Introduction from Marcus Littles

With the Supreme Court back in session in October, we chose to ask national race and gender consultant Alvin Starks to write our cover story on African American men and structural social justice. We also have a profile of Tina Gridiron Smith’s work with the Lumina Foundation and their collective effort to address the education gap through a racial lens. And I report on a recent convening of Kellogg’s newest grantmaking experts: young men of color.

Enjoy!

Marcus J. Littles
Chief Executive
Frontline Solutions




A Commentary: Addressing the Invisible Man in the Age of Obama: Bold Analysis for Transformative Justice

By Alvin Starks

        We all know that African American males are moving farther away from the American promise of opportunity, prosperity, and justice. A body of research and social service work over the last 10 years leads to this conclusion in stark and unsettling statistical detail.

        African American males face a unique construction of gendered racism in the 21st century that is deeply rooted in systemic conditions of poverty, employment segregation, political isolation, and failed academic and healthcare opportunities (and in ways both similar to and different from how black females experience racism). Ralph Ellison’s term invisible man still applies to African American males today, although civil rights laws have presented obstacles to the overt discrimination as it occurred in the early 50s, when he wrote the book of the same name. A generation of invisible men has grown as vulnerable and unable to participate in our changing democracy as they have at any time since the civil rights era. Social justice philanthropists need to introduce a radical, justice-based intervention that will incorporate the wellbeing of African American males into America’s larger values of human rights, collective prosperity, and social justice reform.

        The times are ripe with opportunity. Since the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama, our nation has witnessed a significant shift in its political ideals, values, and aspirations. Without a doubt this represents an important achievement. However, there is still much to be done to promote the American dream of equality and freedom for African American males.

        America is split on how to define the need. According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center¹, as much as 53 percent of Americans believe the country is making progress on discrimination against minorities. Our nation’s current view of social equity overlooks many black communities that are living in poor conditions than most other communities. Much of the nation doesn’t see the effects of larger systemic policies that suppress opportunity for African American males. This ignorance inspires a belief that African American males are exclusively responsible for their fate in society, a racial pathology of deserved consequences.

        But the socio-economic statistics do not lie: African Americans males—invisible men—are suffering in prisons, in school, in the workplace, and in their homes at a far greater rate than can be explained by statistical aberrations or any explanation that excludes discrimination and its effects. Of course challenges exist within the black community. But, as scholar John A. Powell reminds us, “Our strategies must be both/and rather than either/or. The problems of black America are not grounded in black communities alone, but in the American community as a whole.”

        In the 60s Jim Crow, segregation, and discriminatory laws subjected African Americans to overt forms of racism that were easily defined. But in the “post-civil rights era,” the structural dynamics of race, gender, and class aren’t as directly visible. A structural racism analysis reveals the long-term historic and political effects of racial discrimination have created enduring systemic inequities that reinforce the disparities within our society². The global economy, Supreme Court rulings, education reform, the mortgage loan crisis, the distribution of the stimulus package, healthcare reform, comprehensive immigration reform, and the green economy are all significant systemic forces that affect African American males’ ability to become part of the larger American vision of prosperity and equality.

        It is a responsibility of social justice philanthropists, by definition, to address these structural forces and the resulting inequities, which require long-term social investments to produce results. We in philanthropy and as advocates respond must undergo a thoughtful and multidisciplinary approach towards transformation. We need strategic coordination for addressing black communities and must develop significant national and grassroots institutions and leaders that inspire a renewed vision of just what will bring opportunities for African American males, who have been left out of society’s prosperity. We must show the nation how the conditions facing African American males and their communities are a symptom of a larger social fate. Let’s make visible America’s invisible men.

¹Americans Assess Progress on National Problems: GAINS SEEN ON MINORITY DISCRIMINATION - BUT LITTLE ELSE, The Pew Research Center for the People and Press, printed January 2009. Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates among a nationwide sample of 1,489 adults, 18 years of age or older, from December 3-7, 2008. (1,126 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 363 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 138 who had no landline telephone). Both the landline and cell phone samples were provided by Survey Sampling Int'll.

