On March 28, 2014 over 200 Black men sent a letter to President Obama critiquing My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) for its exclusion of Black women and girls:

“Lifting up only the challenges that face males of color, MBK — in the absence of any comparable initiative for females — forces us to ask where the complex lives of Black women and Black girls fit into the White House’s vision of racial justice?”

According to the White House website, President Obama launched the MBK initiative to “address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential.”

The petition signed by Danny Glover, scholars Robin D.G. Kelly, Darnell Moore and Kiese Laymon, singer Rahsaan Patterson, filmmaker Byron Hurt and others asks the President: what is the value in separating genders if the ultimate goal is racial justice in America? It argues that just as we must care for Black men who are “caught up in the drug trade,” we must also empower Black women who face pay discrimination in comparison to both White and Black men. As a result, the signees underscore that it is impossible to raise up a community, by ignoring half of those struggling.

Check out the full letter below and let us know your thoughts:

Letter of 200 Concerned Black Men calling for the Inclusion of Women and Girls in “My Brother’s Keeper”

May 28, 2014

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.. 20500

Dear President Obama,

We write as African American men who have supported your presidency, stood behind you when the inevitable racist challenges to your authority have emerged, and have understood that our hopes would be tempered by the political realities that you would encounter. While we continue to support your presidency, we write both out of a sense of mutual respect and personal responsibility to address what we believe to be the unfortunate missteps in the My Brothers Keeper initiative (MBK). In short, in lifting up only the challenges that face males of color, MBK — in the absence of any comparable initiative for females — forces us to ask where the complex lives of Black women and Black girls fit into the White House’s vision of racial justice?

Your acknowledgment that race-conscious policies are still needed, and that addressing the needs of those left behind “is as important as any issue that you work on” was inspiring to us. We agree with your sense that racial inequality remains an urgent American problem that, as you indicated, “goes to the very heart” of why you ran for the presidency. We knew very well that you were echoing Dr. King’s observations when you noted that “groups that have had the odds stacked against them in unique ways…require unique solutions.” We understand, as do you, that those ‘’who have seen fewer opportunities that have spanned generations” include men and women in our communities who have struggled side-by-side against the opportunity gaps, shrinking resources and disparate conditions that contribute to the desperate circumstances facing our community. So we were surprised and disappointed that your commitments express empathy to only half of our community — men and boys of color. Simply put, as Black men we cannot afford to turn away from the very sense of a shared fate that has been vital to our quest for racial equality across the course of American history.

As African Americans, and as a nation, we have to be as concerned about the experiences of single Black women who raise their kids on sub-poverty wages as we are about the disproportionate number of Black men who are incarcerated. We must care as much about Black women who are the victims of gender violence as we do about Black boys caught up in the drug trade. We must hold up the fact that Black women on average make less money and have less wealth than both White women and Black men in the United States just as we must focus on the ways in which Black men and women are disproportionately excluded from many professions.

We are not suggesting a national moratorium on Black male-oriented projects. But our sense of accountability does reflect the fact that our historic struggle for racial justice has always included men as well as women who have risked everything not just for themselves or for their own gender but for the prospects of the entire community. Moreover, we are concerned that your admonishment to Black and Latino men to be more responsible and to stop making excuses frames problems of educational attainment, unemployment, and incarceration consistent with those who say Blacks suffer from a “culture of pathology.” We believe in a vision of accountability and racial justice that is neither male-centered, heteropatriarchal or victim blaming.

Taking the lives of Black girls and women seriously would increase the likelihood that we would recognize and lift up loving parents regardless of whether they exist in single, dual, same-sex or opposite sex families; decrease our tendency to express nostalgia for a family structure whose absence wrongfully becomes the putative focal point for all that ails us; and put into sharp relief the fact that the obstacles we face are not simply matters of attitude adjustment and goal setting, but the consequences of deteriorating opportunities, the weakened enforcement of civil rights laws, and the increasing emphasis by government actors on policies that focus on punishment, surveillance, and incarceration.

We recommend an expansion of the MBK — and all other national youth interventions — to include an explicit focus on the structural conditions that negatively impact all Black youth. Of course encouraging young Black men and women to do their very best is important, as is holding them accountable when we think that is warranted. Our interventions, however, must acknowledge that the life chances of youth of color are impacted by the converging dynamics of racism, sexism, class stratification, homophobia and other such factors. For example, MBK, in its current iteration, solely collects social data on Black men and boys. What might we find out about the scope, depth and history of our structural impediments, if we also required the collection of targeted data for Black women and girls?

