The Black Youth Project ... Young Blacks Not Optimistic About Status

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Young blacks not optimistic about status</font size></center>


Chicago Tribune
January 31, 2007

<font size="3">CHICAGO— Many young black people remain alienated and pessimistic about their place in society, with a majority saying immigrants to America receive better treatment than they do, according to a new national survey.

Yet the University of Chicago study, to be released today, shows an overwhelming majority of those young people believe they can make a difference by participating in politics.

The survey, which tracks the attitudes of nearly 1,600 young people of all races nationwide, ages 15-25, is one of the most comprehensive ever to focus on young African-Americans.

"We've heard a lot about what politicians and others think about this demographic group but we wanted to give young people a chance to speak," said Cathy Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who led the Black Youth Project.

The survey shows young African-Americans are more conservative than their white counterparts when it comes to same-sex marriage and abortion.

Among other findings:

• More than two-thirds of black youth believe AIDS would be cured faster if more white people had the disease.

• More African-American teens report using condoms or other birth control while engaging in sex than white or Hispanic youth.​

Geared toward black attitudes, the survey nonetheless used a random sample of young people of various backgrounds: 635 blacks, 567 whites, 314 Hispanics and 74 of other races.

The interviews were conducted in 2005 and 2006.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4516660.html

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>Survey Details the Lives of Black Youth</font size>
<font size="4">Decades after the civil rights movement's greatest victories,
black youth often see a world rife with discrimination, ... yet they
remain optimistic about their chances for affecting social change</font size></center>



Feb 1, 2:08 AM (ET)
Associated Press
By MARTHA IRVINE

<font size="3">CHICAGO (AP) - Decades after the civil rights movement's greatest victories, black youth often see a world rife with discrimination, a new survey says. And yet they remain optimistic about their chances for affecting social change.

Researchers at the University of Chicago, who were releasing the study Thursday, say their findings also show that these youth are complex when it comes to such issues as sex education and hip-hop music.

Cathy Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago and the report's lead author, said the aim of the survey was to provide data that goes beyond broad stereotypes.

It found, for instance, that while 58 percent of black youth say they listen to rap music every day, the majority of them also think its videos are too violent and often portray black women in an offensive way.

"I enjoy rap music - I love hip-hop. I love totally different types of music," says Lauren Guy, a 24-year-old substitute teacher from Oak Park, Ill., who participated in the survey. "What I don't like is how women are degraded in music and how violence is glorified."

The survey, which researchers call the Black Youth Project, details the responses of nearly 1,600 black, Latino and white participants, ages 15 to 25, from several Midwestern cities.

Their responses don't always paint a rosy picture about minorities' view of the country.

More than half of African-American and Latino respondents said they believe government officials care very little about them, while 44 percent of white youth said the same. Just over half of black youth also were the most likely to feel their education was, on average, poorer than that of white youth. About a third of whites agreed with that statement. And 61 percent of African-Americans who were surveyed said they feel held back by discrimination.

"It's a red flag, prompting us to talk about what needs to happen in this country to bring about true equality for young people in general - and especially vulnerable young people," Cohen said, referring not just to black young people, but to everyone from low-income youth to gay and lesbians.

While they see many social problems in the world, the survey indicated teens and young adults are optimistic about their chances of changing things for the better.

A large majority of youth in the survey believe, for instance, that they can make a difference by participating in politics - with 79 percent black and white youth and 77 percent of Latino youth saying they feel that way.

They're also using their spending power through "buycotts" - buying products because they like a company's social or political values. A quarter of black youth said they'd participated in a buycott in the last 12 months, while 23 percent of white youth and 20 percent of Hispanic youth said the same. Cohen said several of the respondents mentioned the Motorola (RED) campaign, aimed at helping fund the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Other survey findings included the following:

- About a third of black and Hispanic youth thought drugs, violence, gangs and crime were problems in their neighborhoods, compared with 10 percent of white youth;

- 59 percent of white youth report receiving care from a private doctor, while 40 percent of African-American youth and 39 percent of Hispanic youth say the same;

- 81 percent of white youth, 79 percent of Hispanic youth and 76 percent of black youth disagree with the government funding abstinence-only education;

- 76 percent of African-American youth, 74 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of whites think condoms should be provided at high schools.​

The study is unusual in that it spotlights a group that's often overlooked by social scientists.

"We sometimes get a little statistic here and there as a footnote to someone else's research," says Bakari Kitwana, the Cleveland-based author of "The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture."

"This is a study that puts young black kids at the forefront."

Initial interviews for the survey were completed between July and November 2005, with in-depth interviews carried out in 2006. Youth interviewed for the project were from Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Gary, Ind.

The survey, which was funded by the Ford Foundation, has a margin of error of less than plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.</font size>

---

Martha Irvine is a national writer specializing in coverage of people in their 20s and younger. She can be reached at mirvine(at)ap.org


http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070201/D8N0P4E81.html

 

[QueEx]

[frame]http://blackyouthproject.uchicago.edu/[/frame]

 

[GET YOU HOT]

This could be seen as self esteem issues associated with personal failures, why is the stigmatism of blackness attached?

Is it truely more common amonst young blacks or is their vision equivalence, of success different, in their view...?

 

[nittie]

Black kids watch too much TV and Rap videos and spend too many hours playing video games. If they have low expectations its because the messages the recieve everyday give them unrealistic views on life and what it's all about. If they knew the median income in America is 40k and not the million dollar lifestyle portrayed in music videos they would be like "hell I can do that".

 

[QueEx]

This could be seen as self esteem issues associated with personal failures, why is the stigmatism of blackness attached?

Is it truely more common amonst young blacks or is their vision equivalence, of success different, in their view...?

What is the stigmatism GYH ???

QueEx

 

[GET YOU HOT]

What is the stigmatism GYH ???

QueEx

I meant the ism of stigma, lmao

NOUN:
pl. stig·ma·ta (stg-mät, -mt, stgm-) KEY or stig·mas
A mark or token of infamy, disgrace, or reproach: "Party affiliation has never been more casual . . . The stigmata of decay are everywhere" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).