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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 2014)
ffl?t ^ortlanb (Obstruer Caree r& E ducation March 12, 2014 Page 9 SPECIAL E D IT IO N Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. • Rallying Help for Young Males The president’s inspiring announcement M arc H. M orial I was on hand at the W h ite H o u se la st month for one of the most inspiring and im p o rtan t P re sid en tial announcements in re cent history. In the aftermath of the killings of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, and in response to data showing how badly the odds are stacked against millions of boys and young men of color in the United States, President Obama k ic k e d -o ff “ M y B ro th e r’s Keeper,’’ an unprecedented pub lic-private initiative aimed at im proving life outcomes and ad dressing opportunity gaps for the by nation’s most vulnerable popu lation. The President made the an nouncement before an audience o f young males of color and a coalition oCgovernment, busi ness, civic and philan th ro p ic lead ers. I w as proud to be there to repre sent the National Urban League. In unusually personal terms, President Obama spoke about his own struggles with drugs and alienation as a young boy growing up without a father. He called on all Ameri cans to do more to improve the prospects for young males of color who are less likely to gradu ate from high school and more likely to be unemployed or end up in jail than any other group in America. Framing the initiative as both a moral and economic impera tive, President Obama has done what Congress has failed to do over the past five years, con vene a diverse and bipartisan coalition of Americans commit ted to targeted help for commu nities and populations most in need. A t the h e a rt o f the M y B rother’s K eeper initiative is a com m itm ent from a group of businesses and large and small foundations who have pledged at least $200 m illion over the next five years, on top of the $ 150 m illion they have already invested to test and expand proven strategies for im prov ing the life prospects of young m ales of color. The President has also form ed an interagency federal task force to direct this effort. As the National Urban League M ovem ent has asserted for years, we know what works: early childhood education, stron ger pathways to college and the world of work, alternatives to zero-tolerance discipline policies, shutting down the school-to- prison pipeline, more guidance from fathers and mentors, and the courage and determination of young males of color them selves to reject negative stereo types, make good choices and succeed. The need for this initiative is clear. D ata show s that boys and young men of color, re g ardless o f socio-econom ic background, are disproportion ately at risk throughout the jour ney from their youngest years to college and career, includ ing large disparities in reading proficiency, em ploym ent, and involvement in the criminal ju s tice system. These young men are more than six tim es more likely to be victim s o f m urder than their w hite peers and account for alm ost h alf o f the co u n try ’s m urder victim s each year. As the P resident said, “These sta tistics should break our hearts, and they should com pel us to act.’’ I agree and I com m end President O bam a for his lead ership in tackling this problem. “My B rother’s K eeper” is an inspiring exam ple of what we can do when we transform words into action and coalesce around com plex issues with a com m itm ent to changing lives. But, there is still much to be done as we w ork together, across the public-private-non profit spectrum , to drive this initiative forw ard. The oppor tunity is before us, and so is the will. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. A Sweet Victory for Nutrition Labels l “’’ * 11 .1 Finally, the government sides with consumers J ill R ichardson The Food and Drug A d m in is tra tio n r e cently came out with a sweet surprise. Its proposed new nutri tion label will finally give us a bit of key information we need to understand our food: the amount o f added sugars. If you look at a nutrition label now, you will see how many grams of sugar are in a serving of your food. That includes all sugars. It counts the lactose in milk and naturally occurring sug ars from fruit. The nutritionally important bit of info for most of us is not total sugars, but added sugars — w hich include the sweetener we call “sugar” plus others like high-fructose com syrup and honey. In addition to the blueberries and the yogurt in your blueberry yogurt, how much sugar did the manufacturer add? If you’re try ing to pick the healthiest yogurt by ----------- 1 . . 1 or granola bar, that’s a Í fact . you need to know. OK, so every breakfast ce real in the aisle has some sugar added to it, but do the 19 grams of sugar in Kellogg’s Rai sin Bran come from the raisins or from sugar and high-fructose com syrup? How does it stack up against ~ . . - - ter for Science in the Public Interest asked the government to include “Added Sugars” on nutrition labels. The government refused. Why? Because it might confuse consumers. The activist group tried again in 1999. That year, sugar con sumption hit an all-time high. Yet again, the answer was no. one issue. The nutrition advice y o u ’ve probably heard on sugar in volves phrases like “em pty calories” and “eat sparingly.” The conventional wisdom was that added sugars were bad sim ply because they contrib uted calories to your diet w ith out any nutrition. In truth, added sugar’s more than just an empty calorie. It’s harmful to your body in a number o f ways, and eating too much can increase your risk o f contracting diabetes and heart disease, having a stroke, and more serious illnesses. à Froot Loops, which only has 12 grams of sugar but no fruit at all ? Until now, the sim plest way to do this was som ething no body will try at hom e. You can count the num ber o f raisins per serving of Raisin Bran and then calculate the am ount o f sugar in them. And, as it turns out, the cereal is actually full of added sugars. More than two decades ago, the nutrition activist group Cen- In 2013, with F irst Lady M ichelle O bam a calling the nation’s attention to the cata strophic state of our diets, it was ^time to^ry again. And — just recently — the Food and Drug Administration agreed. It’s ridiculous that it took two decades for the government to side with consumers over the interests of the food industry, but thank goodness our leaders came to their senses. At least on this As for the advice about eat ing it “sparingly,” th at’s not what we do here in the United States, w here about 15 per cent o f our calories com e from sugar. In truth, added sugar’s more than ju st an em pty calorie. It’s harm ful to your body in a num ber of ways, and eating too much can increase your risk of contracting diabetes and heart disease, having a stroke, and more serious illnesses. The good news is, once the new nutrition labels take effect, you’ll at least be able to know how much you’re eating. Going by the A m e ric a n H eart Association ’ s recommendations, women should stick to six tea spoons (25 grams) or less, and men to nine teaspoons (38 grams) or less. Hopefully, food companies will be as eager to claim their prod ucts are low in added sugars as they were to claim “zero trans fats” when that went on the label. Successfully reducing sugar consumption to healthier levels, even with labeling, will be no picnic in the toxic food environ ment we live in. The real change will come if — or when — food com panies decide to remove heaps of the sweet stuff from our food instead of admitting to obscene amounts of it on their labels. And that will be a sweet vic tory for health. OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author o f Recipe fo r America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.
