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Page 2 - EDITORIALS
Spelman Spotlights
March, 1981
Black
Youth of America Are
- -,i • - -ST ‘S' " ■£.'
In Trouble
Special To The Spotlight
from
The Children’s Defense Fund
Washington, D.C.
According to a recent report issued by
the Children’s Defense Fund, Portrait of
Inequality: Black and White Children in
America, “Black children, youth and
families remain worse off than whites in
every area of American life.” Portrait of
Inequality describes the bleak conditions
affecting the lives of millions of Black
children and youth. The report, which
contains the latest facts on Black and
white family health, housing, education,
family income, employment, foster and
institutional care, child care, and crimes
and arrests, demonstrates that a Black
child begins his struggle even before birth
for the opportunities a white child takes
for granted.
Because he is Black, it is twice as likely
that Archie will grow up in inadequate
housing than if he had been white.
Consider the plight of one young black
boy: Archie Douglas is eight years old
and has already failed the first grade
twice. His problem is a hearing loss which
developed as a result of an ear infection he
suffered when he was two years old.
Archie would have been spared much of
his suffering had he received basic
primary health care within the year after
he had his ear infection. The hearing loss
could have been identified much earlier,
before it seriously affected his language
skills. Once his problem was identified,
Archie could have gotten a hearing aid
and services in school suited to his special
needs. But he did not.
Archie, like millions of Black children
and youth all over the country, has not
and does not receive the health care he
needs. Many of our young people suffer
from inadequate housing, malnutrition,
and unequal educational opportunity.
The suffering and neglect many Black
children face on very basic levels of need
is shameful.
The tragic fact is that Archie’s chances
of growing up healthy were poor from the
start. Because he is Black, it is twice as
likely that his mother went without
prenatal care than a white mother. Such
lack of prenatal care contributes to high
numbers of infant deaths, birth defects
and illness.
Archie’s mother was three times as
likely as a white child’s mother to die
during childbirth, and he was twice as
likely as a white child to die before his first
birthday. Archie had a one in two chance
of being born into poverty. Growing up,
he is twice as likely as a white child to lack
a regular source of health care, and is
twice as likely to suffer malnutrition. Two
out of every five Black five- to nine-year-
olds in central cities are not immunized
against polio, tetanus, diphtheria, or
whooping cough. Archie may be one of
the two. During his lifetime, he and other
Black children may die from illness at a
rate 25 percent greate r than white
children. Most likely, Archie’s mother
returned to work when Archie was
younger and worked longer hours and
earned less money than a white child’s
mother. This meant that Archie probably
needed full-day child care. But even Head
Start, 42 percent of whose population is
Black, serves only 25 percent of all eligible
children.
Because he is Black, it is twice as likely
that Archie will grow up in inadequate
housing than if he had been white.
Inadequate housing means a dwelling
unit lacking either plumbing, a kitchen, a
sewage system, heating or access to
toilets, or physical or electrical
maintenance that threatens health or
safety. Millions of Black children live in
projects and neighborhoods where they
do not feel safe.
When Archie is between the ages of 15-
19, he is almost six times as likely to be
murdered as a white male of the same age.
Shockingly, the murder rate among
nonwhite preschoolers, one- to four-
years-old, is higher than the murder rate
among white teenagers.
Now that Archis is in school, his
chances of being labeled as educably
mentally retarded is three times greater
than a white child’s, and he is only half as
likely to be labeled academically gifted.
Compared with a white child, Archie is
also twice as likely to be suspended,
expelled or given corporal punishment.
As a result, it should be no surprise that
Black children are also twice as likely as
white children to drop out of school. We
have one Black high school dropout for
every two Black high school graduates.
Even if he graduates from school,
Archie has a greater chance of being
unemployed than a white grade-school
dropout. A Black college graduate is
unemployed at almost twice the rate of a
white who never went to college. In
general. Clack youth are three times more
likely to be unemployed than white
youths. Black children see unemployment
around them fat more than white children
do. No wonder a Black teenager in the
book says, “You don’t bother going to
school; it’s not necessary. You just live
with your mom until you get a job — that
should be any time a job comes looking
for you. Why should you bother to go
look for it? Even your parents can’t find
work.”
Portrait of Inequality also explains
that these problems threaten middle-class
Black and white communities as well as
low income minority communities. It says
that: “Color and history inextricably bind
the fate of all Blacks. The Ku Klux Klan
businesses and terrorize other Black
youths and old people as well as whites.
An eroding climate for social justice and
backlash against affirmative action keep
poor Blacks out of entry level jobs or
promotions; but they also narrow the
gates to graduate and professional
schools for midd-class Blacks. Budget
and social program cuts hurt the poor,
but they also hamstring Black mayors
trying to run cities. Unemployment
crushes Black families struggling to
survive, but it threatens the health of
Black businesses and other institutions
dependent on Black purchasing power
and income as well.”
Yet. inspite of these hard economic
times, we must redouble our efforts to
help Black children, and see that children
like Archie no longer have to face such
awful odds. Portrait of Inequality paints
a bleak picture but it does not wallow in
despair. It calls us all to action. It
proposes a tested action agenda of ways
which we can combat the problems
affecting Black youth. CDF insists that
“The Black community particularly needs
to organize now to help their young.
History makes plain that without strong
and persistent Black leadership, the
nation will ignore the needs of Black
children and families.”
We can provide this leadership and
make a difference in the lives of America’s
Black children. Our responsibility as
Black Americans dictates that we
organize and act now to change the
present “portrait.”
CDF is a national nonprofit
organization headed by Marian Wright
Edelman, a Spelman graduate, and has
been providing a systematic and long-
range voice for children for the past 10
years. The book sells for S5.50 a copy,
does not segregate its facial hatred by
class. Police do not usually check income
before stopping lower income children in
neighborhoods where they are still not
expected or wanted. When some Black
youths lash out in frustration, they burn
down Black areas as well as white
with discounts available for bulk orders.
To order write to:
Publciations Department
Children’s Defense Fund
1520 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Orders under $10.00 must be pre-paid.
Editor-in-Chief - Pamela D. Moore
Associate Editor - Kiron K. Skinner
News Editor - Bridgett Davis
Feature Editors - Lisha Brown
La Rhonda Morris
Photography Editor - Whitney Young
Art Editor - Mary Barkley
Advertising Manager - Janice Tillerson
Asst. Advertising Manager - Elaine Terry
Business Manager - Betty Jackson
Circulation Manager - Lisa Vaughn
Office Manager - Susan Hart
The Spelman Spotlight is produced regularly by the Spotlight
Staff, composed of students from Spelman and Morehouse
Colleges. Primary control, however, is vested in Spelman
students. All questions and concerns from the public concerning
this paper should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, Spelman
Spotlight, Box 50, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia 30314. The
office phone number is 525-1743.