(Image: File)

NYC Police Officers Spew Offensive Comments in Facebook Group

Social media has propelled private thoughts into public forums.

In the case of several New York City police officers, they chose to disclose their offensive views towards being on the clock during the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn during Labor Day weekend in a public Facebook group.

Their comments likening the parade goers to “savages” and recommending to “drop a bomb and wipe them all out” was on display for the world to see until it disappeared days later for unknown reasons. However, the New York Times obtained a copy of the post.

Paul J. Browne, the police department’s deputy commissioner for public information, said he learned of the Facebook group from a reporter and would refer the issue to the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

The comments in the online group, which grew over a few days to some 1,200 members, were at times so offensive that some participants warned others to beware how their words might be taken in a public setting open to Internal Affairs “rats.”

Read more at the New York Times…

Russell Simmons On PETA Postage Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service has partnered with PETA to form a new campaign commemorating those that prefer a meatless diet in “Vegetarian Icons.”  Russell Simmons has made the list alongside various others, such as Ghandi, Cesar Chavez and Ellen DeGeneres, according to MTV News.

The stamps will be available online through December, and possibly into January at www.PETA.org.

A new Kwanzaa stamp–donned Kwanzaa (Forever)–has been added to the commemorative stamp collections.

Read more at News One…

HBCUs Need More Support

Even though the Congressional “super-committee” has yet to agree on a decision for federal-funding cuts, HBCUs are still on Washington’s chopping block.

The facts are uncanny. HBCUs could lose more than $20 million per year in federal support through across-the-board cuts. Or they could lose as much as $85 million per year through the normal appropriations process through which Congress decides how federal programs get funded.

The United Negro College Fund seeks to mobilize HBCU backers to get the support needed to keep them alive. Visit the UNCF site and click on “Take Action” to email your views to your House and Senate representatives.

Read more at The Root…

As part of our continuing back-to-school coverage, BlackEnterprise.com asked New Yorkers, “What are lessons you learned outside the classroom that you didn’t learn in it?” Take a look:

Videographer: Kahliah Laney

First Lady Michelle Obama addresses Spelman graduates at their May 15, 2011 commencement. (Image: Julie Yarbrough, Spelman College)

On May 15, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the Class of 2011 at Spelman College, a historically black college for women in Atlanta that was one of Black Enterprise’s “Top 50 Colleges for African Americans.”

Evidence of emotion and excitement about Mrs. Obama’s appearance were plentiful throughout the entire day. Lines to get in were wrapped around the convention center six hours before the graduation was scheduled to begin. Honorary degree recipient and entertainer Debbie Allen danced down the aisle during the procession. Backstage, convention center staffers pressed their faces through the cracks of doors just to get a glimpse of the nation’s first black first lady.

In her commencement address, Mrs. Obama charged the 550 graduating seniors to pay it forward as they change the world.

“As you climb those career ladders, just remember to reach down and pull others up behind you,” she said in her message about the responsibilities of receiving an excellent education. “Find folks who have so much potential–but so little opportunity–and do for them what Spelman has done for you.”

She also recounted the story of Spelman’s beginnings—two white women who made an extraordinary commitment in 1881 to educate black women by founding an institution that would produce pioneer alumnae, including Obama’s heroine, Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman.

“At a time when many workplaces were filled with not just glass ceilings, but brick walls, this school was urging black women to become doctors and lawyers, engineers, ambassadors,” said Obama, who was introduced as a “servant leader” by Spelman President Beverly Daniel Tatum.

The first lady shared advice from her own life about how to remain encouraged against naysayers and self-doubt. “That is the story of Spelman College: that unyielding presumption of promise, that presumption of brilliance, that presumption that every woman who enrolls at this school has something infinitely valuable to offer this world … That legacy is now your inheritance.”

Graduate Khadijah Robinson was moved by the words of Mrs. Obama, who accepted the Spelman’s invitation to be commencement speaker after a four-year campaign of letters and a compelling student-produced video. “The unyielding presumption of promise really resonated with me,” Robinson said. “I can look at my first lady and she looks just like me. She’s so composed, so beautiful, so intelligent and she had so many words of wisdom for us. I cried just walking into the auditorium.”

