An op-ed in today’s Baltimore Sun sings the praises of President Barack Obama’s new “My Brother’s Keeper” task force, which he created by signing a presidential memo recently. “There are a lot of kids out there who need help, who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?” the president asked on the program’s website.
C. Diane Wallace Booker, the executive director of US Dream Academy Inc, a national non-profit based in Columbia, Md., serving children of incarcerated parents and children falling behind in school, begins her piece:
“I don’t want to survive, I want to live.”
These powerful words spoken by the character of Solomon Northup in the Oscar winning movie “12 Years A Slave” echoed in my mind as I sat in the East Room of the White House this winter and heard President Barack Obama unveil the promise of what the My Brother’s Keeper initiative can do for boys and young men of color: provide the opportunity to thrive, not just survive.
She adds that if the initiative is done correctly, it can change lives, especially for “young boys and girls of color in high-risk communities across this country.” She concludes, “I know the power and freedom this expanded view of life gives to our young people. Their adult lives, once assumed to end in warehouses of imprisoned souls and lost potential, are redirected to dreams of entrepreneurship, community leadership, and healthy families.”
The data breaks our heart: Boys and young men of color, regardless of where they come from, are disproportionately at risk from their youngest years through college and the early stages of their professional lives. By fourth grade, 86 percent of African-American boys and 82 percent of Hispanic boys are reading below proficiency levels, compared to 54 percent of white fourth graders reading below proficiency levels. African-American and Hispanic young men are more than six times as likely to be victims of murder than their white peers and account for almost half of the country’s murder victims each year.
But to read Ms Wallace Booker’s op-ed, there’s hope that black kids growing up surrounded by negative influences, such as people constantly telling them they can’t succeed, will be replaced by communities with resources that give them a chance not only to survive but to thrive. Working through local organizations, which draw on national resources, My Brother’s Keeper and groups like the US Dream Academy can help get those resources out to disadvantaged communities and students.