State of Black America 2007: Profile of the Black Male

by Barack Obama and Stephanie Jones

According to the 2007 National Urban League Equality Index, although many black men are doing well, glaring economic and other gaps continue to exist between them and their white counterparts. Because... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0931761859
• ISBN13: 9780931761850
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Beckham Publications Group
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.6" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

WAKE UP PEOPLE - DO SOMETHING!!!

THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA takes up the challenges facing the African American community, provides the startling statistics while giving suggestions for improvement. Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama eloquently acknowledges the problems that the African American community faces while pledging to embark on the journey of solutions with all concerned. The National Urban League provides readers with a detailed easy-to-read dissection of the Equality Index. This index complies data from economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement. The essays are eye-opening and poignant focusing on the Black male, college completion, foster care, affirmative action and much more. Some of today's leading scholars offer insight in the following areas: Cradle to Prison Pipeline, Breaking the Hip Hop Hold and Universal Fatherhood. The prescription for change includes universal early childhood education, changing the current public school models, offering 2nd chances to ex-offenders and high school drop outs, reinforcing the idea that education pays and restoring the Federal summer job program. The book closes with a section honoring those influential African Americans that recently left to be with the Lord, profiling the authors of the text, and detailing a history of the National Urban League. THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA is a must read for everyone interested in changing the current course American has taken. The statistics will leave you asking why didn't I know that and will empower you to take action. Even though the reading is scholarly in nature, the everyday reader will enjoy the flow of the book. You owe it to your family, your church, and your community to change one life at a time - start today! Deltareviewer Reviewing for Real Page Turners

An Important Read.

"America has done a disastrous thing, a thing which the war enterprise in Iraq will throw its shadow over our economic life for a generation. A thing which created a national embarrassment to the people of this great nation in the way our government responded to the before math and aftermath of hurricane Katrina". -Unknown With the Equality Index, I would have liked to have seen other races besides whites stacked up in this picture also. This is not a white only country or world. I found the statistics in this book or report to be at times fractionary. The Social Justice gap desperately needs narrowing. Blacks need to stop killing each other. We are annihilating our own race. If we don't manage our race better we will experience the same social and financial tragedies as the Native American Indians. Due to shorter life expectancy, least educated, high incarceration levels, black men will divert black women to consider more bi-racial relationships. Blacks can increase leadership positions through Union hubs. Ted Kennedy's reintroducing of the Employee Free Choice Act continues to reaffirm that feat. Unions were fundamental in building America's middle class, and they have a vital role today in preserving the American dream for working families. Union wages are 30 percent higher than non-union wages. In 2005 alone, more than 30,000 workers were illegally fired or retaliated against for attempting to exercise their right to have a union in their workplace. Every 17 minutes, a worker is fired or punished in some illegal way for supporting a union. (I PROVIDED SOME ADDITIONAL DETAILS) THE SECOND CHANCE ACT: The House Bill (H.R. 1704 or 1593) focuses on four areas: Jobs, Housing, Substance abuse/Mental Health Treatment, and Families. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, expenditures on corrections alone are costing taxpayers over $44 billion a year. Carlie's Law needs to be amended to reflect minor's under the age of 18 not 16. Just to re-echo some statistics, there are roughly two million people in America's prisons and jails. That's more people proportionately than we would find in prison in China or in Russia or any other countries that we often talk about human rights violations. The facts are clear that meaningful reentry programs significantly diminish the chances that ex-offenders will return to prison. There are roughly three to five thousand inmates per 100,000 thousand population in our inner cities across America. The Second Chance Act is basically a program that can pay for itself. The community reentry program run by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries of Ohio stands by their motto of that " people are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than think their way into a new way of acting". Provisions of Second Chance Act: There are over 3,200 jails throughout the United States. (That number far exceeds the amount of colleges and universities). According to the National Institute of Liter