Jersey City Girls Talk Back on Monday, May 9, 2011

JERSEY CITY GIRLS!
LET THE COMMUNITY KNOW WHO YOU ARE,
WHAT YOU HAVE ACHIEVED,
WHAT CHALLENGES YOU HAVE OVERCOME,
AND HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING LABELED “THE COMMUNITY’S WORST ENEMY”
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2011/04/jersey_city_schools_chief_says.html

The Community's Worst Enemy?
Jersey City Girls Talk Back!
Monday, May 9th , 2011
6pm-8pm
Gothic Lounge ( Hepburn 202)
New Jersey City University

2039 Kennedy Boulevard

Jersey City, NJ 07305

http://www.njcu.edu/i2e/visit/directions.asp

A forum facilitated by: Dr. Jacqueline Ellis, Dr. Ann Wallace, and Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams
Featuring: Patricia Bombelyn, Lawyer and social activist; Nathaniel Briggs, Vice-President, New Jersey NAACP; Barbara Milton, Ph.D., LCSW, author of “Our Pride and Joy: Stories about Hudson County Teens” blog.

Sponsored by the Black Alumni, Administrators, Faculty, Staff and Students Organization, the Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center, Women’s and Gender Studies.

AND
Tell our Young Women Stories of Those Female Teens Who Have Proceeded Them:

Melba Patillo Beals
Warriors Don’t Cry: a searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High
Juv. 371.97 .B366w 2002

Claudette Colvin : twice toward justice
Juv. 323.0The Community's Worst Enemy?
Jersey City Girls Talk Back!

Claudette Colvin : twice toward justice
Juv. 323.092 .H789c

Freedom riders : 1961 and the struggle for racial justice
E185.61 .A69 2006

Defying the odds : triumphant Black women of Newark
F144 .N653 K85 2005


Learn What Can Be Done

Urban girls revisited : building strengths HV1431 .U734 2007
Beyond appearance : a new look at adolescent girls F144 .N653 K85 2005
Coming into her own : educational success in girls and women LC1503 .C65 1999
Stand by Me: the risks and rewards of mentoring today’s youth HV 1431.R48 2002

Watch

The souls of Black girls: a documentary film V3088

http://www.soulsofblackgirls.com/

Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 6pm (H202, NJCU ) Stand Up for our Young Women as they Speak Up for Themselves!

For more information call: Dr. Jacqueline Ellis, (201) 200 3170 or Dr. Ann Wallace, (201) 200 2015

New Documentary about Black Girls' Self Esteem

There is a new documenetary about Black girls and their declining self-esteem in the face of media representations (or the lack thereof) of themselves. The documenetary was based on the master's thesis of the director, Daphne Valerius.

This would be an excellent documentary to screen for teacher training, gender studies, and ethnic studies classes. It would also be suitable for upper-level high school students( grades 11-12). It does have some graphic language and graphic images (hip-hop videos), so parental permission might be necessary.

This is a crucial issue that should be brought to the forefront.

Please see:http://www.soulsofblackgirls.com/
for more information.

NBC News Series looks at gender, race, education

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS"
SPECIAL FIVE-PART SERIES
"AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN: WHERE THEY STAND"
BEGINNING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26


New York, N.Y. -- Throughout the week of November 26, "NBC News With Brian Williams" will take a look at the issues facing African-American women across our nation in a new series "African-American Women: Where They Stand." The series will cover a wide-range of issues from their role in the *08 Presidential race, to the increased health-risks that they need to be concerned about.

Monday-Education
Monday's installment will discuss African-American women*s progress in the education field. Nearly two-thirds of African-American undergraduates are women. At black colleges, the ratio of women to men is 7 to 1. And that is leading to a disparity in the number of African-American women who go on to own their own businesses. Rehema Ellis will talk to educators, students and businesswomen about why this disparity exists.

Tuesday-Relationships and Education
Tuesday, Ellis will look at relationships within the African-American female community. Many agree the gender disparity in education and business among African-Americans is having an effect on relationships that African American women have. Some even say the implications could redefine "Black America*s family and social structure." In the past fifty years, the percentage of African-American women between 25-54 who have never been married has doubled from 20% to 40%. (Compared to just 16% of white women who have never been married today). Ellis sits down with the members of a Chicago book club and talk about this difference and how it impacts them.

Wednesday-Health
Dr. Nancy Snyderman will discuss the increases risks for breast cancer for African-American women on Wednesday. Mortality rates for African-American women are higher than any other racial or ethnic group for nearly every major cause of death, including breast cancer. Black women with breast cancer are nearly 30% more likely to die from it than white women.

Premenopausal black women are more than twice as likely to get a more aggressive form of the disease. And, not only are African-American women more likely to die from breast cancer, but they*re less likely to get life-saving treatments. Dr. Snyderman will profile one of the only oncologists in the world who specializes in the treatment of African-American women with breast cancer.

Thursday- Politics
On Thursday, Ron Allen will take viewers to South Carolina -- the first southern primary state -- and ask the question: Will race trump gender or gender trump race? In South Carolina, black women made up nearly 30 percent of all democratic primary voters in 2004. This year, polls show a significant number are undecided, torn between choosing the first African-American or first female Presidential candidate. Allen talks with the undecided, as well the state directors for the Clinton and Obama campaigns, who happen to be African-American women.

Friday- Miscellaneous
To close the series on Friday, Dr. Snyderman will raise the frightening statistic that African-American women are 85% more likely to get diabetes, a major complication for heart disease. And, like breast cancer, more black women die from heart disease than white women. Dr. Snyderman will profile a leading expert and a unique church-based outreach program in South Carolina that seeks to spread the word about heart disease risks to black women congregants.

Mara Schiavocampo, Digital Correspondent for "Nightly News," will address two hot topics in the African - American community: interracial dating and the impact of hip hop music on black women. Interracial dating is a growing trend in the African - American community. An Essence.com poll found that 81% of participants approved of black women dating non- black men. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report in 2000, 95,000 black women were married to white men. In 2005, that number increased to 134,000. Schiavocampo will talk to experts about the trend and discuss how this defines the "Black family" of the future.

Schiavocampo will convene a panel of leading black men and women from the hip-hop industry for an engaging discussion on whether hip hop lyrics and videos positively or negatively affect black women. The roundtable also will address how these portrayals are affecting relationships between black women and black men.

Comment: Many of these issues have been brought up and discussed before in the media. It will be interesting to see if there are any new perspectives to these issues. With statistics, it makes one wonder if they are disaggregated by income, geographical location and class, or are African-American women treated as a monolithic entity? Maybe there will be some "positive news" too.