ORLANDO, Fla – Raising black boys to be successful in a society dominated by forces that are bent on breaking them instead of nurturing them can be tough.

And not just for those black boys born to poor single mothers.

Filmmakers Michele Stephenson and her husband, Joe Brewster – two successful, Ivy League-educated parents – documented their own struggle in ensuring the academic success of their son, Idris, through Manhattan’s prestigious Dalton School in their documentary film, “American Promise.”

The film, which will be shown on PBS in its entirety in the fall, was produced as part of its POV, or Point Of View, division which specializes in showcasing small, independent, non-fiction films about the American experience.

In “American Promise,” which was previewed recently at the National Association of Black Journalists’ Convention in Orlando, Stephenson and Brewster follow their son, Idris, and another black male student, Seun, from their sixth…

In the classroom, Black children can often be treated like second class citizens.

I learned the hard way that often times when our children are reporting to us with conflict or having “issues” with their teachers, we as parents ought to believe them. Here’s why, many teachers simply do not have the wherewithal to effectively deal with the cultural differences that naturally exists between themselves and their students. After all, teachers are only people;  Mere mortals and life can condition them to have prejudices and preconceived notions about Black people just like anyone else. However, when this spills over into the classroom, teacher-student conflict can easily contaminate the learning environment.

This is why I believe that discipline is of the utmost importance. A well behaved student can make the difference in how the teacher relates to him, her and their peers. When our children are not busy living up to…

Recently a friend was ranting to me about a segment of The O’Reilly Factor he had watched, where a conservative African-American radio talk show host, David Webb, was commenting in agreement with O’Reilly on the George Zimmerman fiasco verdict. My friend made the statement that Webb was a nothing but a “white man in black skin”. 

He then went on to inform me of a survey he had seen which stated that 70% of white people in America agreed with the verdict. I asked him, how many black people did he guesstimate also agreed with the verdict. The question caught him off guard and he struggled to answer… “maybe 1%”. I told him it was probably closer to 70% than 1%.

I also told him I totally disagreed with his categorizing of Webb and that he was indeed a “black man in black skin”. There is one group of people who hate poor black people more than…

As a new school year fast approaches, I’ll be posting articles which may help students and parents get ready to put their best feet forward this September. Although anyone can learn from this particular post, I emphasize that this is for Black students simply because of the reality.  Expectations for Black students reading and writing abilities are much lower than the median for their non-Black counterparts. That’s it folks. In terms of literacy, our children are expected to naturally fare worse than their peers. I want to change this phenomenon.  

Even without formal instruction, young learners will gradually learn the correct structures and rules of the English language. When a child is learning to read, they may use a variety of strategies to decode and understand the text but, in accepting this rule, we are first assuming that the student already has a good “grasp” of the English…