Untapped Talents: My Brother's Keeper Launches

It's always a pleasure to drop by, see what's up around here, and add a little something. Starting out, I was so impressed with this young man's talent, his enthusiasm, and joyous hope for the future. If you didn't catch Daniel Clarke Bouchard today on Ellen DeGeneres, you missed something very special. This young man of 14 years has already played Carnegie Hall. He proudly proclaims that classical music is his foundation, though now he's moving into jazz. Take a moment to hear the energy, joy and talent in this young professional's music.

Seeing this, one can't help but hope that Daniel Clarke Bouchard's shining spirit, bright as polished silver, isn't ever tarnished by the taint of racism. But today, parents still must have "the talk," about racial profiling in all its insidious variations, just as Attorney General Eric Holder admits his own father had with him.

“I thought of my father’s words years later, when – as a college student – I was pulled over twice on the New Jersey turnpike and my car was searched – even though I was sure I hadn’t been speeding,” he said, according to his prepared remarks. “I thought of them again some time after that, when a police officer stopped and questioned me in Washington while I was running to catch a movie – even though I happened to be a federal prosecutor at the time.”

It's said that all things new are old, and that applies to racism as well. Each generation must shoulder the burden of advancing the cause of social justice, of equality for all. And so it is with President Obama's recent initiative, My Brother's Keeper. In announcing the initiative, he outlined some dimensions of the problem.

Many boys and young men of color will arrive at kindergarten less prepared than their peers in early language and literacy skills, leaving them less likely to finish school. Labor-force participation rates for young men of color have dropped, and far too many lack the skills they need to succeed. The disproportionate number of African American and Hispanic young men who are unemployed or involved in the criminal justice system undermines family and community stability and is a drag on State and Federal budgets. And, young men of color are far more likely to be victims of murder than their white peers, accounting for almost half of the country's murder victims each year. These outcomes are troubling, and they represent only a portion of the social and economic cost to our Nation when the full potential of so many boys and young men is left unrealized.

Attorney General Holder, who admits to having his own skirmishes with the law because of racial profiling, "spoke on the importance of an open relationship between police and the communities they serve. He described plans to bring together “civil rights organizations and law enforcement leaders to identify areas of concern – and reduce the likelihood that race will play any role in the investigation and prosecution of crimes.”

“As it stands – in far too many places – a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps individuals, devastates families, and weakens communities,” he said. “It is long past time for us to break this cycle.”

President Obama detailed the need with the grim statistics.

For decades, opportunity has disproportionately lagged behind for boys and young men of color – particularly in our African American and Latino communities. As recently as 2013, only 14 percent of black boys and 18 percent of Hispanic boys scored proficient or above on the 4th grade reading component of the National Assessment of Educational Progress compared to 42 percent of white boys and 21 percent of black and Hispanic girls. Youth who cannot read “proficiently” by third grade are four times less likely to graduate high school by 19.

By the time students have reached 9th grade, 42 percent of black male students have been suspended or expelled during their school years, compared to 14 percent of white male students. While black youth account for 16 percent of the youth population, they represent 28 percent of juvenile arrests, and 37 percent of the detained population. While just over 6 percent of the overall population, black males of all ages accounted for 43 percent of murder victims in 2011.

The fraction of young men not working or enrolled in school is nearly twice as high for blacks than whites. Those neither working nor in school are not building the skills and experience needed to ensure their ability to succeed later in life.