Is America Better Than Ten Years Ago Summary
Is America Better Off for Blacks Today Than Ten Years Ago
Tavis Smiley wrote the book "The Covenant with Black America". It was a New York Times Best Seller just over a decade ago. The premise of the book was the formulation of a blueprint which could be used to make black America better. According to NewsOne, his ideas ranged from "health care to criminal justice, affordable housing to education, voting rights to racial divides".
Smiley recently sat down with Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to talk about his book and how the country is doing 10 years later. He started by looking at the events that led up to the writing. He says that many people thought the book was directly related to the presidency of Barrack Obama. Smiley said that the book …show more content…
“It was about our community and how we hold ourselves responsible and hold other people accountable.”
He goes on to note that while there have been "pockets of progress" the last ten years have been a giant step backward for black Americans. "Black men still fall to police bullets and brutality, Black women still die from preventable diseases, Black children still struggle to get a high-quality education, the digital divide and environmental inequality still persist, and American cities from Ferguson to Baltimore burn with frustration. In short, the last decade has seen the evaporation of Black wealth, with Black fellow citizens having lost ground in nearly every leading economic category."
Smiley noted that America has currently taken a slide to a place where an entire generation of black children will not do as well as their parents, and their parents did not do all that well. He then said that the fault falls on the black community. "We sit around and talk about everything but what we ought to be focused on, which is how do we turn the tide against what is trying to take us
Tavis Smiley wrote the book "The Covenant with Black America". It was a New York Times Best Seller just over a decade ago. The premise of the book was the formulation of a blueprint which could be used to make black America better. According to NewsOne, his ideas ranged from "health care to criminal justice, affordable housing to education, voting rights to racial divides".
Smiley recently sat down with Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to talk about his book and how the country is doing 10 years later. He started by looking at the events that led up to the writing. He says that many people thought the book was directly related to the presidency of Barrack Obama. Smiley said that the book …show more content…
“It was about our community and how we hold ourselves responsible and hold other people accountable.”
He goes on to note that while there have been "pockets of progress" the last ten years have been a giant step backward for black Americans. "Black men still fall to police bullets and brutality, Black women still die from preventable diseases, Black children still struggle to get a high-quality education, the digital divide and environmental inequality still persist, and American cities from Ferguson to Baltimore burn with frustration. In short, the last decade has seen the evaporation of Black wealth, with Black fellow citizens having lost ground in nearly every leading economic category."
Smiley noted that America has currently taken a slide to a place where an entire generation of black children will not do as well as their parents, and their parents did not do all that well. He then said that the fault falls on the black community. "We sit around and talk about everything but what we ought to be focused on, which is how do we turn the tide against what is trying to take us