The ideal society is one which upholds each child to have an equal chance of success as his peers regardless of background, social standing, or racial color. This, however, is a challenge that is difficult to overcome as we are all witnesses of the wide gap that exists between males of color and their peers in terms of achieving success in school. The national conversation around under-proficient public schools is directly linked to two phenomena: one curricular and the other socioeconomic. Schools which serve economically exploited communities of color are not new, indeed they most prominently date back to Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. Further, there continue to be substantial challenges to the lack of cultural responsiveness in the curriculum used in schools. If all students do not have the requisite access to essential technical, social, and cultural resources necessary to educate a learner for success in the twenty-first century, then we will continue to see our public schools facilitate the production of a static underclass who will perpetually struggle to be academically, politically and economically viable in their communities. Part two of YouthBuild Providence’s Community Dialog Panel seeks to address these issues head on.

Essential Questions:

What kind of culturally responsive resources do boys of color require to help them understand themselves as agents of change rather than objects of their environments?

It is said that if a student does not see him/herself in the curriculum then it’s not education, it’s indoctrination. How might our schools respond to this curricular challenge?

A group of African American families organized themselves and brought a class action suit which eventually rose all the way to Supreme Court in 1954 all in an effort to secure educational resources for their children. That was two generations ago. What radical changes are required of us today?

Many institutions of higher learning report that the retention rates of male students of color consistently sits below their academic counterparts. As we continue to see the rise of student loans and college debt what can be done to secure the varied and necessary resources to ensure that young

men of color not only make it to college, but graduate?

Call to Action:

Immediately following the panel discussion we will convene a gathering of practitioners, thought-partners, parents, and concerned community members to discuss the formation of a subcommittee which will be tasked with organizing follow-through efforts on the initiatives rendered in the panel discussions.

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