APRIL 1 , 1998
Page A3
(The Portlauò (lìbsriw r
Black Teen Suicide Study
Alarming, Yet Misleading
A frican-A m erican Leadership
Network Says Youth Are Not Kill
ing Them selves Because Their
Families Are Doing Better Finan
cially
Members o f the African-Ameri
can Leadership Network Project 21
reject a recent center for Disease
Control and Prevention study on
teen suicide that says African-
American teens reared in upwardly
mobile families are not able to cope
with the “stressful” environment
created by black prosperity.
The study shows the suicide rate
o f African-Americans between the
ages o f 10 and 19 has increased by
114% since 1980. In southern states,
the rate has grown by 214%. Some
scholars and the study’s authors say
that a consequence o f rising pros
perity and social integration for
blacks over the last few decades has
caused a loss o f racial identity and a
distance between families, children
and the community. Members o f
Project 21 say the situation is not so
simple.
Career Connections Job Fair
The Career
Connections '98
Job Fair will
happen on
Thursday April 2
at the Memorial
Coliseum.
ber and adjunct fellow at the W ash
ington-based Center for New Black
Leadership says, “given the collapse
o f urban family and educational in
stitutions, should we be surprised at
the spiritual emptiness which causes
our young people to make often fatal
choices'? Whether they passively dri ft
into the gang-war lifestyle or defi
antly turn deadly weapons on them
selves, the result is the same: A lack
o f self-esteem turning into self-ha
tred turning into self-destruction.
Clearly, these are not factors o f race
— they are factors o f culture, spiritu
ality and morality. Unless a com m it
ment is made to strengthening the
basic family unit, reforming our ur
ban schools and re-energizing the
spirit o f our communities, these aw
ful numbers will only increase."
Project 21 has been a leading voice
ofthe African-American community
since 1992. For information contact
Roderick Conrad at 202-543-1286
or Project21@ natinalcenter.org, or
v isit P ro je c t 2 1 ’s w e b s ite at
w w w .project21 ,org.
Project 21 D irector Roderick
Conrad said, "Headlines on the in
crease in the black teen suicide rate,
while troubling, are hardly news."
While many loud, liberal and radical
voices have decried the (quote) geno
cide (unquote) perpetrated by main
stream society, clearly the larger
problem has always been an internal
cultural suicide. How can we really
be shocked at [these] numbers when
’black-on-black’ crime -- often an
extension o f drug and gang-related
activity - has been raging for years'.’"
“The root cause is the chaotic re
sult predicted decades ago by Demo
c ra t S e n a to r D aniel P atrick
M oynihan,” states Phyllis Berry
Myers, president o f Black America
PA C’s Leadership and Training In
stitute. “ It is a liberal bureaucratic
welfare state, which has eroded the
most effective tools to producing
stable, nurturing environments for
young black Americans - an intact
family and safe, effective educational
learning systems.”
Robert George, a Project 21 mem
A full house o f
ninety
employers are
expected at the
fair.
The Urban
League will
feature their
One Stop Career
Center booth
during this
event.
Workplace sc Public Policies
O ut of Sync With Their Lives
Washington D.C.— After 27 years
as one o f the nation’s most effective
advocacy groups, the W om en’s Le
gal Defense Fund became the Na
tional Partnership for W omen 8-
Families this month. With the new
name and a new agenda focused on
health care and workplace issues, the
organization released a national pub
lic opinion poll. Fam ily M a tte r: A
N ational Survey o f W om en and
M en.
Fam ily M a tte rs found that, even
with an im proving economy, two-
thirds o f African Americans (63%)
say that time pressures on working
families are getting worse. Just 18%
say time pressures are getting better.
H alf (48% ) say that making sure their
fam ily can get qual ity health care has
gotten harder and more than four in
ten (44% ) say that the health care
Lichtm an said. “That holds true
for w o m en and m en; A fric a n
A m ericans, H ispanics and w hites;
generation Xers and baby boomers;
R epublicans, D em ocrats and inde
pendents; people with high incomes
and people in poverty; stay-at-
hom e m om s and w orking w om en.
And the dem and for change is only
going to grow . T o d a y ’s younger
w orkers expect m ore.”
T he N atio n al P a rtn e rsh ip a n
n o u n ced tw o new in itia tiv e s: the
Q u a lity H ealth C are In itia tiv e to
help w om en get th e in fo rm a tio n
and basic c o n su m e r p ro te c tio n s
they need fo r th e m se lv e s and
th e ir fa m ilie s; and the F am ily
L eave In itia tiv e to m ake fam ily
and m edical leav e a v a ila b le to
m ore w o rk in g fa m ilie s for m ore
reaso n s.
system is getting worse Neither the
women nor men think workplaces
are nearly as flexible or fair as they
should be. Three in four African
Americans (75% ) under age 45 ex
pect to need family or medical leave
in the next ten years. Ninety-six
percent o f African Americans want
employers to do more to help work
ing families, and 90% want govern
ment to do more. Conducted by Lake
Sosin Snell Perry & Associates, the
poll compares attitudes o f Ameri
cans o f different generations, and
explores views by gender, race, po
litical affiliation, and income level.
“A m ericans w ant m ore respon
sive em ployers and law m akers.
They w ant change. They expect
change. And th e y 're w illing to pay
for it and vote for it,” National
P artn ersh ip President Judith L.
You are 2
months old.
Y our lungs
are this tiny.
You spend day
after day around
secondhand ciga
rette smoke. You
breathe it in. You
cough. You hack.
You wheeze. Your
lungs clog up with
sticky fluid and
thick mucous.
You get bron-
c h itis. O r
*
Tobacco Prevention Education Program
Oregon Health Division
Martin Luther
Memorial
Lutheran Church
invites you
to a retirem en t
celebration for the Rev.
Dr. Rozel 1 Gilmore on
Saturday, April 4,1998
from 5pm to 8pm at the
Lutheran Community
Center located at 4219
NE Martin Luther King
Blvd.
For more information
call 281-7036.
p n e u m o n ia .
If you have asth
ma, it will like
ly get worse. All
to g eth er, up to
300,000 babies
end up getting
sick every year.
15,000 of them
could end up hospi
talized. Simply from
being exposed to
cigarette smoke. A
m essage from
the people of
O re g o n .
NAACP Supports U.S.
District Court Nominee
NAAC'P President Kweisi Mfume
urged Senate Judiciary Chairman
Orrin Hatch to approve the nomina
tion o f Frederica Massiah-Jackson
to the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District o f Pennsylvania.
“Judge Frederica Massiah-Jack
son has been described by civil and
criminal attorneys as a patient, fair,
thorough and well-presented jurist,”
wrote Mfume in a letter to Sen. Hatch,
“the NAACP believes that Judge
Massiah Jackson is eminently and
unequivocally qualified to serve in
this very important position and de
serves our nation’s full endorsement
and support.”
M f n m i* n sailed \ 4 n c c ia h - la c k s o n
“one o f the finest ju rists the state
o f Pennsylvania ever pro d u ced .”
The rate o f reversals o f her d eci
sions have been low and during her
career only 14 o f 4,000 cases w ere
reversed. She has been praised for
her balanced sentencing and c rit
ics and allies alike have com m ented
that Judge M assiah-Jackson’s ru l
ings are neither too lenient nor
overbearingly tough.
“Judge Massiah-Jackson is a fair
jurist who deserves to serve on the
U.S. District Court and we whole
heartedly recommend her and urge the
Senate Judiciary Committee to move
toward confirmation expeditiously,"