“She has this mix of grace and realness,” said Dr. Jocelyn Hicks-Garner, president of the school’s Los Angeles alumnae association. “She was so encouraging that it was as if she was speaking to us as a friend, or mother or sister who you really look up to. She commanded that respect and that dignity. At Spelman, you are around brilliant women who are doing wonderful things; but seeing the first lady felt like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”

Women are in the lead, according to a recent Census Bureau report (Image: Thinkstock)

• SMH: Tonya McDowell Could Face 20 Years in Prison for ‘Stealing’ Her Son’s Education

Not again. First Kelly Williams-Bolar was jailed for sending her daughters to the “wrong” school; now Tonya McDowell, a Connecticut homeless woman, may follow suit. She pleaded not guilty today at her arraignment in the Connecticut Superior Court.

McDowell is being charged with larceny and the pursuit to commit larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk Public Schools for enrolling her six-year-old son in a Norwalk elementary school instead of his zone school in Bridgeport. She was moving from shelter-to-shelter and used her friend’s Norwalk apartment address to get her son into a neighboring school.

“I wanted to send my child to a great school. What kind of crime are you committing by doing that” McDowell said to the Hartford Courant. “I want the best education possible. All I wanted was the best for him.”

The NAACP has stepped in to represent McDowell. It’s the first case in Connecticut where a parent is being prosecuted for sending a child outside of their district. If convicted, the concerned mother faces up to 20 years in prison.

• (Almost) All May Be Forgiven in the Case of Morris Brown

The US Department of Education has a pending agreement with Morris Brown College to settle almost $10 million debt for pennies on the dollar, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.

The Education Department has agreed to forgive more than $9.4 million in debt if the HBCU can manage to pay the remaining $500,000.

“We have been working on getting this debt addressed for a year,” said Morris Brown College President Stanley Pritchett. “This is a game-changer for the college. There are other financial challenges, but this will help to open the door … to resolving our other issues.”

The historically black institution has dealt with various financial issues in the past; including the city’s threats to turn off the college’s water supply. If the deal goes through, the historically black institution will be able to start fresh.

• Census Shows Women Advance Past Men in Education

New data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau shows that for the first time in history women outnumber men when it comes to finishing college and holding advanced degrees.

Consider this:

• Right now there are more than one million people living in tent communities in and around Port-au-Prince. Those who call this place home are ill-equipped to sustain and protect themselves from the many dangers that surround them. More than 250 cases of rape against women and children were reported in the first 150 days following the disaster, and Amnesty International reports that one year later rape survivors still flock to the office of a local women’s support group almost every other day.
• Since October more than 3,500 Haitians have died, with 170,000 more infected by cholera, a disease caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated by poisonous bacteria. The World Health Organization warns the outbreak there has not yet reached its peak.
• Squabbling over the country’s recent presidential election results—which sparked rioting that claimed the lives of five people last month when preliminary returns were announced—take the country that much further away from even beginning to address issues as critical and impactful as the rebuilding of homes and municipalities, employment and education.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux, award-winning economist, author and the current president of the historically Black Bennett College for women, was part of a delegation of Black academics and journalists to visit Haiti shortly after the quake. She says there are plenty of ways for African-Americans to lend their support to their Haitian brothers and sisters.

“One thing we can do is help sponsor Haitians who want to come to the U.S. to get an education,” she says. “Secondary schools—not to mention colleges—don’t exist there now, so Haitians who want to learn have no place to go. With the help of our churches, some of us may be able to afford to adopt a Haitian student who can then come to an HBCU, for instance, to continue their education.”

Malveaux, who oversees a project started by one of her students to provide food, clothing and other critical supplies to the Oasis orphanage in Port-au-Prince, is also encouraging people of color to keep sending money to and other forms of material assistance to those in need. “Nobody has the numbers on just how much damage this earthquake did from an economic standpoint… but what we do know is that money is not getting to where it needs to go fast enough,” she says. “The people cannot survive or thrive without our help.”