If the denunciation of male privilege, sexism and rape culture is not at the center of our quest for racial justice, then we have endorsed a position of benign neglect towards the challenges that girls and women face that undermine their well-being and the well-being of the community as a whole. As Black men we believe if the nation chooses to “save” only Black males from a house on fire, we will have walked away from a set of problems that we will be compelled to return to when we finally realize the raging fire has consumed the Black women and girls we left behind.

Signees

1. Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., Civil Rights Icon and Mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Danny Glover, American Actor, Film Director and Political Activist
3. Darnell L. Moore, Editor, Founder of ‘You Belong,’ Brooklyn, NY
4. Devon Carbado, The Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
5. Marlon Peterson, Program Coordinator at ‘Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets’, Brooklyn NY
6. Robin D. G. Kelly, The Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
7. Oscar H. Blayton, Lawyer, Williamsburg, VA
8. Ricardo Guthrie, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
9. Michael Hanchard, SOBA Presidential Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University
10. Luke Charles Harris, Co-Founder of the African American Policy Forum, Department of Political Science, Vassar College, New York, NY
11. Kiese Laymon, Author, English Department, Vassar College, Jackson, MS
12. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor Of African and African American Studies
13. Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Pastor for Formation and Justice, First Baptist Church, Jamaica Plains, MA
14. Dr. James Turner, Founding Director, Africana Studies Center, Cornell University
15. Michael Dawson, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, The University of Chicago
16. David Ikard, Associate Professor of English at Florida State University, Ph.D.
17. Nyle Forte, Teacher and Baptist Pastor, Newark, NJ
18. Walter Fields, Executive Editor and Columnist at North Star News, Irvington, NJ
19. Houston Baker, Distinguished University Professor of English and African American Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
20. Cedric Robinson, Department of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
21. Charles Steele, President and CEO, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Atlanta, GA
22. Thomas Sayers Ellis, Professor, Poet, Photographer
23. Eduardo Bonilla Silva, Professor of Sociology at Duke University, Durham, NC
24. Mychal Denzel Smith, freelance writer and social commentator, Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute, Brooklyn, NY
25. Wade Davis II, Speaker, writer, activist, educator, former NFL player, Co-Founder of You Belong, Executive Director of You Can Play, New York, NY
26. Scott Poulson-Bryant, Award-winning Journalist and Author, co-founding editor at Vibe Magazine
27. Alexander Hardy, Writer
28. Saeed Jones, Writer and Editor, A 2013 Pushcart Prize Winner, Brooklyn, NY
29. Charles Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
30. Cleve Tinsley IV, Ordained Baptist minister, Adjunct Professor of Religion and Culture at Rice University and Springfield College, Houston, TX
31. Al-Lateef Farmer, EOF Recruiter/Student Development Specialist at Mercer County Community College Philadelphia, PA
32. Kamasi Hill, Evanston Township High School, Chicago, IL
33. Robert Jones, Jr., Writer and Founder, Son of Baldwin, Brooklyn, NY
34. Robert Hill, Afro-American and Caribbean History, Editor of the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
35. Ted Bunch, Activist, Educator, Co-Founder of A Call to Men, Rockville Centre, NY
36. Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin, President/CEO at Our Glass Entertainment, Jackson, MS
37. David Whettstone, Public Policy Advocate & Writer, Washington, DC
38. Adisa Ajamu, Executive Director at the Atunwa Community Collective Development Think Tank, Los Angeles, CA
39. Herman Beavers, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
40. Wren Brown, Actor, Los Angeles, CA
41. Oscar Alexander Robles, Manager of Non-profit Partnerships, Former Co-Director in the Coalition for Equitable Communities at Florida State University
42. Ade Raphael, Student, Irvine, CA
43. Seth Bynum, Student, Montclair, NJ
44. Julian Williams, Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, Vassar College
45. Ocasio Wilson, Albany, NY
46. Merio Maye, Far Rockaway, NY
47. Terrell Tate
48. Dashawn Walker, Bowdoin College Class of 2014, Portland, ME
49. Ken Miles, Harlem, NY
50. Elijah Winston, Student, Gilbert, AZ
