Tony Cox: Helping Black Men Raise Failing Grades

Tell Me More w/Michel Martin | NPR

Helping Black Men Raise Failing Grades

by Tony Cox

Some thoughts about school and the struggles black kids face. Lots of folks with lots of experience have lots of opinions about what to do to better educate young African-American males. Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates recently offered yet another glimpse into the issue, suggesting in a piece for the website The Root that the need is dire, which of course it is.

But for many of us in education — and to my mind that includes parents, family and friends — the problem is more than knowing what's needed. It's knowing how to get it done and make it work, how to get young African-American men not only interested but engaged in learning, and enjoying rather than dreading the journey. That requires a lot of commitment from them and from us, and there are no shortcuts.

Besides my work here at NPR, I am a tenured professor in broadcast journalism at California State University, Los Angeles. I primarily teach writing, and it troubles me to no end to see young black men struggle in my classes because they can't or don't see the value of an education and the effort required to obtain one. Records show black male students badly lagging in their graduation rates from colleges and universities. When we see them on campus, they often dress differently, speak differently, have different expectations, and in the classroom can sometimes be difficult to reach.

Losing the 'Essence' of Black Media: NPR's Talk of the Nation

from NPR's Talk of the Nation

Losing the Essence of Black Media

For the first time in its 40-year history, Essence magazine will have a white fashion director. The change, at a magazine focused on the lives of black women, outraged many African Americans. Among them is professor Mark Anthony Neal. In his blog, New Black Man, he described feeling a sense of loss for the magazine he came of age reading. "Beyond this sense of loss," he wrote, "what really is at stake when a 'black' magazine, no longer black owned, but still critically representative to our communities' sense of themselves, simply becomes another periodical?" Mark Anthony Neal talks about the changes at Essence magazine and the future of black publications.

'The Wire' On Campus

Upfront with Tony Cox discusses the use of the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire in college and university classrooms with Anne-Maria Makhulu (Duke University) and Jason Mittell (Middlebury College).

Listen HERE