This piece is a commentary on the papers included in the special issue on the racial/ethnic diversity of the special education teacher workforce.

Like laws for formal education, laws for crime and punishment shape the relationship between the citizen and the state. They could, in fact, be equally powerful in building or breaking the civic spirit. In the past three decades, a revolution has occurred in the United States that is as insidious as it is unprecedented: the rise of the American…

Peggy McIntosh (1988) famously unpacked what she called an "invisible knapsack" of privileges socially conferred upon whites, men, and heterosexuals (1988). She argued that not only are women and minorities at a disadvantage, but those with social power enjoy benefits that are both unearned and unjustified. We often accept those…

What do young black males say about what stands in the way of their academic success? Rather than rely on scholarly researchers to answer this question, the authors talked with a number of black males between ages 13 and 22 in Washington D.C., and Milwaukee, Wis., to learn what they had to say. These young men rarely talked about schools or…

Since the mid-1970s the U.S. imprisonment rate has increased roughly fivefold. As Christopher Wildeman and Bruce Western explain, the effects of this sea change in the imprisonment rate--commonly called mass imprisonment or the prison boom--have been concentrated among those most likely to form fragile families: poor and minority men with little…

The author looks at critical dialogue surrounding the causes for the alarming high numbers of high school dropouts in states that use high stakes standardized testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, and investigates the perceived correlations between high stakes testing and high numbers of high school dropouts of minority students.

Focusing on race and gender as an explanation for the hardships faced by black males in America distorts the issues and leads to remedies that are ineffective or contribute to further marginalization. Solutions to the problems of black males must be found in the context of overall social and cultural change. (SLD)

The British educational system continues to exclude black male students in disproportionate numbers. Concerted and sustained policies are needed to achieve social justice, including a curriculum relevant to all students, ethnic monitoring, development of a new system to meet students' needs, and development of short-term and long-term strategies.…

This document provides a transcript of one of three panels held at a Manhattan Institute conference in June 2006. In this panel, the issue of reconnecting a certain segment of disadvantaged men into the workforce is discussed. John McWhorter explains that the Manhattan Institute has been instrumental in forging the reform of welfare legislation,…

Argues that ways in which the experience of manhood has structured the course and meanings of American men's activities must be examined. Pioneering work of feminist scholars has made us aware of the centrality of gender in shaping social life. It is now necessary to extend these studies to men. (SLD)

This paper presents research-based viewpoints on black students' self-esteem and how it relates to achievement. Both historical events and research findings support the argument that blacks' self-esteem and achievement levels have been systematically kept at a lower level than whites'. Arguments for both segregation and insulation are considered…

Lung cancer is a serious health problem among blacks, with a mortality rate of 119 per 100,000 black males, compared to 81 per 100,000 for white males. Smoking cessation efforts are most successful when tailored to the black community, using black community networks and broadcast media for black audiences. (SLD)