News > February 28, 2007

Making Black Voices Heard

A new study examines minority youth opinion

By Chelsea Ross

The doll test: this little girl, like three out of four black children, chose the white doll over the black one (from A Girl Like Me)

On February 10, the short documentary A Girl Like Me, about the pressures faced by young black females living in a white-dominated society, hit number one on YouTube.com’s featured videos. One of the interviewees, Jennifer, 18, looks straight into the camera and confesses: “Since I was young, I considered being lighter [skinned] as … more beautiful than being dark skinned. … I used to think of myself as ugly because I was dark skinned.”

The film, which had been viewed more than 450,000 times as In These Times went to press, gave voice to a population that is often talked about but rarely heard from, much less listened to. A new University of Chicago study examining the experience of black youth in post-civil rights America plans to change that.

“I talk about the two Bills — Bill O’Reilly and Bill Cosby — who are both willing to talk about and demean young black people. [I thought] it would be interesting and important to actually have a study where young black people get to speak for themselves,” says Cathy Cohen, a University of Chicago political science professor and lead researcher of the Black Youth Project, which was released in early February.

“We want to interrupt this narrative of young black people, even for a moment or two, so we can really think through how we can empower their voices and empower them, so they and we can better their lives,” Cohen says.

The team of researchers surveyed almost 1,600 black, Latino and white youth aged 15 to 25 from several Midwestern cities, and conducted in-depth interviews with 40 black youth. The study exposes the complex attitudes and behaviors of these groups when it comes to sex, hip hop and politics.

“I’ve been a little surprised at how many people have said, ‘Wow, [black youth] are really thoughtful,’ or, ‘Oh my god, they really have positions on policy,’” Cohen says. “Well, they’re the targets of these policies. Yeah, they have positions.”

For example, 93 percent of black youth believe that sex education should be mandatory in high schools, and 76 percent think the government should stop funding only abstinence programs. And while almost half of black youth believe that abortion is always wrong, nearly 60 percent think that abortion should be legal in some circumstances.

The project also reports that while more than 70 percent of black and Latino youth feel they “have the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in politics,” more than half believe the government “cares little about them.”

Sixty-eight percent of black youth believe that the government would do more to cure AIDS if more white people were afflicted with the disease.

“Even though some people will celebrate the end of Jim Crow and legal segregation,” says Cohen, “these young people are very clear that in their daily lives … they perceive young black people to experience very high levels of discrimination.” Almost 70 percent of black youth reported that they had been discriminated against due to their race, and large majorities of all youth believed that “on average, the police discriminate much more against black youth than they do against white youth.”

When it comes to music, 58 percent of black youth report listening to rap everyday, but even greater majorities (92 percent of females and 74 percent of males) think rap music videos portray black women offensively. In the project’s third stage, which begins this spring, researchers will perform thorough content analyses of the top rap songs of the past 10 years.

Kyle Myhre, a hip-hop MC and project coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Diversity Education Program, says the report is “an important piece of the puzzle. Any large-scale social change … needs to be a multi-tiered assault. There need to be academic studies, but there also need to be community organizers and a media that can cover things properly.”

Cohen says she plans on reaching out to those people, disseminating the study’s findings to community leaders, educators and policy makers, in the hope that the study will be “used in classrooms, by community organizers and by youth advocates.”

“It would be nice if one of the presidential candidates, maybe Sen. Obama, would comment on and … listen to young black people,” Cohen says. “And not just listen, but take their positions seriously; vote their voices in policy positions and make them a central component in evaluating how well this democracy is working.”

She also hopes the study will draw attention to arenas where young people are already speaking out, such as spoken word poetry, underground hip-hop and independent films, such as A Girl Like Me.

“The question is,” says Cohen, “will people listen to what they have to say?”

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• Reader Comments

  Oh, Gawd, give us a break here ! These youths need to be heard much less, most are deaf by age 30. From way too much noise.

  Posted by blondemike on Feb 28, 2007 at 2:04 PM

  Well written article.

  The old white domination of this country has passed. Now every American is a minority. BM is a perfect example of the old white man who is afraid of his chickens coming home to roost.

  Posted by texasindependent on Mar 1, 2007 at 12:03 AM

  Not my chickens and not my roost since I never advocated the policies which brought us to the current mess. We need to deport the 12 million illegals here as a good first step.

  Posted by blondemike on Mar 1, 2007 at 11:08 AM

  Mikey please. You are the best example of the policies that instituted racism. You have disparaged every single ethnic group at least once. You consider any one who is not white as somehow below you. You are a cracker. Using the example of Chimpsky as you suggest. You are the illegal. You live on stolen land and oppress the rightful owners. You live in a predominately african american neighborhood and castigate your neighbors supposed faults. I am not sure if anyone has ever told you but you seem to be an obnoxious asshole. The endless complaints about your vet, your neighbors, your country, every single ethnic group you have ever encountered, and life in general proves my point. Perhaps this internet persona is somehow more abrasive then the real BM but I seriously doubt it. If the internet BM and the real life BM are the same I doubt anyone actually likes you or enjoys your company. You claim a wife if so she is a saint.

  My question to you would be why? Why are you such a hate filled wretch? What has happened that makes you so unlikeable. Is negative attention all you can get? Why would you post ..,......” These youths need to be heard much less, most are deaf by age 30. From way too much noise.”

  What possible slight could nameless teenagers have commited to warrant your wretched animosity?  Are these nameless kids somehow less important than an old white guy? Do you really believe you can turn back the clock and somehow “colored” people will know their place? Mikey you are disgusting but endlessly fascinating.

  Posted by texasindependent on Mar 2, 2007 at 7:16 PM

  The reason I don’t know the names of these vicious black thugs is because they are criminals, Oakland is overwhelmed with crime and
  most crimes don’t get solved because of lack of police and a minority coddling justice shystem. Are these punks less important than me ?
  Damn right they are ! They aren’t worth jack shit and neither are you.
  As far as the Marxian idea of historical inevitability goes you are wrong, current policies and trends can be reversed & discredited. Reagan tried
  to turn the clock back and in some ways he was right as well as wrong.
  Let’s see, these punks held two guns to each of my wife’s head, yeah, that produces great animosity in me, beaner fuckface. Hope that answers your query.
  As far as disparaging all groups go that proves I’m anti-racist to the core. I’ve attacked the white neocon imbeciles like Scorp, Wolf and WTH
  as much as I have the colored left.
  How would you even begin to be competent to judge the complaints
  about that criminal vet who killed three of my cats ? Or my criminal neighbors since you never experienced what we have ? As far as the
  country goes you confuse the policies of the criminal government and criminal Administration with the country as a whole. Everyone on this board knows you are a piece of shit Alberto Gonzales Latino Fascist
  Wannabe White Boy piece of Evangelical shit. Don’t make the common
  error of thinking most people think like you, they don’t. And since there
  were never more than 7,000 Mexicans living here before California split off how could I be living on stolen land ? They never owned 99.99% of it for others to “steal.”

  Posted by blondemike on Mar 4, 2007 at 1:46 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 7 posts.

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