DCentric

Recaptured D.C. teen has history of escape “One of the D.C. youths who escaped from a secure residential facility in Northwest last week walked away less than a month earlier from a South Carolina facility and a “low risk” group home in the District prior to jumping from a third-floor window of the locked facility last week, according to sources within the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS).” (Washington Times)

Is racism on the way out? “When veteran journalist Ellis Cose wrote “The Rage of a Privileged Class” in 1993, his editor was so shocked by his thesis — that black middle-class professionals were deeply frustrated by enduring discrimination in the workplace and remained unable to achieve the same level of success as their white colleagues — that he pulled him aside to ask if it was really true…Now, nearly two decades later, Cose is revisiting the black middle class in his new book, “The End of Anger,” and finds that much has changed.” (Salon)

ICYMI: District Veterans Recall Army’s Only All-Black Ranger Unit “Paul Lyles, who’s now 83, is one of the several District residents who belonged to 2nd Ranger Company in the early 1950′s. ‘It was just beginning to be desegregated. Because Truman had signed the law,” he says. “But we had a lot of generals who were bigots and didn’t want any blacks in the unit.’ Thrust into action during the Korean War, Lyles says 2nd Ranger Company eventually proved those generals wrong. ‘We never lost a hill. Once you got on a hill, you never lost a hill,” he says. “Nobody ever beat us. We always held our ground.’” (wamu.org)

Bill Aimed At Addressing Issues One Year After South Capitol Street Shootings “Nardyne Jefferies lost her 16-year-old daughter Brishelle Jones. Since then, she has lobbied the DC Council to pass legislation to address the social issues that plague Southeast. Jefferies testified Thursday at a city council hearing on behalf of legislation to do just that…The bill aims to address mental health and behavioral issues, teen pregnancy, and the District’s high 20% truancy rate.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

The Whitewash of Black Beauty “The complex histories which result in European hair, or fairer skin, being associated with beauty cannot be reduced to a psychological decision made by a human being – these are subjective perceptions that had been shaped by hundreds of years of conditioning. “I would marry her were she an Ethiope” exclaims Shakespeare’s Claudio to prove the depth of his love in Much Ado About Nothing. ” (ceasefiremagazine.co.uk)

No Charges Will Be Filed In DC9 Death “In the District, prosecutors say they won’t press charges in the death of a man who died following an altercation outside the DC9 nightclub in October. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. says there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges. Ali Ahmed Mohammed allegedly tossed a brick through a window of the club, starting the altercation.” (wamu.org)