C H A N G I N G P L A C E S CHANGING PLACES H O W C O M M U N I T I E S W I L L I M P R O V E T H E H E A LT H O F B O YS O F C O L O R Edited by Christopher Edley Jr. and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco With a foreword by Robert Phillips The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law is a multidisciplinary, collaborative venture to produce research, research- based policy analysis, and curricular innovation on issues of racial and ethnic justice in California and the nation. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © by the Regents of The University of California Manufactured in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of / .- ( ) (Permanence of Paper). Cover: The cover image was designed by Oakland, California – based printmaker and digital artist Favianna Rodriguez. Using high-contrast colors and vivid figures, her composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. She has lectured widely on the use of art in civic engagement and the work of bridging community and museum, local and international. Rodriguez is coeditor of Reproduce and Revolt! with stencil artist and art critic Josh MacPhee (Soft Skull Press, ). An unprecedented contribution to the Creative Commons, this two-hundred-page book contains more than six hundred bold, high-quality black and white illustrations for royalty-free creative use. Rodriguez’s artwork also appears in The Design of Dissent (Rockport Publishers, ), Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated (Edition Olms, ), and The Triumph of Our Communities: Four Decades ofMexican Art (Bilingual Review Press, ). Foreword by Robert Phillips ix Acknowledgments xv PA R T O N E A DE M O G R A P H I C OV E R V I E W : R ACE A N D G E N D E R DISPARIT I E S 1 Let’s Hear It for the Boys Building a Stronger America byInvesting in Young Men and Boys of Color Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor 3 2 Young Latino and African American Males Their Characteristics, Outcomes, and Social Conditions Belinda Reyes and Monique Nakagawa 36 PA R T T WO PUB L I C E D U CAT I O N SYSTE MS A N D THE I R COMMUNIT I E S 3 Invisible Students Bridging the Widest Achievement Gap David L. Kirp 67 4 Doing What It Takes to Prepare Black and Latino Males forCollege What We Can Learn from Efforts to Improve NewYork City’s Schools Edward Fergus and Pedro Noguera 97 C o n t e n t s 5 Alternative Schools in California Academic On-ramps or Exit Ramps for Black, Latino, and Southeast Asian Boys? Jorge Ruiz de Velasco and Milbrey McLaughlin 140 6 Beyond Zero Tolerance Creating More Inclusive Schools by Improving Neighborhood Conditions, Attacking Racial Bias, and Reducing Inequality Susan Eaton 156 7 Stopping Gangs with a Balanced Strategy Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression James Diego Vigil and Gilberto Q. Conchas 188 8 A Radical-Healing Approach for Black Young Men A Framework for Policy and Practice Shawn Ginwright 205 PA R T T H R EE Tr a n s iTi o n s T o P o s T s e c o n da ry e du caTi o n a n d e m Ployme n T 9 Building Pathways to Postsecondary Success for Low-income Young Men of Color Linda Harris and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield 233 10 The Equity Scorecard A Process for Building Institutional Capacity to Educate Young Men of Color Frank Harris III, Estela Mara Bensimon, and Robin Bishop 277 PA R T F O U R H e a lTH, H um a n s e rvice s, an d Ju s Tice sys T e m s 11 Improving the Health of Young Men and Boys of Color Natalie Slopen and David R. Williams 311 12 The Geography of Opportunity A Framework for Child Development Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Lindsay E. Rosenfeld, Nancy McArdle, and Theresa L. Osypuk 358 13 Approaching the Health and Well-being of Boys and Men ofColor through Trauma-informed Practice Theodore Corbin, Sandra L. Bloom, Ann Wilson, Linda Rich, and John A. Rich 407 14 On the Outside The Psychological and Practical Consequences of Parental Incarceration on Children Sarah Lawrence and Jennifer Lynn-Whaley 429 15 Big Boys Don’t Cry, Black Boys Don’t Feel The Intersection of Shame and Worry on Community Violence andthe Social Construction of Masculinity among Urban African American Males: The Case of Derrion Albert Waldo E. Johnson Jr., David J. Pate Jr., and Jarvis Ray Givens 462 PA R T F I V E THE B UI LT E NVIRO N M E NT 16 Trajectories of Opportunity for Young Men and Boys of Color Built Environment and Place-making Strategies for Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities Deborah L. McKoy, Jeffrey M. Vincent, and Ariel H. Bierbaum 495 PA R T S I X THE R OAD AHE A D 17 Minding the Gap Strategic Philanthropy and the Crisis amongBlack Young Men and Boys Tia Elena Martinez, Susan J. Colby, and Lisa Quay 537 18 Getting to Root Causes of Social and Economic Disconnection María C. Ledesma and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco 578 About the Contributors 587 Index 603 i x AN UNHEALTHY LEGACY In my boss, Dr. Robert Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment, sat down at an East Los Angeles elementary school with a group of mostly Latino parents. Their children had taken part in an after- school program called LA’s BEST. Over a plate of chicken, rice, and beans, Dr. Ross asked them what it would take for their kids to be healthy. They told him that the neighborhood streets were unsafe for their children to play on and get exercise, and the local park was no better. What’s more, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department had begun to charge for summer programs that used to be free. Parents are not alone in lamenting the state of many neighborhoods and communities that make it dicult for young people to grow up healthy. The youth themselves are also talking. At the Oakland, California – based youth development center Youth Uprising, the question “What is a healthy community?” was posed. They described a place where bullets don’t fly and their friends don’t die young. One young woman described the abun- dance of liquor stores in her community and the scarcity of healthy foods. Others wished for positive activities for young people. These answers rearm what many of us who work with children and youth — particularly those in low-income communities and communities of color — know to be true: the inequities they face are persistent, pro- found, and have long-lasting eects. This doesn’t mean the deck can’t be reshued in their favor, but to do so, we first must redefine what it means F o r e wo r d x / F O R E W O R D to be “healthy.” The absence of illness does not guarantee the presence of good health. According to the World Health Organization, “health” is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” In this volume we define “healthy commu- nities” as homes, schools, and neighborhoods where all citizens experience physical, mental, and social well-being. On the one hand, if you grow up in a neighborhood with a good school, where it’s safe, where