Breaking the Barriers: Talking About Race in Baltimore
Baltimore in Black and White from Urbanite. Thanks to Michael Corbin for the tip.
A number of heavy hitters in education reform name closing the achievement gap as a driving mission. They’re mostly white. Because I was curious about whether closing that gap was in itself a driver for education reform-minded African Americans, I made my way to the Enoch Pratt Free Library on the night of October 20 to listen to two black male professors tackle the subject of black male achievement.
The event was called “Breaking the Barriers: Helping Black Males Achieve Academic Success,” the twelfth event in the Open Society Institute -Baltimore‘s Talking About Race series. The panelists: Ivory Toldson, associate professor at Howard University, and Raymond Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. The moderator:Shawn Dove, campaign manager for the Open Society Campaign for Black Male Achievement.
In the first answer of the night, Toldson questioned the “achievement gap” talk in precisely the way I was
