OPINION/ FORUM
The
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ERNEST H. Pitt Publisher/Co-Founder
ELAINE Pitt Business Manager
Michael A. Pitt Marketing
T. Kevin Walker Managing Editor
Save and Support
Black Colleges
Ben
Chavis
Guest
Columnist
The survival of Historically
Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) is at
stake. Today, more than ever
before, there is an urgent
necessity to stand up, speak
out, and let the voice and fun
damental interests of 45 mil
lion Black Americans be
heard. Education has always
been at the heart of our long
struggle for freedom, justice,
and equality. Proposed budget
cuts by the U.S. Congress will
put Historically Black
Colleges and Universities and
Predominantly Black
Institutions (PBls) in a severe
fiscal crisis.
On April 6 and 7 in
Washington, D.C., there will
be a much needed show of
force in support of HBCUs and
PBls on Capitol Hill. This is
an urgent call to action for stu
dents, parents, teachers,
administrators, ministers, lead
ers, activists, and the masses of
African Americans to turn out
in opposition to the proposed
budget cuts to our colleges and
universities. We have come
too far, struggled and worked
too hard, and sacrificed and
bled too much in the establish
ment of these vital academic
and career fulfillment institu
tions to now let the cold, damp
hands of political dereliction
snatch the fiscal life from our
colleges and universities.
Power concedes nothing
without a demand. There are
too many in the U.S. Congress
today who simply do not care
about the future sustainability
of African American institu
tions of higher learning. This
is not a case of political or
social ignorance. But. this is
another clear case of racial dis
criminatory triage cloaked
under the questionable guise of
fiscal restraint and deficit
reduction. We demand that the
U.S. Congress refrain from
cutting and gutting financial
support for HBCUs and PBls.
We join with the National
Association For Equal
Opportunity in Higher
Education (NAFEO), United
Negro College Fund (UNCF),
Thurgood Marshall College
Fund (TMCF), the
Congressional Black Caucus
(CBC), the Hip Hop Caucus,
the Hip-Hop Summit Action
Network (HSAN), and the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) to mobilize
national support to let the U.S.
Congress know that funding
for our colleges and universi
ties should not be cut.
Dr. Lezli Baskerville, the
President and CEO of
NAFEO, urged, "We need you
to join us in D C. and help us
educate Congress about why
HBCU and PBI funding cannot
be traded away for sustained
defense funding or partisan
posturing. We need HBCUs
and PBIs to continue preparing
diverse students in the arts and
sciences, technology and engi
neering, and mathematics, as
well as teaching health, global
ization, greening, and sustain
ability professionals."
April 6 and 7 has been enti
tled, "Lift Every Voice & Be
Heard" days of support for
HBCUs and PBIs in
Washington, D.C. If you are
in D.C. or near D.C. on these
days, you should come out and
join this most important gath
ering. We have to send the
right message to Congress and
the time is now.
We have to make sure that
Fiscal Year 201 1 Budget fund
ing for HBCUs and PBIs is not
rescinded by Congress and that
Fiscal Year 2012 Budget fund
ing for our colleges and univer
sities is at least level-funded
and adjusted for inflation.
What gets cut and who gets cut
should be a matter of public
policy impacted by the express
will of the people and not left
solely to the political whims of
an extremely narrow view of
the nation and world.
While HBCUs represent
just 4% of U.S. universities,
HBCUs confer 22% of all
bachelor degrees earned by
African Americans, 24% of all
bachelor degrees awarded to
African Americans in engi
neering, and 35% of all bache
lor degrees in astronomy, biol
ogy, chemistry, mathematics,
and physics. Fifty percent of
all African American teachers
attended and graduated from
HBCUs. HBCUs and PBIs
collectively employ more than
200,000 people and contribute
more than $10 billion annually
to the U.S. economy. The his
torical legacy and the contem
porary relevancy of these criti
cal important educational insti
tutions cannot be overstated.
If Black Americans do not
assert the value of our educa
tional institutions, who will?
