Call for new policy on boys of color.

WHEN IT COMES TO EDUCATION, healthcare and employment, boys of color are facing institutional hurdles. They are now dealing with everything from the criminalization of addiction to de-unionization, the uptick of higher education costs to zero-tolerance policies in public schools. The problems are systemic and so must be the solutions, according to a new report issued by the Dellums commission and organized by the Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. The commission was convened by the institute to understand the situation facing young men of color and create recommendations for moving forward.

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The report, A Way Out: Creating Partners for Our Nation's Prosperity by Expanding Life Path of Young Men of Color, draws attention to the "profound lack of empathy" across the country for boys of color and goes on to say that "an unconscious yet pervasively reinforced bias against young minority males subtly guides both policy decisions and individual outcome-determinative interactions in policing, employment, housing, and education."

The cumulative effect of institutional racism is dramatic, the report notes. Incarceration and high-school drop-out rates are increasing as college enrollment levels are decreasing. American Indian young men are receiving fewer doctoral degrees today than they were 30 years ago. And boys of color are more likely than their white counterparts to be funneled into the juvenile justice system. In particular, Black boys and young men are vastly more likely to die a violent death, be diagnosed with a mental disorder and/or be incarcerated than white boys and young men.

The report's recommendations? A call for universal healthcare, greater cultural competency and racial diversity among health professionals, and more school-based clinics and health services. The report points to the Wellness Centers in San Francisco's schools as worthy of emulation throughout the country. The centers are youth-initiated and situated in public schools. The report also highlights an alternative justice model in Multnomah County, Oregon. Youth of color there were 31 percent more likely to be sent to juvenile detention than white youth. The community put into motion a series of reforms that resulted in racial equity. These reforms included keeping kids of color in their neighborhoods so detention alternatives included shelter care, foster homes and a day reporting center.

Other recommendations include properly testing non-English-speaking students before placing them in special education; ensuring that states allocate equitable funding for urban schools; instituting state-mandated standards of legal counsel; encouraging the spread of community courts and community-based re-entry programs; and creating more opportunities for boys of color to offer their own perspectives via alternative media.

The Health Policy Institute now wants to start a coalition to push their recommendations into action. Insists former congressman and now mayor of Oakland, California, Ronald Dellums: "We must come together to lay out tactics and strategies so that at the end of the day, this does not end up being simply another report gathering dust."