FYI- I have been writing a couple of things on Baltimore but hadn’t decided where to share them. I’m hoping to share them with y’all very soon.

Right now you can pick up the book (paperback or hardback) at Stanford University Press (use discount code S14SOC) or via Amazon. I’ll be announcing more about its availability in brick and mortar stores as well as in other formats (ibooks, kindle). I look forward to you reading along with me!!

Photo courtesy of Brett Levin

R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy is a professor of sociology at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. This month, his book Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling is being released through Stanford University Press. In this interview with Neighborhoods and Nations, he gives an overview of the research underlying the book’s insights on the everyday, and often insidious, forms of discrimination black students and their families face in schools across America. In doing so, Professor Lewis-McCoy paints a portrait of a new suburban landscape, one that fails to be “the promised land” of broader opportunities and resources that struggling families, particularly people of color, can rely on in equal shares.

How would you contextualize this work in relation to your past and ongoing research? Would you say that ‘race and education’ is a primary focus for you as a sociologist? 

My research for Inequality in the Promised Land continues my ongoing interest in how race and class shape educational opportunity. This year marks 60 years since the US Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate facilities are inherently unequal facilities.” When most people think of schools they think of them as the engine of social change or potentially the “great equalizer.” Unfortunately, when we look deeper, we see that schools are a mixed bag—some schools are flying high, while others are failing.

Read More at Neighborhoods and Nations

Photo by Karl Ferguson

As I was saying, in a Sunday morning Ebony.com pulled together a diverse group of brothas at B. Braxton’s in Harlem (real nice spot, check it out if you want upscale professional barber experience … this is not a paid endorsement). On that morning we talked for about two hours on subject ranging from when we believed we became a man to the significance of the “black head nod.” It was an amazing experience that I pray we will replicate and I know many of you would have loved to be there … now you have a chance. Part 1: Manhood and Fatherhood is here and Part 2: Women and Relationships is here.

The Window Sex Project addresses and tackles the every day practice in which women are “window shopped,” that is forced to bear unsolicited verbal harassment from men while walking on the street. Through community workshops and choreographed performance, The Window Sex Project will give voice to these concerns and restore agency to women by equipping them to manage street harassment, celebrating their bodies and creating a public artwork, specifically a dance performance which takes place in an art gallery.

This performance will be followed by a panel that I will be moderating.
The performance and panel will be held at Barnard on Monday April 2nd at 6:30pm in the Diana Event Oval.

Hear Sydnie Mosley speak about the WSP and International Anti-Street Harassment Week.

Follow this link to see some excerpts of the performance
(sorry wordpress is not letting me the videos)
The Window Sex Project: World Premiere Promo from Sydnie Mosley on Vimeo.

I will be moderating a panel discussion on the performance, responding to street harassment and how to create safe communities.

To get tickets and learn more about the Window Sex Project click here.

All are welcome some tell your brother, sister, mother, cousin and others to be in the place for dynamic performance and conversation.

To Purchase tickets click here (this takes you to brown paper tickets site).

To make a donation of another amount click here (donations are collected by Akila Worksongs).

For more information click here (this takes you to the facebook event page).

For some evidence of the percolated conversations, check out this clip of brothers on the yard discussing the article and the greater community.

If you cannot see the video, please click here.

If you cannot see the video, click here.

Introduction with remarks from Dr. Obie Clayton (Sociology), President of Morehouse College Robert Franklin, and Dr. David Wall Rice (Psychology)

Dr. Horace L. Griffin‘s ( Pacific School of Religion) talks on The Black Church and Black Macho. Griffin goes in depth and breaks down his passage through Morehouse as a religious fundamentalist and arrival to a deeper and more rich spirituality. Griffin breaks down his misogynist and homophobic views and his development into a more equity driven gay Episcopal minister. He is author of Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Church.

Dr. Michael J. Strambler (Yale School of Medicine) breaks down questions of educational motivation among African-American males. He reviews and challenges the current set of explanations which assume low motivation and anti-academic attitudes of Black youth. He then identifies some promising practices for reforming schools to positively affect Black male student experience and performance.

Dr. Shani Harris Peterson (Spelman College) presents on sex, media, and its implications for health. She challenges the audience to interrogate videos, including Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful.” She also masterfully negotiates a set of questions that essentialize Black women as golddiggers and Black men as African royalty.

This is my talk and I’ll be offering more comments tomorrow in a post on Black Male Privilege (BMP) which includes the link. Also, check out Sister Toldja’s salute to my talk (blushing) and more importantly the subject matter of BMP.

Lastly, the panel closes with a question and answer session where a number of issues are clarified and challenging thoughts offered.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being on the Addicted to Race podcast. I was on with Tami from What Tami Said, Andrea Plaid  who guest blogs at Racialicious, and Deesha Philyaw of CoParenting101. The conversation was a great one which started with a discussion of Black women and women of color’s absence in the growing body of Mommy Memoirs.We then talked about my post “I’m for Gay Rights but…” and issues of civil rights, gay rights and social justice in the African-American community. Followed up with a discussion of the movie Precious which has been received with very mixed results and why we think this has been and what it means for Black media representation. We concluded with a discussion of CNN’s Black men in the Age of Obama. We talked about the ways that CNN has met the challenge of covering ethnic communities but questioned what could have been done better. Great topics, witty commentary, what more are you waiting on? Click here to hear it!

civil rights and beyond. I will be on the “Building a Progressive Agenda Towards Quality Education” at 2:30 with Judith Brown-Dianis (Co-Director the Advancement Project), Dr. James Loewen (Author of Sundown Towns and Lies My Teacher Told), Dr. Charles Willie (Professor Emeritus Harvard), Dr. Edison Jackson (President Medgar Evers College-CUNY).

