How Black Youth Benefit from Dedicated Spaces

Mar 1, 2024

The in the United States has been a persistent feature of the national economy, largely because there was never proper compensation paid to Black people for historic and contemporary racial harms. Consequently, Black youth remain disadvantaged compared to white kids, who benefit from and other privileges.

In a new piece for the 大象传媒 digital series 鈥�Realizing Reparations,鈥� youth advocate Torie Weiston-Serdan begins with this context to assert that 鈥減roviding spaces for youth power and healing is essential, and while money alone cannot fully remedy racial trauma, investing in programs and resources to support Black youth is critical to narrowing disparities in wealth, health, and beyond.鈥澛�

Weiston-Serdan is co-founder and chief visionary officer of the . She spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about her story, 鈥�Spaces As Reparations for Black Youth.鈥�

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.