WP: Study Aims at Improving Prospects for Minority Men: Health,Ed,Justice

[DeepModem Mom]

Study Aims at Improving Prospects for Minority Men
Panel Considers Issues of Health, Education, Justice

By Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page B08


The group of academics, community leaders and politicians had gathered at Howard University to dig through statistics, review public policy and hear from people about how best to improve the "life options" of young black, Hispanic and Native American men.

But when a professor from California said Prince George's County was tops in the nation at graduating black men, there were groans from the audience. In case their meaning wasn't clear, former member of Congress Ronald Dellums (D-Calif.) told the speaker, "They don't believe you."

The exchange was part of the first public meeting of a national commission investigating three decades of policies that Dellums said have landed young men of color at the top of all the wrong lists. They perform poorly in school even when their backgrounds are the same as their white counterparts and are overrepresented in jails and juvenile detention centers. And those in attendance weren't buying any statistics their experience belied.

Neither schools, churches, jails nor community groups have found an answer, which led the Joint Center Health Policy Institute to launch the study, said Dellums, who spent 27 years in Congress and has lent the commission his name. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is underwriting the effort....

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The commission of judges, ministers, politicians, academics and community organizers plans a series of meetings across the country to gather information before producing recommendations next year. Its official charge is to analyze the impact of policies, particularly those on education and criminal justice, on the "physical, emotional and social health" of young men. Dellums, who was trained as a social worker, said he has no interest in perpetuating myths or advancing conspiracy theories....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601739.html