultivating new leaders and inspiring achievement by enabling African American students to interface and network with African American business professionals to prepare for careers in corporate America.  In addition, the National Urban League Young Professionals (NULYP) engages young professionals ages 21-40 in voluntarism and philanthropy to empower their communities and change lives.

Many of today’s HBCU graduates have been touched by those and similar efforts.  We expect that they will use the blueprint of courage, choice and compassion summoned and shown by so many before them.  We expect that they will pass it on and choose to serve.

By Hazel Trice Edney

President Barack Obama is reflected in a mirror talking with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough before speaking at the commencement ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. May 19. A painting of the President stands in the foreground. PHOTO: Pete Souza/The White House

Morehouse class of 2013 is caught in the rain, but still reacts to President Obama's speech. PHOTO: The White House

President Obama speaks to graduates at Morehouse College. PHOTO: The White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The 2013 Morehouse College Commencement theme, “Keeping Our Focus,” defined by the university’s President John Wilson as attending to important matters “to the exclusion of distractions” appears to also describe the strategy employed by its graduation speaker – President Barack Obama.

With Washington scandals raging in the background, Obama focused keenly on the crucial challenges of the economy and jobs in America. In Sunday’s speech, he told the graduates at the Atlanta-based university that his job is to push for domestic policies that will make life better for them and everyone else.

“There’re places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell,” he told the class of all males.

He continued, “My job, as President, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody - policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class; policies that create more good jobs and reduce poverty, and educate more children, and give more families the security of health care, and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence.  That's my job.  Those are matters of public policy, and it is important for all of us - black, white and brown - to advocate for an America where everybody has got a fair shot in life.  Not just some.  Not just a few,” he said to rousing applause.

Those applause appear to reflect rising approval of the way the President is doing his job. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation International survey, conducted over the weekend, showed his job performance disapproval at 45 percent, but performance approval at 53 percent, rising from 51 percent just last month. The poll was in sync with a Gallop poll conducted about the same time, which also showed rising approval for the way the President is handling his job.

In his fifth year, President Obama is facing the biggest scandals of his administration, drawing wide spread scrutiny and Congressional hearings. Those controversies include the targeting by the Internal Revenue Service of Tea Party and other conservative groups as they applied for tax exempt status; continuing questions about how the Obama administration handled the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S ambassador and three other Americans; and -  most recently - scrutiny over the secret collection of Associated Press phone records as part of a government probe into leaks of classified information.

The President has not ignored the scandals, but he appears to be keeping his distance and only addressing the issues as necessary while allowing investigating agencies, including Congressional committees, to do their jobs. Though the IRS and Associate Press controversies appear to have drawn bi-partisan outrage, Republican law makers and pundits made rounds on Sunday talk shows with specific criticism of the Obama Administration.

Meanwhile, at Morehouse’s rainy graduation, his second spring commencement address after Ohio State earlier this month, the President appeared to enjoy a love fest of support in a comfortable home base of African-Americans at the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He welcomed the opportunity to hit home his domestic policy agenda and encourage the graduates to change their communities for the better.

“I love you!” a voice rose from the audience as the President settled at the podium.

“I love you back. That’s why I’m here,” he responded.

He continued in a light moment, drawing laughter from the audience: “I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts, in their Sunday best - although they are upset about their hair getting messed up. Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. She has taught me about hair.”

He concluded, “It will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates… but rather honest men, men who can be trusted in public and private life - men who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.”

He named great men who graduated from Morehouse and went on to become powerful and impactful leaders. Most are household names including Dr. King, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, entrepreneurial leader and educator Booker T. Washington, political scientist Ralph Bunche, writer Langston Hughes, inventor George Washington Carver, civil rights icon Ralph Abernathy, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and film maker Spike Lee.

“These men were many things to many people.  And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives.  But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses,” the President said. “That’s what we’ve come to expect from you, Morehouse - a legacy of leaders - not just in our Black community, but for the entire American community. “

By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When Beyonce Knowles sang the Etta James song “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, the song could have had several meanings.  At last we have an African-American President?  At last, the muscle of the Black vote has been flexed?  At last, there is some hope for our country to come together with the mantra “Yes We Can”.

Watching the President and First Lady Michelle Obama slow dance to the romantic standard reminded us that African- American families have not often been positively depicted.  This attractive image of an intact Black family had come “At Last”. Thus, the song was symbolic of what many folks, and especially African-Americans, believed about the Obama Presidency.  

Some of us blindly believed that with an African-American president opportunity had come “At Last”.  Some believed it so fervently that the least criticism of President Obama, no matter how mild and how lovingly conveyed, could cause you to be run out of the race.  An alumnus of Morehouse College, Rev. Kevin Johnson, the selected baccalaureate speaker at his alma mater, wrote an opinion piece that was mildly critical of President Obama.  As a result, former White House and new Morehouse President John S. Wilson, Jr. changed the format of baccalaureate to a panel, not one speaker, as is customary.  

The purpose of baccalaureate is to have one speaker to focus on the spiritual dimensions of graduation. There is no way that Rev. Johnson would deliver a political speech. Still, he was essentially disinvited from the baccalaureate because of his views.

President Obama is the President of the United States of America, not the President of Black America.  Yet, it seems that African-Americans have been kicked to the curb in terms of focus and attention.  Other groups – the LGBT community, the Latino community – have been mentioned explicitly.  However, on African-American issues, our President has been silent.

Now, some African-American people are crooning “At Last”. Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Transportation.  If confirmed, Mayor Foxx, an outstanding an eminently qualified candidate would join Attorney General Eric Holder as the second African-American to serve in the cabinet.

Similarly, the nomination of Congressman Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency is a step forward.  FHFA regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allows Congressman Watt the opportunity to implement some of the Obama initiatives about homeowner recovery from the Great Recession. The raging right has already come after Congressman Watt.  The Daily Caller (a political blog) has reported an unsubstantiated claim by former Presidential candidate Ralph Nader that the Congressman disrespected him in a letter.  Nader has never produced the letter.  Thus, the purpose of the claim is to besmirch FHFA nominee Congressman Mel Watt.

If Watt is confirmed, this represents a step forward for both President Obama and for African-American people, and for the entire nation.   The issue is, of course, confirmation.  Will the White House be able to garner the votes Watt needs to be confirmed?  

What does the White House gain or lose if Watt is not confirmed. The “At Last” segment of the African-American community will credit the President for making the nomination, even if not confirmed.  The more critical segment of the African-American community will view the ways the White House embraces this nominee, and question commitment.  Ask UN Ambassador Susan Rice what it feels like to be dropped, when Senate confirmation seemed unlikely.

During President Obama’s first term, his inattention to the African-American community was understandable, though not acceptable. He was busy straddling lines, generating compromise, and leaving a legacy of health care reform.  African- Americans were patient in the hope that “at last” African-Americans would get recognition in his second term.  After all, as a lame duck President, he has much to gain, and little to lose in rewarding his most loyal constituency.  At last some of us have our disappointment confirmed.  Our President’s inaugural speech mentioned every community except the African-American community.

President Obama and his supporters should not be thin-skinned. Philadelphia’s Rev. Kevin Johnson should not be “disinvited” from the Morehouse baccalaureate.  Nor should a panel dilute his message when the tradition is to have a sole speaker.  Johnson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College, who deserves to be treated with respect.  His column pointed out realities – President Clinton appointed seven African-Americans to his cabinet, President Bush, four, and President Obama, just one.  Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, in a letter to President Obama, wrote, “The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity."  

Are the Foxx and Watt appointments a response to criticism?  Based on their appointments, should Black folks sing “at last” or “not yet”?