you can walk and play outside, and where you have access to good food, you are more likely to live a long and healthy life. On the other hand, if you grow up in a neighborhood where you’re not safe, where your school is failing you, and where you do not have access to a park or a basic grocery store, you are far more likely to live a shorter life, to earn less money, to be a victim or perpetrator of violence, and to be less healthy emotionally and physically. In California, if you are African American or Latino or Southeast Asian or Native American, you are likely to face not just one of these challenges, but many or all of them. Children from communities of color are dra- matically less healthy than the national population as a whole. A wealth of literature documents racial and ethnic disparities across almost all areas of society, showing how these dierences have developed — and in some cases metastasized — over time. Bad policies, practices, and programs have insti- tutionalized disadvantage so that, according to the King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative in Washington State, the “inequities that exist at all levels of society have persistent, profound, and long-lasting eects.” Within this context boys and young men of color are particularly vulner- able. The consequences are literally a matter of life and death. If you are an African American male, you have the lowest life expec- tancy of any racial group of either gender in the country. Latino males are next in line. These grim statistics are driven by a higher prevalence of preventable diseases, homicide, and accidental death. Astoundingly, for example, African American men are sixteen times more likely to die vio- lently than white men. The majority of children growing up in low-income communities and communities of color witness some kind of violence in their youth. This exposure has damaging, long-term eects. African American and Latino boys and young men are three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than their white counterparts — a rate comparable to the incidence of PTSD in veterans returning from Iraq. When it comes to health care, African American, Latino, and Native American males are less likely than white males to have access to health- care services. When men of color do get health care, that care is more likely [...]... outcomes, yet the success of America in the near future turns in part on how prepared boys and young men of color are to meet the challenges of a twenty-firstcentury economy Young men of color under twenty-four currently make up only 7.4 percent of the entire U.S population, a seemingly small group However, they are a growing part of the youth population—that is, the future generation of workers and... on the unique challenges facing boys and young men of color and to show what can done about these challenges Taken collectively, these contributions constitute an indictment of the status quo in communities across the nation The disparities and the increasing marginalization of young men and boys of color are not only morally unacceptable; they are untenable The trends documented here underscore the. .. promise of our nation’s future I don’t say this to dishonor the strides made by people of color and others who have agitated and struggled for hard-earned rights But the fact remains: for several decades now, the health and well-being of males of color have been in steady decline For the men of color who live in low-income communities, the drop has been even steeper Place, Race, and Gender Matter to Health. .. prosperity And key to that future will be the readiness of young people of color Why Young People of Color — and Why Young Men? By 2023 this demographic group—young people of color will no longer represent a “special-interest” group; rather, they will by this time be a majority of children in the United States 2 Consequently, a public-policy focus on the success of this population is necessary... hard look at the failures and limitations of existing approaches One thing is clear: what we’re doing is not working Society’s efforts to deal with the “problem” of young men of color have been largely reactive In California, for example, one in thirty-six people is behind bars today— the majority of them being young men of color Yet when these young men and boys of color are released, they are unprepared... by these trends, the country’s young men of color have felt the pressures most sharply, resulting in a diminished opportunity to lead productive lives We argue that the country needs to refocus its efforts on the success of young men and boys of color, not simply for altruistic reasons but for a very pragmatic one: given the rapidly changing demography, the nation’s future depends on the ability of these... to the effort is helping adult ex-offenders reintegrate into their communities Improving ex-convict reentry is essential for young boys of color, because it means that their fathers have an opportunity to return to their families and possibly have a stable and positive influence on their sons’ lives 28 In Arizona, for example, the Getting Ready program begins to prepare offenders for their return the. .. So how do we change polices, practices, and systems to give young men and boys of color as well as their children, their families, and their communities a fair shot at a healthy life and future? This is the question at the heart of this book This volume grew out of the shared realization among community leaders, public officials, foundation leaders, researchers, and advocates that a growing body of. .. underscore the ways in which the situation is getting worse and how this fact affects us all But here’s the good news: the poor health and well-being outcomes that face young men of color are not like rare cancers, where the cause and the course of the disease are unknown The contributors show us throughout this book that we know how to keep a child in school; we know how to help a young man become... the American economy in the postwar era have gradually been replaced by lower-paying service-sector jobs In terms of projected job growth, the top two positions—registered nurses and retail salespersons—are representative of the new gilded age: these jobs offer salaries that are respectively “very high” and “very low.” Of the top twenty jobs of the future, five will have “very high” earnings, two will . and prac- tices that contribute to the poor health of young males of color. We must look critically at both the health issues aecting them and at the societal influences that shape their health. . made by people of color and others who have agitated and struggled for hard-earned rights. But the fact remains: for several decades now, the health and well-being of males of color have been. young men and boys of color — as well as their children, their families, and their com- munities — a fair shot at a healthy life and future? This is the question at the heart of this book. This