51. Matthew Brown, Student, Brooklyn, NY
52. Juan Thompson, Student, Chicago, IL
53. Jon Conningham, Digital Media student at the University of Washington
54. James Cantres, Student, African Diaspora at NYU
55. Chad Anderson, Program Associate, Office of Integrative Liberal Learning and the Global Commons
56. Jafari Allen, Associate Professor of Anthropology & African American Studies at Yale University
57. Guthrie Ramsey, Professor of Music at University of Pennsylvania
58. Monroe France, Assistant Vice President for Student Diversity/Director of Multicultural Education and Services, NYU
59. Clifton Hall
60. Isaiah M. Wooden, Ph.D candidate and Director-dramaturg, Department of Drama at Stanford
61. Aaron Talley, Activist, Writer, Educator, Blogger for the Black Youth Project, Detroit, MI
62. La Marr Jurelle Bruce, Lecturer in Theater Studies, Yale University.
63. Dr. Van Bailey, Inaugural Director of the Office of BGLTQ Student Life at Harvard College
64. Donald P. Gagnon, Associate Professor of English at Western Connecticut State University
65. Donald Anthonyson, Organizer, Families for Freedom, New York, NY
66. Andrew Cory Greene, Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Alternative to Incarceration and Higher Education Intervention, New York, NY
67. Abraham Paulos, Director of Families for Freedom, NY
68. Duane Robinson
69. Hashim K. Pipkin, Writer and educator, Randallstown, MD
70. Bryson Rose, Ohio University Program Coordinator of Pregnancy Prevention at the Hetrick-Martin Institute HMHS, New York, NY
71. Luis Inoa, Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Residential Life at Vassar College, Brooklyn/Queens, NY
72. Akeel St. Vil, Brooklyn, NY
73. Herman Gray. UC Santa Cruz
74. Tony Porter, Educator and Activist, Co-Founder of A Call to Men, Rockville Centre, NY
75. Guy Lefevre
76. Matthew Brown, Student, Brooklyn, NY
77. Kleaver Cruz, Writer and Teacher, Dream Director at Leadership Institute in the Bronx, New York, NY
78. Walter Cruz, Graphic designer, New York, NY
79. Abraham Gatling, Watertown, CT
80. Kendall Coleman Bronx, NY
81. Russell Robinson, Professor and Distinguished Haas Chair in LGBT Equity, UC Berkeley Law
82. Quincy James Rineheart, M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
83. Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Williams College ’16, Williamstown, MA
84. Paul Daniels, II, Morehouse College ’12, Atlanta, GA
85. Tim’m T. West, Activist, Educator, Artist, Director of Youth Services at the Center on Halsted, Chicago, IL
86. Derrick Walker
87. Weslee Glenn, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cal Tech, Los Angeles, CA
88. Vaughn E. Taylor-Akutagawa, Activist, Entrepreneur, Researcher, and Executive Director at Gay Men of African Descent, New York, NY
89. Charles McKinney, Associate Professor and Director of Africana Studies Program at Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
90. Hiram Perez, Assistant Professor, English Department at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
91. Preston Mitchum, Adjunct Professor, Advanced Legal Research and Writing at Georgetown University, Washington, DC
92. Kiyan Williams, Artist, Performer, Stanford ’13, Stanford, CA
93. John Murillo III, PhD candidate, English Department at Brown University, Providence, RI
94. Dymir Arthur, Dean of School Culture at Achievement First, Brooklyn, NY
95. Alan Mullins
96. Kevin Lawrence Henry Jr., PhD candidate in Education at University of Madison-Wisconsin, Madison, WI
97. Michael Dumas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education Leadership at NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY
98. Riko A. Boone, Counselor at The Door, Outstanding HIV prevention work of the the year awardee, New York, NY
99. Devon Tyrone Wade, Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology at Columbia University, New York, NY
100. Aunsha Hall-Everett, Consultant at Harm Reduction Coalition, New York, NY
101. Allen K. James
102. Durrell Callier, Doctoral student at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign’s School of Education, Policy, Organization & Leadership, Champaign-Urbana, IL
103. James Roane, Graduate Student in History at Columbia University, New York, NY
104. George Bellinger, Jr., AIDS Activist, New York, NY
105. Darius Clark Monroe, Filmmaker, Director of Evolution of a Criminal, Brooklyn, NY
106. Oscar Alexander Robles, Manager of Non-profit Partnerships, Former Co-Director in the Coalition for Equitable Communities at Florida State University, John Jay College of Criminal Justice ’15, New York, NY
107. Richard Yarborough, Professor of English at UCLA, Faculty Research Associate at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
