INSIDEVol. 43 No. 26 Phone: 512-476-0082 Email: vil3202@aol.com November 13, 2015

www.TheAustinVillager.com

Closing theOpportunity Gap

for Our Young Boysand Men of Color

by Dr. Gregory J. VincentVice President for Diversity and CommunityEngagementat The University of Texas at AustinGuest Columnist | Villager Newspaper

ADVANTAGEOUS ANALYSIS - Pictured are TeddyMcDaniel III (left), Austin Area UrbanLeague President and Patrick Patterson,Assistant VP for Longhorn Center for SchoolPartnerships and Exec. Director UT Outreachduring a discussion at the My BrothersKeeper initiative. Photo courtesy of KevinAlmasy/DDCE.

AUSTIN, TX - In ourcity, thousands of ouryoung boys and men ofcolor face opportunitygaps, many of which beginat birth, on a daily basis.These gaps, be they edu-cational or economic,make reaching ones fullpotential much harderthan it needs to be. This isnot so much an opinion,but a reality.

In Central Texas, Afri-can-American and His-panic males are 10 timesmore likely to be retainedin the ninth grade andthose retained in the ninthgrade are 10 times morelikely to drop out of school.Once dropping out, formany, this begins theirjourney on the school-to-prison pipeline. Without ahigh school diploma, they

become more likely tocommit crimes, end up inthe criminal justice sys-tem, abuse drugs, and be-come teenage parents.

These figures areheartbreaking and shouldno longer be tolerated. Ibelieve that where thereare challenges, there arealso opportunities. Sotherefore, it was withSee GAA MBK, page 2

ERYKAH BADU, BOYZII MEN, FANTASIA ANDMORE BRING SOUL TO

THE STAGE AT SOULTRAIN AWARDS 2015

Naomi Richard | The Austin Villager

Photo courtesy of Earl Gibson/Getty Images for BETNetworks/Centric TV.

JILL SCOTT

SOUL TRAIN AWARDS 2015 took place on Fri-day, November 6 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Thehippest trip was led by Erykah Badu and featured in-credible performances by Jill Scott, Kenny BabyfaceEdmonds, Fantasia, Bobby Brown, Tyrese, Jeremih,Brandy, Boyz II Men, R.Kelly, Jazmine Sullivan, V.Bozeman, Cameo, Erica Campbell and Tasha Cobbs. JillScott was honored with the first-ever Lady of SoulAward and Kenny Babyface Edmonds was presentedwith the Legend Award.

Host and legendary musical artist Erykah Baduopened up the show with a medley of her memorablesongs including Danger, On & On, and Love Of MyLife. The Queen of Neo-Soul showed her spunky na-

See KENNY BABYFACE EDMONDS, page 2

TIMWOLFE

Ferguson Protests Influence Actions at U of Mizzou

CRYING WOLFE -University of Mis-souri System Presi-dent Tim Wolfe an-nounces his resigna-tion from office Mon-day, Nov. 9, 2015,during a UM SystemBoard of Curatorsmeeting in UniversityHall at the Univer-sity of Missouri inColumbia, Mo. Wolfehas been under firefor his handling ofrace complaints thathad threatened to up-end the football sea-son and moved onestudent to go on ahunger strike. (NickSchnelle/ColumbiaDaily Tribune via AP)

by: Jim Suhr and Summer Ballentine Associated Press (Sarah Bell/Missourian and Jeff Roberson via AP)

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP)- When cotton balls werefound scattered outsidethe Black culture center atthe University ofMissouris flagship cam-pus in 2010 in a clear ref-erence to slavery, two

White students were ar-rested and expelled, withno larger discussion ofrace on a campus whereBlacks werent allowed toenroll until 1950.

To say we were lividis an understatement,

says Black alumna ErikaBrown, who graduatedwith degrees in 2007 and2012 and now lives in St.Louis. It was just anotherexample of them findingthe offender and nevergoing past that. There was

never a larger discussion.Skip ahead five years

to more racially chargedincidents at the Columbiacampus, where Blacks ac-count for just 8 percent ofundergraduates. Thistime, students

See WOLFE, page 2

HACA ChairmanCarl S. Richie Sworn in

as NAHRO SeniorVice President

Carl S. Richie Jr., chairman of the Housing Author-ity of the City of Austin (HACA) and a longtime afford-able housing industry leader, was recently sworn in assenior vice president of the National Association ofHousing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). Richiewill serve a two-year term as senior vice president be-fore an expected run for president of the organization.