If we do not speak up now,
who will? I will be in
Washington. D.C. on April 6th
and 7th. You should make
every effort to join us. Our
children and our grandchildren
deserve the best and most equi
table quality education from
pre-K to post-graduate school.
Now is the time, once again,
for us to speak clearly and
forcibly. The budget scalpel is
swinging in our direction dis
proportionately. What are we
going to do about' it? Let's
make sure our voices are
"heard and felt" on this issue.
Save, fund and protect our
HBCUs and PBIs.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
is Senior Advisor to the Black
Alliance for Educational
Options ( BAEO ) and President
of Education Online Services
Corporation .
Correction
The incorrect date for one of the Promised
Neighborhood Collaborative community
forums was listed in The Chronicle's March 3
story. The next meeting will be Monday,
March 21 at 6 o.m. at Solid Rock Baptist
Church, 3010 Carver School Rd. Another
meeting will be on Tuesday, March 22 at noon
at Brown & Douglas Recreation Center, 4725
Indiana Ave. To register, call 722-6296 ext.
221.
The Issue Is Jobs
Marc
Morial
Guest
Columnist
From March 29th through
the 31st, the National Urban
League brings its fight for
urban jobs to Capitol Hill with
its 2011 Legislative Policy
Conference. This year's sum
mit will make the case for tar
geted action to tackle the per
sistent unemployment crisis in
Black America.
Dozens of Urban League
affiliate delegations comprised
of CEO's, board chairs and the
presidents of affiliate Guild
and Young Professional auxil
iaries will join us for meetings
on Capitol Hill with U. S.
Senators and Representatives.
The conference also serves
as the backdrop to the release
of the National Urban
League's landmark annual
publication. The State of Black
America, being held this year
at historic Howard University,
with a Town Hall event featur
ing Howard students, faculty
and others, moderated by Jeff
Johnson and Roland Martin.
The highlight of this year's
legislative summit and State of
Black America report is jobs,
jobs, jobs. The great recession
is officially over. But, with
overall unemployment now at
8.9 percent and 13.7 million
people still out of work, the
recovery has been painfully
slow and has yet to make a sig
nificant visit to communities
of color. The U.S. Department
of Labor's February jobs
report shows Black unemploy
ment at 15.3 percent. The rate
is 16.2 percent for Black men
and 1 1 .6 percent for
Hispanics. Clearly, the jobs
crisis persists in urban
America and an immediate
national response is long over
due.
In the past, our nation has
declared war on poverty,
drugs and even obesity.
Today, I call on Washington to
declare war on unemployment,
and the first line of defense
must be urban America. The
truth is. any recovery that fails
to bring jobs and prosperity
back to urban and communi
ties of color is a recovery in
name only. America can only
succeed if its cities and the
people who live and work in
them have access to jobs and
are fully prepared to excel and
innovate in those jobs. That is
the key message of this year's
State of Black America.
Our report takes an honest
look at the reality and underly
ing causes of double-digit job
lessness in Black America.
But, we don't just point out the
problem, we offer a solution
with a 12-point blueprint for
quality job creation. Our plan
recognizes that as the nation
takes steps to reduce our bal
looning deficit, we must make
tough choices. But if, as the
President has said, we are
going to "win the future," this
is no time to cut investments in
our people. That means,
among other things, we must
invest in summer jobs for
teens, broadband and green
jobs for their parents, and
direct job creation for cities
and states.
Our report will also unveil
the National Urban League's
2011 Equality Index, our
annual comparison of the
social, political, and economic
status of African Americans
and Latinos to that of Whites.
It highlights some successful
job-creating initiatives by the
Urban League and others.
And, we make it clear that
every aspect of life in America
is connected to jobs.
Education is a jobs issue.
Healthcare is a jobs issue.
International trade is a jobs
issue. Housing and transporta
tion are jobs issues.
In 201 1 , the State of Black
America is a jobs issue.
