Innovative policies are essential to save men who are at risk

08-17-2011

Opinion by Angela Glover Blackwell and Maria Echaveste/Sacramento Bee

Angela Glover Blackwell is founder and CEO of PolicyLink and co-author of “Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future.” Maria Echaveste is co-founder of the Nueva Vista Group and former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.

Will he fall victim to random violence? Be enticed by street life? Detained, without merit, by police? Will low expectations and lack of opportunity quash what would have been a lifelong pursuit of his dreams or sentence him – and his family – to a lifetime of poverty, frustration and depression? For Latina and African American mothers, and many families across California, that is a short list of the heartrending, 24/7 worries over the present and future of young Latino and African American males. Testimony today before the California Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color will flesh out the urgent facts fueling those widely shared fears and concerns. It will also highlight promising initiatives already under way as the nation increasingly rethinks and reframes how to guide a disproportionately marginalized male population into the mainstream. Drawing on the varied expertise of advocates who've been focused on helping males of color, the Assembly committee will take up an array of issues: (more...)

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