WASHINGTON (Akiit.com) – Black people in America had less health care last year than they did in 2005 and they remained at the economic rock bottom of America – also below Hispanic-Americans.

According to a report released Tuesday by the U. S. Census Bureau, the median household incomes for Black families remained last year at $32,000, the same as it was in 2005. That’s $5,800 less than Hispanic families, which remained at $37,800 and $20,400 less than White families, which remained at $52,400.

Poverty rates in 2006 were no better for African-Americans.

While the poverty rate decreased by 1. 2 percent for Hispanic-Americans (21.8 to 20.6); poverty rates remained statically unchanged for Whites, 8.2 percent; or for Blacks at 24.3 percent. Poverty rates for Blacks in 2006 were 3.7 percent higher than Hispanic-Americans and 16.1 percent higher than Whites.

The annual report, based on compilations of 2006 data is called “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006.”

Economists say it’s America as usual.

“The data are just not surprising. You don’t even have to see the data to know that African-American people are at the bottom. All you have to do is walk a neighborhood to see the number of unemployed,” says economist Julianne Malveaux, president of Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C. “In my position, I literally see the result of us being at the bottom in terms of how my students struggle with issues around financial aid. You have so many who in April when they filled out financial aid applications, their parents had good jobs. In August by the time they come to school, their parents may have lost their jobs.”
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) Helping African American males succeed in urban schools can seem like an intractable problem, but applying some basic principles that empower teachers and students is a key part of the answer, finds Vanderbilt University education researcher H. Richard Milner. In a new article in the journal Theory Into Practice, he argues that teachers and school leaders must move beyond making excuses to turn around failing schools.

“Many black males have been what I call kidnapped into believing that they are inferior and unable to succeed in school,” Milner said. “Teachers have these same misconceptions, and it spills over into their teaching. Both teachers and students need to develop positive images of these students’ abilities to realize how bright their futures can be.”

Milner outlines five key principles that he has found through his research and personal experience as a teacher and a student that teachers can use, regardless of the situation the student is facing outside of the classroom, to “teach and empower” students and to help them succeed. Under Milner’s principles, teachers and students:
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) Back to School: The First ‘R’ / Race

Seven members of the monthly reading group Sisters That Are Readers (STARS) gather at the Homewood Library. Clockwise from bottom left, are Nichole Jordan, M. Gayle Moss, Mercedes Taylor, Velma Harris, Denice Coker, Vivian Shelton and Donna Stilo.

When it comes to reading, race can matter.

A young black male has a better chance of getting teased for reading books instead of playing sports. Black children are less likely to have parents who read to them at an early age and expose them to books.

Until recently, black adults were largely ignored by some book publishers who believed black people don’t read books. And many black people had not been reading books because there were fewer books on the market that appealed to them.

“The racial disparity in reading is a reflection of the differences in the kinds of backgrounds that children enjoy,” said Helen Faison, director of the Pittsburgh Teachers Institute at Chatham University.

“We have to surround children early on with reading,” Ms. Faison said. “You have to create an environment where books are everywhere.”

The audience for black readers has grown, but it seems black women represent the larger reading population among blacks.

As an African-American novelist, Brandon Massey is part of a small cadre of writers who earn a livelihood spinning suspense thrillers that appeal to black people who enjoy fiction.

While the main characters in his novels are black men, his audience, for the most part, is black women.
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) It would seem a daunting task to step out of the shadow of a man known to his fellow countrymen as “the black president.” But Femi Kuti, son of Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, has managed to embrace his father’s legacy while rising to stardom in his own right. Combining his father’s funk- and jazz-infused African highlife music with elements of dance and the occasional house beat, Femi has helped bring Afrobeat into the 21st century — collaborating with the likes of Mos Def, Common and Macy Gray, among others.

Ten years after his father’s death from AIDS, the 46-year-old singer/sax player continues to live and raise his family in Lagos, the Nigerian capital. He’s reopened his father’s legendary nightclub, the Shrine, which was shut down by the government in the 1980s, and plays free shows several nights a week.

Though politically active like his father, Femi has recently taken a Bob Dylan–like retreat from public life — eschewing overt political action in favor of spending time with his family and letting his music speak for him. This comes in the wake of years of public proclamations against democracy — a position no doubt birthed by the election of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. A former Nigerian military dictator known for brutally squashing political dissent, Obasanjo routinely harassed and arrested Femi’s father for his political activity during the 1970s, and his soldiers were responsible for the murder of Femi’s grandmother.
Read The Full Story…

NEW ORLEANS – (Akiit.com) Black contractors on Tuesday said they have been frozen out of the rebuilding of this city because federal agencies continue to dole out millions of dollars to large corporations.

At a news conference, the local chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors called on Congress and federal prosecutors to investigate the contracting practices of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The group also said they may resort to protests to get their message out.

“There’s something wrong with this cozy relationship between the Army Corps and major corporations,” said Ernest Stalberte, an association board member.

Stalberte delivered his remarks in a parking lot in a hard-hit part of New Orleans and he was surrounded by large digging and dirt-moving equipment brought in by black construction companies to show off their companies’ prowess.
Read The Full Story…