²For instance, according to the Lewis Mumford Center, the mean incomes of blacks and Hispanics are $15,000-$18,000 less than white Americans, and while 9.1 percent of whites live below the poverty line, 24.9 percent Blacks and 22.6 percent Latinos live below the poverty line. Hidden by these numbers are the policies, practices, and institutional arrangements and behaviors that maintain this regime of racialized inequity and subvert efforts to eliminate poverty for all Americans. There is no question that present-day discrimination against African American communities exists and new paradigms of understanding racial inequities are needed to address the root causes of racial disparities faced within our nation.

Back to Top

Gridiron Smith and Lumina View Education Gap Through Racial Lens

By Paul Bachleitner

         Sixty percent of Americans will have high-quality college degrees and credentials by 2025 if Lumina Foundation’s next decade and a half of grantmaking is successful. The foundation’s ambitious goal targets students of all races, but Lumina Senior Program Officer Tina Gridiron Smith says it also presents an opportunity to address the educational achievement gap between students of color and white students.

        The gap and its effects are quite stark. According to a 2006 U.S. Department of Education report, the average graduation rate for whites is 18% greater than that of African Americans and 12% greater than that of Latinos. If the educational gap were narrowed or eliminated, higher earnings from better educated African Americans and Latinos would have increased the gross domestic product last year by up to $525 billion, according to an April study by McKinsey and Company.

        The gap’s impact reaches well beyond education and underscores the need to take action. “If we succeed about educating people of color, then they’re savvier about health, finding better jobs, and making better life choices,” Gridiron Smith said.

        In 2004, she and Lumina began applying a racial lens to their grantmaking. They awarded several exploratory grants that targeted the achievement of African American men, whose educational success has been more challenged than other racial or gender groups.

        Grants to the University System of Georgia’s African American Male Initiative increased college enrollment by African American men by 24.5% over a five-year period by offering specialized preparatory programs for the K-12 pipeline of students. Lumina also awarded a series of grants to the Students of African American Brotherhood (SAAB). SAAB consists of a peer-based mentoring and support network on campuses nationwide that has helped 86% of its members graduate from post-secondary institutions, an increase of over 30% from the national average.

        Lumina soon decided to widen its focus to target men of color, not just African American men. SAAB expanded to campuses with high populations of male Latinos, and the model was just as successful. SAAB now operates on 185 campuses and includes male Latinos as one of its targets. Lumina has also incorporated men of color into its existing programs, including Achieving the Dream, which helps community college students graduate and earn their credentials. Although the program isn’t race based, it provides leverage for Lumina’s work with men of color because they attend community colleges in higher proportions than four-year schools.

        “If we don’t act, we might reach our goal of 60% [of Americans receiving high-quality college degrees], but still see very negative results for men of color,” Gridiron Smith said. “We could be leaving out generations of men.”

Back to Top

Kellogg Backs Up Its Commitment to Young Men of Color

By Marcus Littles

        Last month, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation hosted a two-day convening in Chicago that discussed, strategized, and imagined ways for communities to remove structural barriers to opportunities for historically marginalized males. Aptly named “Young Men Rising” (YMR), the convening brought together 65 young men from across the country aged 16–24 of Asian, Pacific Islander, Native, Latino, Arab, African, and African American descent. The convening’s goal was to:

  1. Deepen the foundation’s knowledge and understanding of how to invest in strategies to alleviate disproportionately negative male outcomes in the areas of education, economic opportunity, the juvenile justice system, and health; and
  2. Provide a venue for young male leaders of color from diverse ethnicities, geographies, and experiences to develop working and personal relationships, participate in corporate community problem solving, and produce a set of messages about boys of color to share with the public sphere.

        Kellogg based YMR on an earlier convening in March that presented its new commitment to boys and men of color. Feedback from the nearly 100 academicians, activists, and organizational leaders in attendance suggested that Kellogg engage more young men of color as experts. YMR is Kellogg’s direct response. Input from the 65 participants will inform its grantmaking strategy and its institutional analysis.

        Perhaps most importantly, YMR allows Kellogg to tap into a pool of genius, leadership, and innovation from young men of color, a pool that philanthropy tends to overlook. YMR recognizes participants as experts, not merely subjects, and acknowledges them as a uniquely diverse and dynamic group of community leaders worthy of Kellogg’s commitment.

        Over the coming months, Kellogg will continue to share its learnings, the ideas and messages from these young men, and the next steps for investment in organizations, ideas, and people committed to racial equity.

Back to Top

New Resources:

Visit our Resources page for details on these and other reports, articles, and links

 

Back to Top