The National Urban
League's State of Black
America Town Hall event will
be held on Thursday, March
31st from 1 0am - 12pm at
Howard University's
Crampton Auditorium. The
event is free and open to the
public. To view like webcast,
visit nul.org.
Marc H. Morial is the
President and CEO of the
National Urban League.
Gender Equity is Everybody's Business
Julian in'
Malveaux
Guest
Columnist
March is Women's History
Month, and the White House
Council on Women and Girls,
led by Valerie Jarrett, com
memorated it by releasing a
report on the status of
women. According to the
report, we've come a long way
sisters, but we've still got a
long way to go. Despite the
fact that we out-enroll men in
college, we under-earn them in
the workplace. There are so
many phenomenal women
accomplishing amazing
things, and at the same time
there are so many women
whose economic attainment is
constrained by gender.
We in the African
American community must be
concerned with the social con
struction of gender and the
ways that patriarchy 'shapes
the futures of our young peo
ple, both young women and
young men. The face of
African American leadership,
mostly all male, sends a signal
to young women. It suggests
that women's voices don't
matter, that we have to scrap
our way to the table. It deni
grates the enormity of African
American women's accom
plishments.
From this perspective, I am
grateful that Roslyn Brock is
the Chairman of the Board of
the NAACP. The sister exhib
ited her leadership chops when
she gave her Chairman's
Dr. Regina Benjamin
Award at the NAACP Image
Awards to Surgeon General
Dr. Regina Benjamin and lift
ed up a stalwart medical leader
who has, against all odds,
given of herself. That's
women's history!
Dr. Regina Benjamin
stands on the shoulders of
other outstanding African
American surgeon generals,
including Dr. David Satcher.
Dr. Jocelyn Elders, and oth
ers. She has the opportunity to
deal with the crushing effects
of health disparities, and she
has the experience to illumi
nate the many inequalities that
shape our health pare system.
Both race and gender shape
the way that health care servic
es are delivered, and we look
forward to the ways that Dr.
Benjamin will share that with
the nation.
Anna Julia Cooper said,
"When and where I enter, the
interests of my race and my
gender come with me." She
was asserting the many ways
that African American women
Roslyn Brock
make a transformative differ
ence in the development of
educational, social and public
policy. When and where I
enter, I represent, our sister
said nearly a century ago.
Today, the same is true. Yet,
for many, this Women's
History Month is not about us,
not about women of African
descent. But, it can be our
month, if we assert it.
We must claim this month,
not simply as a statement of
history, but also as an opportu
nity to remind the nation and
the world that gender equity is
a human imperative. In other
words, we don't just want pay
equity for women, but we want
pay equity for families and for
a nation. When women aren't
well paid, families aren't well
cared for. When women are
kicked to the curb economical
ly, children suffer and we
experience generational rever
berations. Fair treatment of
women is an investment in the
growth, development and suc
cess of our nation.
While women's leadership
is not as rare as it was a gener
ation ago, it is still fairly
scarce. Women represent less
than one percent of the
Fortune 500 leaders, are nearly
absent in the civil rights lead
ership, and are fewer than 20
percent of our elected national
leaders in the House of
Representatives and the
Senate. Indeed, with elected
leadership, our numbers are
dropping. We must celebrate
this scarce leadership and
more importantly, commit to
finding new leaders, young
women who have been nur
tured and encouraged to step
up and step out into leadership.
In these harsh economic
times, it makes sense to pay
attention to the macroeconom
ic beat down that the African
American community has
experienced, which often fully
manifests itself with the mar
ginalization of African
American men in the labor
market. Concomitantly, the
status of African American
women cannot be ignored. We
lead too many African
American familes. are respon
sible for too many of our chil
dren, and are paid too
inequitably to be able to man
age. Gender equity is not a
women's imperative, it is a
community imperative.
During this Women's History
Month, and moving forward,
our community must commit
to our women as a way of
committing to our future.
Dr. Julianne Malveaux is
president of Bennett College
for Women and author of
"Suriving and Thriving: 365
Days in Black Economic
History," available at
www.lashvordprod.com .