My Brother's Keeper: A New White House Initiative to Empower Boys and Young Men of Color

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2014-02-27 20:43

Story here. Excerpt:

'Today, from the East Room of the White House, President Obama will launch a new effort aimed at empowering boys and young men of color, a segment of our society which too often faces disproportionate challenges and obstacles to success. These obstacles are found in our schools, our communities, our criminal justice system, our families, and even in the minds of our young people themselves. The president is committed to build a broad coalition of backers to help break down barriers, clear pathways to opportunity, and reverse troubling trends which show too many of our boys and young men of color slipping through the cracks in our society.

To launch the "My Brother's Keeper" initiative, the president will be joined by local and national leaders in philanthropy, business, government, faith communities, and media. The challenges facing boys and young men of color are broad and multidimensional, and so must be the team we bring to the table to begin fostering solutions.'

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Comments

Right idea, except for the racial exclusion aspect.

I'm also skeptical of POTUS's sincerity here. After 6 years of having nothing to say about nor lifting a finger to do for the population of young men "of color" (or otherwise), here just 9 mos. away from a big general election wherein a number of seats in the Congress could go either way, suddenly this gets launched. Of course to make it about all young men and not just those "of color" wouldn't pass the party sniff test. Appealing to male voters is Obama's worst problem right now b/c as much as the Dems. are largely fine w/ having most female voters on their side (at least currently), the buffer is not big enough to assume victory for the members of his party up for re-election (or just election) will be sufficient.

If he had done this in the middle of term 1, I might feel differently. But that was at least three Obamas ago.

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2014-02-28 08:31

I was curious about the name ... my brothers keeper... sounds a little slave like to me. I asked about it on that article, more tactfully of course, but the comment got deleted rather than addressed or condemned on it's merits.

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Submitted by Kratch on Sat, 2014-03-01 18:24