This article explores the benefits and challenges of a Spanish language immersion preschool from the perspective of a non-Spanish speaking African American family. Data explored include the decision to enroll, reactions from peers and family, home-school communication issues, language development, and family involvement. In addition,…

To highlight the individual and systemic practices that perpetuate the overuse of and reliance on kinship care and instead emphasize family reunification as the permanency plan for African American children in the child welfare system, the authors first discuss how kinship care is affected by federal child welfare policy and provide a historical…

America is failing its young Black boys. In metropolitan ghettos, rural villages and midsized townships across the country, schools have become holding tanks for populations of Black boys who have a statistically higher probability of walking the corridors of prison than the halls of college. Across America, the problem of Black male achievement…

The 2000 Census reported that more than 7 million black residents five years and older (almost 24 percent of black persons, compared to 19 percent of the total population) had one or more disabilities. Black and Native American residents share the highest overall estimated disability rate. Based upon the data from the 2000 Census among black…

This article unveils the largely unknown theories and practices of "cultural reattachment Africentric education leaders," because many people of African descent are now choosing to reattach (in whole or in part) to aspects of certain African cultures (such as Wolof or Akan). The article offers a brief background of African-centered…

Using data from a sample of 455 African American children (ages 10 to 12 years) and their parents, this study tests a hypothesized model linking (a) maternal work demands to family routines through work-family conflict and depressive symptoms and (b) maternal work demands to children's externalizing and internalizing problems through family…

The number of U.S. children entering foster care is increasing faster than the number of available foster parents. Of particular concern are the growing number of African American children in foster care and the lack of African American foster parents to care for them. This study compares role perceptions of African American and white foster…

Although interpersonal violence is evident in all strata of society, every geographical area in the country, and across each gender, it takes courage to acknowledge our passivity about the phenomena, particularly when people of color are involved. Thus, the mass incarcerations of African American men and women and data citing the…

The disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minority children in the child welfare system concerns many child welfare professionals. Few studies have investigated how neighborhood processes may contribute to this disparity. This study examined how neighborhood characteristics are associated with rates of child maltreatment for black,…

This article examines stage models of racial identity that researchers and educators use to explain the subjective processes that influence how black youth navigate school. Despite the explicit challenge that most models of racial identity have posed to racist discourses in the research literature, the underlying ethics of their developmental…

In 2005, the Children's Aid Society launched The African American Male Initiative to respond to the growing concern for the status of African American males and to bring about change. The initiative aims to: (1) more fully understand the issues facing our Black male clients and (2) create new program strategies that will better address the needs…

Much has been written in recent years about the concept of empowerment, particularly as it relates to urban youth of color. The author agrees with Bemak et al.'s underlying premise that much of what is written about and practiced with respect to the empowerment of African American youth makes the assumption that counselors somehow empower young…

In 2003, Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Raspberry attended a reunion at the small, private Episcopal school he graduated from in Okolona Miss, population 3,500. " As a journalist, Raspberry frequently writes about other people's actions. Now the time had come for him to initiate action. Throughout his years of…

This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study [Reichman, N., Teitler, J., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. (2001). The fragile families and child wellbeing study: Sample and design. "Children and Youth Services Review, 23", 303-326] to describe primary child care arrangements of employed, predominantly low-income mothers…

This paper explores expressions of marginalization of White preservice teachers serving as academic mentors to Black adolescent males in a unique partnership program. Junior secondary education majors form tri-partite interdisciplinary teams and work with intact groups of Black youth, members of a community-based Black rites of passage program for…