The Psycho-Academic War Against Black Boys; In California, Young Black Men Wish for Safe Route to School; The Honorable Minister Farrakhan Speaks on Education; Will You Host A Daddy/Daughter Dance 2012?; See Red Tails -- The Great American Film

Special Education and Black Boys The five stages of the Abdullah-Johnson theory of Black Male Alienation are 1) Miseducation, 2) Psychotropic Medication, 3) Mass Incarceration, 4) Frustration/Irritation, and 5) Extermination    The Psycho-Academic War Against Black Boys    "DRUGS & JAILS WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS"             TheBlackList Pub Opening Doors To Being Free    See and Hear Brother Dr. Umar Abdullah-Johnson Umar Abdullah-Johnson (center left) in Chicago   presenting on the  PSYCHO-ACADEMIC WAR AGAINST BLACK BOYS 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM Tuesday, January 24, 2012 West Englewood Public Library 1745 W. 63rd Street Chicago, Illinois Free and Open To the Public   presenting on the PSYCHO-ACADEMIC WAR AGAINST BLACK BOYS 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Wednesday, January 25, 2012 The Black Star Project 3509 South King Drive Chicago, Illinois Free and Open To the Public Call 773.285.9600 for more information   Presenting on the   PSYCHO-ACADEMIC WAR AGAINST BLACK BOYS Registration, Refreshments and Q & A Reception 4:00PM  to 4:30 PM Coping w/Disruptive Behaviors & Mental Illnesses: Social and Emotional RtI Workshop 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM Thursday, January 26, 2011 South Loop Hotel, 2600 S. State Street Chicago, Illinois COSTS: Dr. Umar Johnson and next 4 workshops UPFRONT = (16 CEUs/CPDUs) Full $75, Student/Retiree $40, Non-member $150 Dr. Umar Johnson ONLY at the door Full $30, Student/Retiree $15, Nonmember $60   First 80 Upfront Payments Will Receive a FREE Gift RSVP/Questions: bawshank@yahoo.com   July 21, 2010     By Umar R. Abdullah-Johnson     The professional nomenclature has now become household words. Children as young as six can now speak of "Ritalin," and "ADHD" with stunning efficiency of what these words mean. Teachers and principals are telling single-parent mothers that their sons need "CYCLERT" and "ADDERALL." Special education children are telling their instructors that they cannot be suspended from school for more than ten days because they have an "IEP." Teenage boys are blaming their behavior on "I didn't have my pill today."    As soon as children begin to show signs of a learning challenge parents are racing off to the schools begging for psycho-educational evaluations believing that their children have "learning disabilities" although they have just began to learn. Collectively, we have created a monster that is wreaking havoc upon Black boys in America the explication of which is central towards a correct understanding of the underachievement and socio-economic marginalization of Black men in the United States.    The Umar Abdullah-Johnson Theory of Black Male Alienation posits that a five-stage cycle of institutional repression exists that has effectively sent more black men to jail than it has to college. Any attempt to reverse this war against America's most misunderstood population begins with a firm analysis of the process and it's origins in boyhood. Americans, including Blacks, have become so desensitized to the pain of Black boys and so expectant of their failures that their pain is often overlooked and their achievements treated like occasional glitches in a system that has successfully made Black boys a permanent underclass in this country.    The five stages of the Abdullah-Johnson theory of Black Male Alienation are 1) Miseducation, 2) Psychotropic Medication, 3) Mass Incarceration, 4) Frustration/Irritation, and 5) Extermination.    It is the job of all Black institutions, parents, elected officials, clergymen and leaders to fight to keep our young men from falling into any of these aforementioned stages. Nearly every Black man in America has already been through one of these stages or is at-risk for being sucked into one at this very minute. This brief article cannot properly address the historical underpinnings of each stage in this vicious cycle but rather it seeks to draw everyone's attention to seven (7) facts regarding life as a Black boy in America.    FACT #1: Black boys are turned off from public education based upon the treatment they receive by a primarily White female teacher population beginning in kindergarten and intensifying by middle school. FACT #2: Black boys are referred for learning disability and special education support programs intentionally to remove them from the general student population due to routine behavior problems thusly preparing them for a life of marginalization and prison. FACT #3: Black boys are sent to detention centers and juvenile delinquent programs which interrupts their schooling and encourages school drop-out especially in states where returning to public school after such a placement is illegal. FACT #4: Prisons are being used as concentration camps for Black men to be detained since the society-at-large is not interested in hiring these men by equipping them with decent livable wage jobs. FACT #5: American society is more responsible than any Black man for the destabilization of the Black family by stealing fathers away from sons and thusly removing role models and over-burdening Black women with the dual role of both working for and raising their children without any paternal assistance. FACT #6: The war on drugs has been a war on Black men and has served to destroy the Black community and strip it of its most valuable resource, its men. FACT #7: Black boys are more likely to be put on dangerous psychiatric medications for emotional problems while White boys are more likely to receive valuable psychotherapy for the causes of their behavior problems, which come with no side effects.   This information has been written to serve as a warning to the Black community, and all of America, to stop institutionalizing and brain drugging our sons. They are normal children and can be successful like other youth, and will respond to love and proper treatment like anyone else.    To this end, I am offering free psycho-educational workshops for parents and community organizations to train them on how to protect their sons from premature and unnecessary labeling, drugging and illegal discipline practices that take place everyday in our public and charter schools. The training will highlight five areas of practice: a) special education law and procedure, b) school discipline law and procedure, c) disruptive behavior disorders and psychiatric medicine, d) effective behavioral modification strategies for Black boys and e) the history of Black boys in public education.    Umar R. Abdullah-Johnson is a nationally certified school psychologist & kinsman to Frederick Douglass. He is also the founder of the National Movement to Save Black Boys (NMSBB). He can be reached at (215) 989-9858 or umarabdullahjohnson@yahoo.com.  If you are interested in hosting this free training, anywhere in the U.S., please do not hesitate to contact him. Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Life by Praying The Devil Back To Hell   Join us on Monday, January 23, 2012, 6:30 pm at 3509 South King Drive in Chicago to "Pray The Devil Back To Hell!!! If the women of Liberia can end violence by praying and acting, so can we!  We must pray and we must act, now!!! On Good Friday in 1963, 53 blacks, led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., marched into downtown Birmingham to protest the existing segregation laws. All were arrested.    Join us for the film - Pray The Devil Back to Hell!  on Monday, January 23, 2012 Film: 6:30 pm  Discussion and Prayer: 7:30 pm at  The Black Star Project 3509 South King Drive, Suite 2B Chicago, Illinois $5.00 for members - $10:00 for non-members.     Being sick and tired of being sick and tired of youth violence in America is not enough!  You must pray and you must act. On Monday, January 23, 2012, the men and women of Chicago will gather to see the powerful movement and documentary of women that brought peace to war torn Liberia, Pray The Devil Back To Hell.  And the men and women of Chicago will work to pray the devil of violence and despair that is in Chicago back to Hell! Join them.  Men and women across America can join this movement to Pray the Devil (of violence) Back to Hell in your city or town by calling 773.285.9600.  Click Here to view a trailer of the documentary.  Those who have attended previous showings of this documentary will be admitted free. In Oakland, California, Black Males Students Wish for Safe Way To School   State hearings explore health of minority males      By Bernice Yeung  January 20, 2012   When it's 17-year-old Eric Gant's turn to testify today at an Oakland legislative hearing on the health and welfare of California's minority men and boys, he will ask for a safe way to get to school.   "Students deserve a safe path to school, like an adult wants a safe path to work," Gant, who is African American, told California Watch. "A safe pathway is so that you can walk down the street and nothing would happen, so you can get an education and make it home OK."   An outgoing and ambitious teen, Gant rattles off a few examples where he or students he knows have been targets of theft or violence on their way to school. "You think about it all day," he said of the threats. "You think about it the whole school year, maybe." He added that Oakland students need a safe place to do their homework   Gant's experience hints at one of the concerns that youth advocates have for this population: overlooked trauma related to violence in their neighborhoods. Nationally, Latino boys and young men are more than four times as likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder [PDF] as whites. African American boys are 2.5 times as likely.   Today's hearing is being convened by the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California. Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Oakland, said he formed the committee to examine the adverse conditions that some black, Latino and Asian boys experience and their effects on state resources and agencies. It also will look at the connections among issues like health, foster care, truancy, school dropouts, unemployment and incarceration.   "We are being holistic in what we are trying to do here," he said.   Youth advocates say the needs of this group must be addressed for the overall benefit of the state. "If you have a segment of the population that is consistently failing and consistently incarcerated and marginalized and excluded, you can't have a state population that is thriving," said Marc Philpart, a senior associate with PolicyLink, which is coordinating a network of statewide nonprofits and researchers on the topic. "The good thing about the select committee is that it's an institutional mechanism for getting greater attention on the policy side of these particular issues, because there's no way that we can service our way out of these problems."   African American and Latino boys have higher odds of not having access to health care and experience higher rates of poverty, homicides and incarceration than their white counterparts, according to a 2009 statewide study [PDF] produced by the RAND Corp.   The RAND study documented various health and welfare concerns related to unemployment and incarceration among California's minority men and boys. A 2010 national report [PDF] on the same topics found that, among other things, "when it comes to health and other outcomes, the odds for boys and men of color are more than two times worse" than for their white counterparts.   "There's a lot of qualitative data on how young boys of color are faring emotionally," said Cassandra L. Joubert, director of the Central California Children's Institute, who has researched minority youth. "It suggests that they are under a lot of stress and are exposed to a lot of trauma because their neighborhoods are unsafe, they face a lot of life challenges, their parents are having difficulties, or their friends are being murdered. It's a whole host of things."   Community organizations and academics in Fresno, Oakland and Los Angeles also are examining these issues.   In Fresno, researchers confirmed many of the RAND findings. They also found that black and Latino boys had higher rates of emergency room visits for asthma and sexually transmitted diseases than whites. Nearly 45 percent of Fresno County's HIV cases are among Latino men, compared with 32 percent among whites and 3 percent among Asians. Only half of Fresno's African American boys and 60 percent of Latino boys had a stable source of health care.   Joubert of the Central California Children's Institute said these statistics can be partially explained by poverty and a lack of awareness of health issues in Fresno. "A greater appreciation for how and where you live, and the resources in your community that are there or not there, or the dangers in your community and the role of place in health would help," said Joubert, who conducted the Fresno study.   Oakland health, safety and other demographic data culled by the Urban Strategies Council found that African Americans were most likely to be victims of homicide and had the highest mortality rate, at 962 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a countywide rate of 630 deaths per 100,000. Thirty-two percent of African American men had high blood pressure, compared with 26 percent for all males, and 31 percent were obese, compared with 19 percent overall.   The Los Angeles report has not yet been released.   Today's hearing in Oakland is one in a series that will be held across the state; similar events will be held in Los Angeles on March 2, Fresno on April 13 and Sacramento on Aug. 3.   Swanson said the hearings will help legislators generate new policy ideas. Those under consideration are support for school-based health clinics and an examination of the relationship between truancy and incarceration.   Gant, the Oakland student, decided to bring his safe pathways to school idea to legislators after he participated in an event for youth and community members Saturday at the Oakland Museum of California in preparation for the hearing today.   Students at last week's event said they were concerned with gangs and police brutality; they also worry that there are "no grocery stores in the 'hood" and that there "are not many safe places where you can just hang out."   Gant participates in a number of youth organizations, including a leadership program through Kids First Oakland, and he said he thought that the research showing that minority boys and men had poorer health "could be true," but he thought it had more to do with money and resources. One of his personal mottos is "rich will thrive" because "money has a lot of power in the world, and the rich will survive and strive," he said.   "It depends on your circumstances and what you can afford," he said. "My mom, she tries to make healthy food, but I have friends who only eat ramen and McDonald's. It depends on what your job is, what your money situation is, or if you have five people living in one home and they're only making $48,000 a year. You can only do so much." The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Speaks to College Students About Education, Black People and the Future at Chicago State University Wednesday, January 25, 2012 6:00 pm (Doors Open at 5:00 pm) Jacoby Dickens Center 9500 South on King Drive Chicago, Illinois Colleges and Universities Invited: Art Institute of Chicago Aurora University Benedictine University Bradley University Chicago State University City Colleges or Chicago Columbia College Concordia University DePaul University DeVry University Dominican University East/West University Eastern Illinois University Elmhurst College Governors State University Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois State University Illinois Wesleyan University Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (NEIU) Lake Forest College Loyola University Chicago National-Louis University Northeastern Illinois University Northern Illinois University North Park University Northwestern University Robert Morris College Roosevelt University Saint Xavier University Southern Illinois University - Carbondale Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville University of Chicago University of Illinois Champaign Urbana University of Illinois Chicago University of Illinois Springfield Western Illinois University When Fathers Are Their Daughters First Date, Every Other Man After That Must Measure Up! Men and women across America should/can plan and host a Daddy/Daughter Dance for Valentines Day. Call us at 773.285.9600 for an organizing kit to host a Daddy/Daughter Dance in your community or in your city.  Men in Chicago can register now for our February 11, 2012 Daddy/Daughter Dance at The Black Star Project by calling 773.285.9600.  We are also planning a special Daddy/Daughter Dance in Englewood in Chicago at the 7th District Police Station.  Please call 773.285.9600 to join the Englewood organizing team. YOU have made Red Tails the number 2 box office success in the nation!!! When George Lucas, director and producer of Star Wars, cannot get a film about Black American war heroes produced, financed and distributed without paying his own money, what does that say about America?  This movie will inspired generations of young Black boys, help America appreciate young Black men and improve race relations in America!  Don't miss it! As a matter of principle, every Black American and every American should see "Red Tails" in its first week at the box office ending Friday, January 27, 2012.  This movie is not just about war...it is about history and it is about the future of America!  Take your family!  Take your church!  Take your school!  Take your block club!  Take your homeless shelter or your halfway house.  This is a great American story!  Are we great Americans?     Click Here to hear George Lucas tell why no one would finance or distribute this movie from one of the world's most renown movie directors.   Click Here to see a trailer of Red Tails!!! As many/most Black children in American schools are failing academically, the only way to successfully educate them is with the support and actions of their parents, families and communities.  The only question not answered is, "Will Black people take control of the education of their children?" We have 15 free Saturday Universities operating in and around Chicago and south suburbs.  Please call 773.285.9600 to register your child for free academic enhancement or for more information about Saturday University.  We need teachers and tutors for our sites.  Please call 773.285.9600 to volunteer. 100 Cities Are Mentoring Black Young Men and Boys During January and February 2012 Join the Black Male Achievement Movement and encourage strong, positive Black men from around the country and the world to work for Black Male Achievement. Join the Black Male Achievement Movement  during January and February 2012, as we mentor tens of thousands of Black boys and young men across America.  Young Black men from Urban Prep Academy in Chicago. The path to positive manhood!!! Common at Eagle Academy in New York City. The path to positive manhood!!!   A Morehouse College Graduation in Atlanta, Georgia The path to positive manhood!!! Young Black men dressed for sucess. Become a mentor of young Black men and boys!    To become one of the the Servant Leaders in your city planning and directing this effort, please call 773.285.9600. We will provide you with an organizing kit that will help you step-by-step to create, manage or support an outstanding mentoring program in your city.  We will also provide technical assistance and ongoing support. Schools, faith-based organizations, fraternities, Masonic organizations, veterans associations, community-based organizations, affinity organizations, military service personnel, social service agencies, companies and corporations will participate in this effort.  Most mentoring events will occur on January 31, 2012.  The last event will occur on February 29, 2012.  Please see cities that are expected to participate as of January 11, 2012:      Albany, New York Atlanta Georgia Aurora, Colorado Baltimore, Maryland Baton Rouge, Louisiana Blandensburg, Maryland Boston, Massachusetts Buffalo, New York Carbondale, Illinois  Chicago, Illinois - South Side Chicago, Illinois - West Side  Chicago, Illinois - South Suburbs Cincinnati, Ohio Colorado Springs, Colorado Columbia, Missouri Columbus, Georgia Dallas, Texas Danbury, Connecticut Danville, Illinois Delray Beach, Florida Detroit, Michigan Denver, Colorado Dolton, Illinois Durham, North Carolina East Chicago, Indiana East Orange, New Jersey Englewood, Colorado Flint, Michigan Flossmoor, Illinois Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fredricksberg, Virginia Gary, Indiana Gilbert, Arizona Hammond, Indiana Hartford, Connecticut Harvey, Illinois Hillside, Illinois Houston, Texas Hyattsville, Maryland Indianapolis, Indiana  Irvington, New Jersey Jackson, Mississippi Kansas City, Missouri Kenesaw, Georgia Lenoir, North Carolina Lexington, Kentucky Lithonia, Michigan Los Angeles, California Louisville, Kentucky Macon, Georgia Manassas, Virginia Markham, Illinois Matteson, Illinois Mentor, Ohio Milwaukee, Wisconsin Minneapolis, Minnesota Munster, Indiana  Nashville, Tennessee New Orleans, Louisiana New York City, New York - Manhattan New York City, New York - The Bronx New York City, New York - Brooklyn New York City, New York - Queens New York City, New York - Long Island New York City, New York - Harlem Newark, New Jersey Oakland, California Oak Park, Illinois Omaha, Nebraska Palmdale, California Peoria, Illinois  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Phoenix, Arizona Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Richmond, California Richmond, Virginia Riverdale, Illinois San Bernardino, California San Francisco, California Santan Valley, AZ Seattle, Washington Shelbyville, Indiana  Southaven, Mississippi Spotsylvania County, Virginia St. Louis, Missouri St. Paul, Minnesota St. Petersburg, Florida Tampa, Florida Thomasville, Georgia Toledo, Ohio Tougaloo, Mississippi Tshwane, Botswana Tuscaloosa, Alabama  University Park, Illinois Upper Marboro, Maryland Vicksburg, Mississippi  Washington, D.C. Waukegan, Illinois White Plains, New York Yazoo City, Mississippi     This event was inspired by the life and life principles of Muhammad Ali (Rumble Young Man, Rumble!).  The Black Male Achievement Movement was born in Louisville, Kentucky in September 2011.  Guidance, support and encouragement for this movement is provided by Open Society Foundations' Campaign for Black Male Achievement.  The National CARES Mentoring Movement and Mentoring U.S.A have signed on as national supporters.  For more information, please call 773.285.9600.   Click Here to see the Fathers Incorporated PSA on mentoring.    Click Here to see the Mentoring USA PSA on mentoring.