108. Alex Blue V, Doctoral Student in Ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara, University of Northern Texas
109. Alvin Starks, Creator and Former Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the Open Society Institute, Brooklyn, NY
110. Devon Peterson
111. Chris Mcauley, Associate Professor in Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara, PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Santa Barbara, CA
112. Clarence Lusane, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, American University, Washington, DC
113. Monty Pender, Transportation Director, ABCD, Canton, OH
114. James Gordon Williams, Theorist, Composer, Pianist, a Yale Bouchet Scholar
115. Roderick Ferguson, Professor of American Studies at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
116. Johari Jabir, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL
117. Scot Brown, Associate Professor of History at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
118. Tyrone Forman, Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
119. Eddie Bruce-Jones, Lecturer in Law, Program Director, Admissions Tutor at Birkbeck University of London, London, England
120. Obari Cartman, Photographer, Artist, Activist, Chicago, IL
121. Maurice Jackson, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University, Washington, DC
122. David Melton
123. Dr. Clemmie Harris, PhD candidate, Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
124. Justin Stucey, Producer and Business Developer at Production Glue, New York, NY
125. Gregory Davis, J.D./M.A. in Afro-American Studies and Law at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
126. Roland Roebuck, Activist, Washington, DC
127. R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology and Black Studies at the City College of New York, CUNY
128. Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Trinity College, CT
129. M. Keith Claybrook, Jr., CSU, Dominguez Hills/ Claremont Graduate University, Compton, CA
130. Dr. Brian Peterson
131. Christopher Stackhouse, Maryland Institute College of Art Brooklyn, NY
132. Nahum D. Chandler, Associate Professor of African American Studies University of California, Irvine
133. Darrell Moore, Philosophy, De Paul University Chicago, IL
134. Jason Saunders, Graduate student, UVA
135. Robeson Taj Frazier, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
136. Avery R. Young, Teaching Artist, Urban Gateways, Chicago, IL
137. Johnny E. Williams, Department of Sociology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
138. James Ford, Occidental College
139. Herman Gray. Department of Sociology, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA
140. Arthur Little, Professor of English, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
141. Abdul Ali, Goucher College, Towson, MD
142. David H. Anthony, III, Department of History, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
143. Kai M. Green, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
144. Bill Fletcher, Jr., Activist/Educator/Writer, Mitchellville, MD
145. Tommie Shelby, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
146. Peniel E. Joseph, Founding Director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, Tufts University, Somerville, MA
147. Marcus Anthony Hunter, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Yale University. New Haven, CT
148. Professor Joseph Wilson, City University of New York, NY
149. Neil Roberts, Associate Professor, Africana Studies Program, Williams College
150. Jonathan Collins, Doctoral Student, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
151. Erik S McDuffie, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
152. Tavia Nyong’o, New York University, New York, NY
153. Sidney J. Lemelle, Professor of History and Africana Studies, Pomona College Claremont, CA
154. Minkah Makalani, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX & Brooklyn, NY
155. Darnell Hunt, Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA
156. Pete Carr, Attorney
157. Robert O’Meilly, Zora Neal Hurston Professor of English, Columbia University, New York, NY
158. Robert Williams, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
159. John Keene, Author/Artist/Professor, Rutgers University, Jersey City, NJ
160. Makungu M. Akinyela, Ph.D., LMFT, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
161. Eric A. Hurley PhD, Department of Psychology, Pomona College, Claremont CA
162. Geffrey Davis, Ph.D. Candidate, University Park, PA
163. Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Trinity College, CT
164. M. Keith Claybrook, Jr., CSU, Dominguez Hills/ Claremont Graduate University, Compton, CA
165. Michael Stoll, Professor of Public Policy, and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty
166. Fred Moten, University of California, Riverside, CA
167. Steve Edwards, Director of Marketing & Business Development, Elite Daily, New York, N.Y.
168. Jerry G. Watts, Professor of English, Sociology and American Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
169. Brian Tate, President, the Tate Group, Brooklyn, NY
170. Frank Guridy, Department of History at UT-Austin, Austin, TX
171. Eric Miller, Professor, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA
172. Tarell Alvin McCraney, Playwright, Steppenwolf Ensemble Member, Chicago, MacArthur Grant Recipient 2013
173. Dr. Tony Laing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
174. Damien Sojoyner, Scripps College, Los Angeles, CA
175. Bryan Epps, The Shabazz Center, Newark, NJ
176. Percy E. Holmes, Education Specialist, Brooklyn, NY
177. Robert Warren, Personal Trainer and Fitness Expert, New York, NY
178. Benjamin Reynolds, Clergy and Doctoral Seminary Student, Chicago, IL
179. Jason Craig Harris, Humanities Educator, New York, NY
180. Robert West, LGBT Advocate and Non-profit Administrator, New York, NY
181. George Turner, Trial Lawyer
182. Jelani Lindsey, Attorney, Rancho Cucamonga, Los Angeles, CA
183. Robert Reid-Pharr, Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies, City University of New York, NY
184. Michael Mitchell, PhD student, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA
185. Geoff Ward, Professor and Parent, School of Social Ecology, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
186. Bennett Capers, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn, NY
187. David Troutt, Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law, Newark, NJ
188. Kevin Powell, New York, NY
189. Nick Mitchell, Ethnic Studies
190. Prescott Saunders, Data Analyst, Poughkeepsie, NY
191. William Johnson, Professor at University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
192. Jason Saunders, Graduate Student, UVA
193. Nicholas Brady, Graduate Student, University of California, Irvine
194. Professor Ronald S. Sullivan, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
195. Professor Robert Westley, Tulane Law School
196. David Wasserman, Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA
197. Lester Myers, Security Guard, Forrest, MS
198. Professor Thomas Mitchell, University of Wisconsin Law School
199. Stephen Ward, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
200. Christopher Marsburn, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine
201. Professor Thomas Mitchell, University of Wisconsin Law School
202. Kent Faulcon, Actor, Writer, Director, Los Angeles, CA
203. Andre Ware, Actor, Writer, New York, NY
204. Paul Pelt, Chef, Washington, DC
205. Theodore Craighead, Paris, France
206. Melvin Smith, Jr., Architect, Birmingham, AL
207. Milton Jennings, Engineer, Hyattsville, MD
208. Anthony Norris, Clinton, MD
209. Larry A. Stephens, Det. Sgt. Detroit, MI
210. Rahsaan Patterson, Actor, Singer, Los Angeles, CA
211. Herb Ruffin
212. Byron Hurt, Filmmaker, God Bless the Child Productions, LLC
213. Evan K. Marshall, London, UK
214. Kori Natambu, Writer and Editor, The Panopticon Review, Berkeley, CA
215. Maurice Wallace, Duke University, Durham, NC
216. Eric Darnell Pritchard, Assistant Professor of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
217. Ben Kabuye
218. Devon Tart, Student, NY
219. Aaron Evans, Jobs Plus Coordinator at Community Solutions, NY
220. Quardean Lewis-Allen, Founder, Made in Brownsville, New York, NY
221. Ryan Greenlee, Educator, Artist
222. Zach Murray, Youth Advocate and Activist, Oakland, CA
223. Fred H. Moore, Jr.
224. Trey Williams-Former, Director of Student and Academic Services for the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
225. Ovid Amorson, Human Being, Philadelphia, PA
226. Torrence Gardner
227. T. Hasan Johnson, Associate Professor in African Studies, California State, Fresno, CA
228. Michelle Kemp, Atlanta, GA
229. Nathan Griffin
230. Stanlie M. James, Professor, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
231. Emahunn Campbell, Ph.D. Candidate in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-America Studies at UMass Amherst
232. Marc Chery, Librarian
233. Steven C. Pitts, Associate Chair, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, Berkeley, CA
234. Mitchell Saddler, Father
235. Terry Smith, COO, Talented 10th Mentoring, NFP
236. Darol Kay, Activist and Scholar, Irvine, CA
237. Justin Jones, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
238. Raymond Winbush, Ph.D, Director, Institute for Urban Research, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
239. Dante E. Clark, Actor and Writer, Bronx, NY
240. Kevin K. Gaines, Robert Hayden Collegiate Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI