By Any Means Necessary; State of Black Men Summit Seeks Solutions

Summary

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"Over the last 20 years there's been a complete breakdown of dialogue between older Black men to bring younger males along," Powell said. "Across the country wherever I go, Black men are saying that leadership has sold us out."

"It's hypocritical to condemn our youth for 'bling blinging,'" he said, using the hip hop term for showing off material wealth, "when the preacher is bling blinging on TV every day. Why do we speak a certain way? If young people are coming out of school systems not having the basic skills, do you blame the child or do you blame the school system? It's like blaming our ancestors for putting themselves into slavery."

"I believe that's another root problem," he said. "I believe there's a special relationship between Ritalin and cocaine, between special education and prison, between illiteracy and incarceration," he said.

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Extract

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By Any Means Necessary; State of Black Men Summit Seeks Solutions

Kevin Powell has heard all of the negative statistics about Black men. If needed, he could recite them backwards and forwards.

But the book author and activist isn't about spending all of his time talking about what needs to be done about the state of Black men in America, his focus is to do something.

"When Black men come together to do something po...

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