During the Race and Public Policy Conference in 2004, Keith Lawrence of Aspen Institute Community College and Terry Keleher of the Applied Research Center at UC Berkeley presented a paper titled “Chronic Disparity: Strong and Pervasive Evidence of Racial Inequalities.” During this session they provided a detailed definition for structural racism. To this extent, they defined structural racism within the United States context as “the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics—historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal—that routinely advantages Whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. It is a system of hierarchy and inequality, primarily characterized by White supremacy—the preferential treatment, privilege and power for White people at the expense of Black, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Arab and other racially oppressed people.”
In February 2014, President Obama announced a five-year, $200 million initiative, known as My Brother’s Keeper to “help” Black and Latino youths. According to the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force May 2014 Report to the President, this initiative aims to address some alarming statistics that are current within the United States, including 23.2% of Hispanics, 25.8% of Blacks, and 27% of American Indians and Alaska Natives live in poverty, and further limits pathways to success; Black, American Indian, and Hispanic children are between six and nine times more likely than White children to live in areas of concentrated poverty; roughly two-thirds of Black and one-third of Hispanic children live with only one parent; high school dropout rates are as high as 50% in some school districts, including among boys and young men from certain Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations; during the summer months (June-August) of 2013, just 17% of Black teenage boys (ages 16-19) and 28% of Hispanic teenage boys were employed, compared to 34% of White teenage boys; while only 6% of the overall population, Black males accounted for 43% of murder victims in 2011; In 2012, Black males were six times more likely to be imprisoned than White males.
In the president’s White House press conference speech on February 27, 2014, he said, “If America stands for anything, it stands for the idea of opportunity for everybody. The notion that, no matter who you are or where you came from, or the circumstances into which you are born, if you work hard, if you take responsibility, then you can make it in this country.”
While on the surface, President Obama’s attempt to uplift minority youth is splendid and can be useful to combat the appearance of failure among this population, the initiative lacks components that would aggressively respond to the pervasiveness of institutional and structural racism that yet persists in America.
It is through the lens of the previously cited definition of structural racism that I openly critique President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. The idea that “if you work hard, if you take responsibility, then you can make it in this country” is an ideology that is not authentic for the majority of minorities, because of the structures of inequality, hierarchy and White supremacy that is prevalent. Meritocracy is often contested by racism.
On July 20, 2014, The New York Times published an article titled “Obama to Report Widening of Initiative for Black and Latino Boys.” This article provided an updated brief overview of the president’s vision and mission for the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. The president and local school district leaders appear to believe that the downward spiral of minority youths is rooted within what is offered to them in educational institutions.
