Tag: Black Boys in Crisis Series

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. Psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair is the author of The Big Disconnect, a book about technology use and children. She says, “If kids are allowed to play ‘Candy Crush’ on the way to school, the car ride will be quiet, but that’s not what kids need. They need time to daydream, deal with anxieties, process their thoughts and share them with parents.” She continues: “Children have to know that …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: Switching Off the Screens”

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. Recently, a spate of videos surfaced on YouTube and elsewhere by people purporting to prove that the Earth is flat. Among those beguiled by the videos was successful rapper Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr., who goes by the stage name B.O.B. He posted tweets and photographs repeating some of the faulty logic used by the flat-Earthers. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist who hosts the show Cosmos, took B.O.B. …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: Championing Intellectual Personalities”

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. One of the most drastic changes in the last two decades has been the digital revolution. This has transformed the American economic landscape, leading to an explosion of jobs in the digital sector and wonders such as the Internet and smartphone. However, though the Internet has certainly improved the dissemination of information, the digital revolution has also had a detrimental effect on intellectualism. I am not one …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: The Technology Vortex”

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. African-Americans are the most religious ethnic group in America. The Pew Research Center states that “African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the US population as a whole, including the level of affiliation with religion, attendance at religious services, the frequency of prayer and religion’s importance in life.” Most African Americans (around 78 percent) are Protestant, and most of those belong to historically …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: The Abuse of Religion”

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. As they have in sports, African Americans have had an outsized impact on the American entertainment industry. Much of what we currently recognize as popular music stems directly from African-American roots: from blues, gospel, and jazz emerged rock ‘n’ roll, disco, and everything in between. In fact, many of the early popular music legends, including Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin, were co-opting African-American musicians’ work. The rise …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: Avoiding the Entertainment Trap”

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. The adulation of athletes is common throughout the United States but approaches religious fervor in many African-American communities. Part of the reason for this is that a majority of athletes in certain sports are black. For example, nearly three-quarters of players in the National Basketball Association are black. The percentage in the NFL is just under 70 percent. Young people today may not remember the phrase “Be …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: Everyone Wants to “Be Like Mike””

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis. After-school programs are also effective at reducing the impact poverty, and race have on academic achievement. The Afterschool Alliance, an organization aimed at educating the public on the importance of high-quality after-school programs, has compiled numerous statistics and examples of programs that work. Here are a few examples of successful programs from around the United States: When compared to students not participating in the program, students enrolled …

Continue reading “Black Boys in Crisis: Do After-School Programs Work?”