But perhaps most importantly, Malveaux believes we must also be willing to think long-term. “Of course the immediate concern is survival,” says Malveaux, who just released her fifth book, Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History. “But the larger, more global concern must be how we will see Haiti 15, 20 years from now; not just tomorrow. [Folks] must be willing to get involved politically—we must deal with the structural institutional imperialism that put Haiti where it is right now. This means knowing our history. For instance, do you know that the U.S. occupied Haiti for a major part of the 20th century? For that reason alone our politicians need to be doing everything possible to rebuild Haiti. And how is it that Haiti—after they won the war with France—was required to repay France reparations, when no other country was? Now is the time for [the French] to give that money back. Yes, we’re in the middle of a recession but that is no excuse. We must hold these governments responsible for providing Haiti with substantive material and financial relief over the long haul.”

• Places to start…
• Unicef
• Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
• American Red Cross

With Stevens’ Retirement, Obama to Name New Justice

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens announced on Friday that he will retire at the end of the court’s term in June or July. At 89, Stevens is its oldest and longest-serving judge and is also considered to be the leader of its liberal wing.

In a letter to Obama, Stevens wrote: “Having concluded that it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the Court’s next term, I shall retire from active service.”

The timing of Stevens’ announcement leaves enough time for the president to name a successor and for Senate Democrats, who have a 59-vote majority, to hold confirmation hearings and a vote before the court’s next term begins in October, according to the Associated Press.

Now Obama has a second opportunity to fill a Supreme Court seat, he will have to act more gingerly than he did with the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. He will likely pick someone who is as liberal as Sotomayor, but perhaps less liberal than Stevens.

“He’s got to play his political cards right, which is to say he will want to try to get someone who will have a reasonable chance of getting through the Senate, so he won’t go in a really liberal direction,” predicts University of California-Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain.

Indeed, with the November mid-term elections looming, Obama can ill-afford another bitter partisan fight, particularly so soon after the battle over healthcare reform, which has left many Democratic lawmakers feeling scarred. Friday morning, Rep. Bert Stupak (D-Michigan), who helped negotiate the abortion compromise in the healthcare bill, which helped it get the requisite number of votes needed for passage, also announced his retirement.

“Things have only gotten more bitter since [Sotomayor’s nomination]. The fact that Stupak decided not to run because of the vitriolic environment, the death threats to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shows we’re clearly in a very bitter period,” says Cain. “Obama realizes that the Republicans are smelling a potential midterm victory or gains, and he doesn’t want to give them any more ammunition.”

Cain added that Obama has to ensure that whomever he nominates is thoroughly researched and vetted and if the process is not handled properly, it will negatively impact the perception of him as president.

Possible candidates to replace Stevens include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, 49, and federal appellate judges Merrick Garland, 57, in Washington and Diane Wood, 59, in Chicago, writes the AP.

Cain pointed to Kagan as the right sort of choice, because she is centrist and has impeccable academic credentials. It would be very difficult for Republicans to characterize her as a someone who’s wildly liberal or undeserving of the robe. Wood also is considered more centrist.

Stevens was nominated to the bench by President Gerald Ford in 1975. Since then, he has often issued rulings with court’s liberal-leaning jurists. Most famously, he led the dissenters in the case of Bush v. Gore over the 2000 presidential election.
DOE Invests in Science and Technical Research at HBCUs

Nine historically black colleges and universities in South Carolina and Georgia have received nearly $9 million in grants from the Department of Energy to develop academic programs in science and technical research fields that will integrate coursework, DOE field work, and applied research., the White House announced earlier this week.

“This important partnership will provide the education and training opportunities students need to become the next generation of environmental scientists and engineers,” said Inés Triay, the DOE’s assistant secretary for environmental management, during the award presentation in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday.

Women and minorities are underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. In a Bayer Corp. survey of minority chemists and chemical engineers, many said the reason for the lack of diversity is because they are discouraged from pursuing studies and careers in these fields. The survey found that inadequate science and math programs in low-income school districts (75%); stereotypes that say STEM isn’t for girls or minorities (66%); and the education costs (53%) are the top three contributors to the underrepresentation. In addition, respondents cited managerial bias (40%), company/organizational/institutional bias (38%),  little or no access to networking opportunities (35%), and a lack of promotional/advancement opportunities (35%).