I am excited to serve as Senior Vice President ofNAHRO, and am grateful for the trust that my colleagues

See NAHRO, page 3

WhenUnity Matters According to reports,there have been a numberof racially-chargedincidents on the campus ofthe University of Missourisince the start of the 2015-16 school year. Some ofthe incidents includedyelling racial slurs at Blackstudents. StudentAssociation president,Payton Head wrote aboutthe incident in a facebookpost, which went viral onthe campus in a matter ofdays. Twelve days later,students held a RacismLives Here rally,ctiticizing the universityfor taking six days torespond to the incident.After no action was taken,the students hald a secondrally demanding that theadministration take a moreactive stance on campusracism. Several otherincidents happened that ledthe students to call for theresignation or firing ofUniversity President TimWolfe. After no action wastaken, Jonathan Butlerwent on a hunger strikeand indicated that hewould continue on thestrike until Wolfesremoval or Butlers death.On Saturday, November 7,the football team showedits support for themovement and indicatedthat it would boycott allfootball-related activitiesuntil Wolfe resigned orwas fired. It was estimatedthat the school would losemore than $1 millon if thenext game was not played.The coaches joined in withthe players in support of thestrike. Two days later Wolferesigned. The moral of this storyis Unity Matters. TheUniversity of Missourifootball players put theireducation and future careerson the line to support anissue that affected theminority students on thecampus. But in the long runthey were also helpingthemselves. No man is anisland especially in theAfrican American com-munity. What effects one ofus will eventually affect allof us, if the problem is notcorrected. The question is,what are you willing to riskto advance the cause?

Residents anticipatecampaign promisesof presiding Mayor.See FORWARD

Page 6

Step Afrikalaunched an historic

inauguration.See BURNETTE

Page 8

LS Chapter honoredfor trailblazing

education initiatives.See UPWARD

Page 7

RAPPINTommy Wyatt

This paper canbe recycled

Presorted StandardU.S. Postage Paid

Austin, TexasPermit No. 01949

TPATEXASPUBLISHERSASSOCIATION

THE COMMUNIQUPage 2 ~ November 13, 2015/THE VILLAGER www.theaustinvillager.com

Celebrate a BearcatCapital City BearcatsPO Box 4158Austin, Texas 78765-4158President Nathaniel Clark Jrwww.capitalcitybearcats.com

Celebrate a Bearcat bySponsoring ages 4 to 13

The Thrivent Action Team wants the community to jointhem in helping sponsor a child for a year. There are waysyou can help by giving the Ultimate Bearcat ($1000 andabove), Bearcat Champion ($500) or Bearcat Supporter($100) per Bearcat. The Thrivent Action Team ask thatyou sponsor $130 per Bearcat to help a child learn FlagFootball, Tackle Football, Basketball, Track or Cheerleadingin a safe, fun and challenging environment for children ages4 to 13. For information call President Nathaniel Clark Jr.at 512-289-5189.

Sponsored byThe Thrivent Action Team

great excitement thatMayor Steve Adler andTravis County Judge SarahEckhardt formed theGreater Austin Area MyBrother s Keeper (GAAMBK) initiative earlier thisyear. Myself and MarkMadrid, President andCEO of the Greater AustinHispanic Chamber of Com-merce are serving as co-chairs of the initiative. Atthe urging of PresidentObama, the GAA MBK ini-tiative has begun to ad-dress our local gaps and todevelop a blueprint forhow to align and leverageexisting resources to bestserve our young boys andmen of color.

At the end of October

Mayor Adler and Judge SarahEckhardt formed the GreaterAustin Area My BrothersKeeper initiative continued from page 1

we held our first ExecutiveCommittee meeting. Wehave begun mapping outtaskforce committee fo-cuses and defining initia-tive priorities, which in-clude ensuring childrenread at grade level, gradu-ate from high school, haveopportunities for post-sec-ondary schooling and em-ployment, and are safefrom violent crime. Moreinformation can be foundon the Division of Diversityand Community Engage-ment website at http://d d c e . u t e x a s . e d u /menofcolor/my-brothers-keeper-initiative/. There,you can also sign up if youare interested in partici-pating in the larger GAA

MBK task force.Its our hope that by

leveraging our collectiveexperience and throughcollaboration, we canamplify our impact andprovide our African-American and Hispanicyouths with the toolsthey need to succeed. Wewill be convening outsecond annual SXSWeduCommunity Dialogue onMarch 8th. I encourageyou all to get involvedand participate.

As President Obamasaid during the launch ofthe national My BrothersKeeper initiative, nomatter who you are, orwhere you came from, orthe circumstances intowhich you are born, if youwork hard, if you take re-sponsibility, then you canmake it in this country.

Photo courtesy of Earl Gibson/Getty Images for BETNetworks/Centric TV.

BABYFACERECEIVESLEGENDAWARD

Kenny Babyface Edmonds

continued from page 1ture and had the au-

dience in hysterics as shepoked fun at her influ-ence on some of hip-hopsleading men, while pro-claiming a ban on rap andgold chains