Murray Hill Suite, New York Hilton Hotel

This exciting Education Advocacy Workshop takes
the participants through a series of scenarios taken
from the very real challenges African American
students face in public education systems across
the country. The issues will range from student
assignment and assessments to teacher quality
and resource equity, from high takes barrier testing
to zero tolerance policies. For each scenario, the
panelists will encourage and coordinate discussion
by the workshop participants. This approach is
intended to increase the opportunity for the
exchange of analytical, tactical and strategic
approached with the context of both our strategic
priorities in education and our organizational
framework. This workshop will also review winning
strategies to reduce structural, political, financial
and other barriers, towards the goal of realizing
equal access to quality education.

Maxine Smith (NAACP Board of Directors Chair) will moderate the session which has a unique format. While each panel member will provide some evidence about their area of expertise, the bulk of the session will be responding to real life scenarios around education posed from the audience. This is a unique opportunity to move between scholarship and action, please come out if you’re in the area!

Tomorrow, Wednesday evening, the City College of New York will host an important panel discussion on the No Child Left Behind Act. The panel is entitled, “Has No Child Left Behind Failed High Poverty Urban Schools?” was organized by Tiffany O’Neal a CCNY student and New York Life Fellow. I will be moderating the panel which features Christopher Edmin of Teacher’s College, Winthrop Holder teacher and author of Classroom Calypso, and Marcus Winters of the Manhattan Institute. More information on panelist is available here.
The panel will occur from 5 to 7pm in Shepard Hall Room 250.

The conversation promises to be lively and insightful.

This week, on Thursday the 12th, I will be a featured panelist at New York University’s Gallatin School. I will be on a panel discussing Black and Jewish Relations as part of their Black History Month Programming. From the look of the panelist it’s going to be a lively and engaging discussion. More information is provided beneath. Also, they are asking people to RSVP, which I believe is so they have an approximate head count. Details below:

Today I’ll on NPR‘s New and Notes on their bloggers roundtable discussion inauguration and coming challenges for Barack Obama. You can find out where it airs in your area here.

Update: Here is the link so you can take a listen. I was featured with Faye Anderson of Anderson@Large and the soon to launch Tracking Change wiki. It was a fun great discussion.

I’m scheduled to be on with some very interesting folks:

Felicia Harvey from BlackPoliticsonttheWeb.com

Lenny McAllister from Lennymcallister.com

Tune your radio into NPR … okay well maybe you don’t have a radio, in that case, check out NPR.org. On Thursday (November 20th) at 1pm EST to hear me on NPR News and Notes hosted by Farai Chideya. I’m scheduled to be on a segment discussing issues of racial stereotypes.

Update: Here is the link to the story “Inside the Thorny Landscape of Racial Stereotypes.” I was  on with Macon D  of the blog Stuff White People Do.

Tune into WTVS Detroit Public Television tonight to see me and a panel of experts discuss the role of race in Metro Detroit. The fourth installment of Bridging the Racial Divide hosted by Emery King and Paul Smith covers topics including black political leadership, the urban suburban divide, and the greatest hopes for Detroit’s future. I’m joined by an esteemed panel Dave Bing candidate for mayor of Detroit, Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press, Nolan Finley of the Detroit News, Peter Karmanos business and civic leader in Detroit, and Krista Hartoutunian attorney.

If the television is not your medium, check out the simulcast on WDET 101.9 FM and WJR 760 AM. You can check out all four installments of Bridging the Racial Divide on WTVS’ Video on Demand page.

I’m outside of NYC right now, but been running around and getting work done. In the meantime check out this brief interview on DailyKos. The interview was done virtually with David Boyle who has developed a the site called Obamaism.org. Check it out and leave a comment.

Tonight, Monday July 21st, I’ll be featured as a panelist on Lynn Doyle’s It’s your call. We’ll be continuing the conversation about Jesse Jackson, Black political leadership, and the controversies surrounding both. The show airs regionally on Comcast’s Cn8 or can be streamed live from here if you’re outside one of the designated regions. We’ll be taping live and it has a call-in format, so drop us a line.

Sunday morning I will be appearing on Jesse Jackson’s radio show Keep Hope Alive Radio which is syndicated nationally. This week Marc Lamont Hill will be filling in for Rev. Jackson. We will be discussing Civil Rights leadership and contemporary politics. Find out where and when you can hear the show locally here. Tune in and give us your perspective.

And yes I know this is some late notice…

UPDATE: The show is now available online here!!! After Sunday it will be available in the Audio Archive.

Like all journalism, whether print or multimedia, I always find myself wondering how things become whittled down. We really discussed a great deal in the interview which was about a half an hour. We discussed current day Harlem, its history, Black politics, Black leadership, really the whole gamut. But even with the editing, I think the piece was successful. Check it out.

Update: For some reason this video seems to be very difficult to maintain a link to. I’ve changed the url a couple of times and as of 1m on June 26th this link is active. I hope the video doesn’t disappear from cyberspace! And shout out to UptownFlavor.com where I pulled the link from!

And on a side, but related note to my traveling, I’ll be taking some time to reorganize my stuff over the next while, so posts may be slow.