The participating institutions will have “the extraordinary opportunity to use this federal investment to train the scientists, mathematicians and engineers who can step in to meet the growing demand for new diverse talent,” Said House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina).

The following HBCU institutions are receiving awards:

Allen University, Columbia, SC – $1,000,000
Benedict College, Columbia, SC – $ 1,180,944
Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC – $999,018
Clinton Junior College, Rock Hill, SC – $837,049
Denmark Technical College, Denmark, SC – $789,440
Morris College, Sumter, SC – $987,793
Paine College, Augusta, GA – $ 992,889
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, SC- $ 1,197,987
Voorhees College, Denmark, SC – $982,387

Virginia Governor Issues Confederate History Month Mea Culpa

April is Autism Awareness Month, Celebrate Diversity Month, and also Confederate History Month. A number of states recognize the latter, but the state that’s had people buzzing this week is Virginia.

After quietly restoring Confederate History Month–without including the anti-slavery language that makes such proclamations only slightly less rebarbative—Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell was forced this week to admit he’d blundered. He issued a statement conceding that he’d made a “major omission” and inserted a paragraph in the proclamation acknowledging that slavery was, among other things, “an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights.”

The day before his mea culpa, McDonnell defended the proclamation, saying that slavery wasn’t “significant” enough for inclusion and that the document would help boost tourism. The state’s last Republican governor, Jim Gilmore, was also the last to issue a similar proclamation before McDonnell reintroduced it last week. Gilmore did, however, include anti-slavery language that read: “Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war.”

So, what was McDonnell thinking?

Michael Fauntroy, a George Mason University political scientist, says that people sometimes forget how far-right the governor actually leans and that he was simply pandering to the GOP’s conservative base.

“He was far more concerned about sort of repaying a debt and engaging in important symbolism that is important to those who support the notion of the Confederacy than he is to any backlash that may occur,” said Fauntroy. “There are a lot of people who believe the narrative that the Civil War was just about this amorphous concept called state’s rights, when the right in question was slavery.”

Immediately after the original proclamation was issued, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine denounced McDonnell.

“A failure to acknowledge the central role of slavery in the Confederacy and deeming insignificant the reprehensible transgression of moral standards of liberty and equality that slavery represented is simply not acceptable in the America of the 21st century,” Kaine wrote in a statement.

Interestingly, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, has been silent on the issue. Granted, he’s been dealing with his own embarrassments but McDonnell’s misstep certainly won’t help Steele in his efforts to open up the GOP tent to include more minorities.

Next in Line: Financial Regulatory Reform

With healthcare reform out of the way, lawmakers will now turn their attention to President Barack Obama’s next domestic priority when they return to Washington next week—financial services industry reform. The administration hopes to get a final bill passed by Memorial Day.

“We think this is picking up momentum,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin told reporters at a briefing this week. “There’s a clear understanding of the importance of enacting legislation sooner rather than later.”

The House of Representatives has already passed a reform bill. Before breaking for recess, the Senate Banking Committee passed a bill by a vote of 13 to 10, without a single Republican in support of it. It now must be considered and voted on by the full Senate before it can be reconciled with the House version.

Black lawmakers are particularly anxious to implement financial reforms because they represent some of the communities that have been hardest hit by mortgage brokers that have taken advantage of borrowers who didn’t understand what they were getting into.

After staging a mini coup in December, ten Congressional Black Caucus members who sit on the House Financial Services Committee were able to get the committee to include in the House bill an amendment that would establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at each of the seven financial regulatory agencies to ensure that the voices of minority consumers are heard.

Details surrounding the creation of a consumer financial protection agency (CFPA) are still being negotiated. The bill introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) calls for the agency to be placed within the Federal Reserve Bank. The House bill would make it a stand-alone agency. The House bill also exempts automobile dealers from CFPA regulation. Wolin says the administration opposes exemptions for certain lenders and wants to see it stripped from the bill. He also said that the administration would fight any efforts by Republicans or lobbyists to water down the Senate banking committee’s bill.

“The president made clear that it’s strong enough, that we would oppose efforts to weaken it,” Wolin said.

African American Unemployment Rate Climbed in March

The March jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that the economy is in a slow, but certain recovery. But while 162,000 jobs were added to the nation’s payrolls, the report didn’t bring any good news for African Americans. The unemployment rate for blacks rose from 15.8% to 16.2%. Overall, unemployment held steady at 9.7%.

Thomas Boston, a Georgia Tech economics professor who sits on the BE Board of Economists, attributes the increase to blacks being stuck in the old “first fired, last hired” syndrome, “that we historically haven’t been able to overcome.” In addition, a large percentage of firms are hiring or rehiring people to work only part-time and also becoming more efficient.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California) said that black unemployment figures are unacceptably high and “undergird the continued importance for legislation to directly create more jobs for unemployed Americans, particularly the chronically unemployed.”

Boston explained that the jobless number remained the same because almost 400,000 people returned to the labor market and either got a job or are actively seeking one. According to him, that’s good news.

The White House cheered the numbers, pointing out that their policies to boost the economy are working.

“Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary Census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment,” said Christina Romer, who chairs the Council of Economic Advisors.

Before the report came out, critics — including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele – were lining up to predict that any gains would be due to temporary workers hired to help conduct the 2010 Census. After the numbers were released Steele said “it is unacceptable for President [Barack] Obama to declare economic success when unemployment remains at 9.7% and a large portion of the job growth came from temporary boost in government employment.”

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1% of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. Temporary help services added 40,000 jobs in March. Since September 2009, temporary help services employment has risen by 313,000.

Employment in healthcare continued to increase in March, with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory healthcare services and in nursing and residential care facilities.

Healthcare Bill Makes College More Affordable

Until this week, when President Barack Obama for a second time signed into law a healthcare reform bill, little notice had been given to a significant education reform tucked into the bill that will expand Pell Grant funding and help make loan repayment more manageable.

In addition to overhauling heathcare in the U.S., the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act will also invest $2.255 billion in HBCUs and other predominately black and minority-serving institutions.

“The success of these institutions is not only vital to the success of African Americans, but it is also vital to the success of all Americans,” said John Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He added that the administration wants to ensure that these institutions can contribute to Obama’s goal that the United States lead the world in producing college graduates by 2020.

Each year, more than 8 million people use Pell Grants to help pay for college. The bill invests more than $40 billion in the program to ensure that all eligible students will receive an award and that the amount awarded keeps pace with both inflation and the rising cost of college. It is estimated that by the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 820,000 additional grants will be awarded. Of that number approximately 200,000 will go to African Americans.

The bill also ensures that borrowers can afford their student loan payments by expanding the existing income-based student loan repayment program. New borrowers who assume loans after July 1, 2014, will be able to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and, if they keep up with their payments, will have the balance forgiven after 20 years.

“All of these reforms are paid for with savings that were gained by reforming our nation’s student lending program,” said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. “By removing the banks as middlemen and eliminating millions of dollars in annual subsidies, we’re ale to ensure that students have a more competitive and robust program for entering colleges, completing them and going onto jobs not burdened so heavily by additional loans.”

TSA Nominee No. 2 Withdraws

The Obama administration has lost yet another nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding withdrew from consideration earlier last week after questions arose about a contract his company had with the government to provide interrogators in Iraq.

When the contract ended in 2004, Harding Security Associates sought more money from the early termination of the contract than the Defense Department said it was entitled to get. The firm evenutally refunded $1.8 million of that money in a 2008 settlement with the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the Associated Press.

The agency continues to move forward, however. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that the TSA will revamp security measures for international airlines that fly into the U.S., including its ability to detect vulnerabilities.

President Barack Obama signs the HBCU executive order. (Source: White House)

President Barack Obama signed the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Friday afternoon, proposing $98 million in new money for these historic institutions for the 2011 fiscal year.

“Education reform has been a top priority of my administration,” said Obama. “We’re not only doing this because these schools are a gateway to a better future for African Americans; we’re doing it because their success is vital to a better future for all Americans.”

The executive order includes a 5%, or $13 million, increase for the Strengthening HBCUs Program and support for the $85 million in mandatory funding for HBCUs in the pending Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The president’s budget would increase the Federal Pell Grant program from $18.2 billion in the 2008-2009 award year to a proposed $34.8 billion in 2011-2012. For HBCUs this means an increase of about $400 million in Pell Grants since the start of the Obama administration.

The budget also includes $20.5 million to provide HBCUs with access to financing for the repair, renovation, and construction or acquisition of educational facilities, instructional equipment, research instrumentation, and physical infrastructure. This funding will support $279 million in new loans in 2011, more than $100 million more than in 2010. The Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institution program would receive $3.1 million, a 5% increase from previous years.

The nearly $100 million proposed is in line with Obama and his administration’s efforts to increase the number and percentage of college-trained Americans within the next 10 years.

“In order for our country to achieve the president’s 2020 goal of doubling college graduation rates, we must direct targeted resources to HBCUs and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs),” says Dr. Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. “The changing demographics of our nation require a renewed focus on HBCUs and the students they serve.”

This initiative originated during President Jimmy Carter’s administration in 1980 to strengthen and expand the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide quality education for African Americans. It 1981 it expanded into a government wide effort under the Regan administration. It has been renewed by each president since.

Dr. William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University, will serve as chairman of the Presidential Advisory Board on HBCUs. In that role he will advise the president and the secretary of education on methods, programs, and strategies to strengthen HBCUs.

“I applaud President Obama for his vision and emphasis on the role that Historically Black Colleges and Universities play in this country,” stated Harvey.” I look forward to serving his administration and working with other members of the advisory board to advance the cause of education, research and public service.”

Satcher

DR. ROBERT L. SATCHER JR. DEVELOPED AN INTEREST in space as a youngster after watching footage from one of the Apollo missions as well as the Star Wars films and Star Trek series. Of the thousands of applicants to apply for NASA’s space core program, which accepts applications only every four to five years, Satcher was the only African American selected in a class size of 14 in 2004. In November 2009, the Hampton, Virginia, native completed three space walks as part of the 11-day Atlantis mission. On his third walk he helped install an oxygen tank and delivered more than 12 tons of supplies and equipment to crew members stationed at the International Space Station.

The 45-year-old married father of two caught up with black enterprise to talk about the opportunities for youth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM.

Even with prominent African Americans in high-ranking positions, such as President Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, do you feel that some youth are still limited in thinking about what they can become?
A lot of kids haven’t really been exposed to all the possibilities available to them. When I talk to kids they always want to be someone in the entertainment industry or an athlete. They don’t even consider getting a college education. A picture is worth a thousand words; it’s human nature that if you see someone who looks like you and is doing it then it becomes a possibility for you. Showing some living examples and the benefits of getting an education in the STEM areas has an impact on kids—it shows them that it’s definitely a possibility.

What can we do to get parents focused on STEM studies for their children?
My parents’ generation was much more dedicated to education. From the time I could remember, they were always preaching that message. Unfortunately, we’ve kind of lost the tradition of really wanting to excel in math and science. I don’t know what we need to do to get parents today to buy into the notion that it’s important to educate their children outside of repeating the message as often and as prominently as we can. Fortunately the current administration is putting resources in the direction of STEM, so hopefully we’ll see that.

How does the lack of African Americans in STEM areas affect our ability to be competitive in the global marketplace?
It’s either get your act together so that you can get in the game, or you’re going to watch things pass you by. The STEM areas are going to play a central role in how the world develops. Technology is obviously a big driver for industry as a whole. At NASA we’re defining what we’ll be doing over the next decade in terms of deep space exploration, and there is going to be a legacy that grows out of this which is important for us as a nation and for the planet for the next 50 to 100 years. It’s a very important time, and I think African Americans in general should—and I try to remind them of this—we really need to be paying attention right now to what’s going on. It’s an opportunity that will pay dividends for years to come.

Do you think HBCUs should be the driving force behind STEM studies?
Of course they should push STEM studies. HBCUs have served a role of providing opportunities in some cases where people would not have had them, and giving second chances to African Americans who the system had already given up on or turned its back on. It’s especially true for them that this message needs to be propagated. So they have a special responsibility that way, and I’m sure they’ll rise to the occasion.