Hispanic Students Headed To College At Record Rate

Photo Credit: The Tomorrow Fund HS

From USA Today:

"In the span of just 12 years, the percentage of Hispanic students headed to college has exploded, for the first time surpassing that of white classmates, a new report shows. 

Nearly seven in 10 Hispanic members of the high school class of 2012 — 69% — enrolled in either a two- or four-year college last fall, up from 49% in 2000, even as overall rates remained nearly flat. In 2012, 67% of white graduates headed straight to college, up from 64% in 2000. 

The Pew Hispanic Center analysis, out Thursday, offers a glimpse of silver lining in the USA's down economy: Since 2008, the rate of Hispanic high school graduates going on to college has actually accelerated, even as overall college-going rates for white and Asian students have dropped. 

What's more, the sheer number of Hispanic students graduating from high school has actually risen, so the higher college-going rates don't simply reflect a more select group of students, said Richard Fry, a senior Pew researcher. In 2012, he noted, U.S. Census data showed five Hispanic high school "completers" for every dropout, up from three in 2000. 

The recession and economy's sluggish recovery may actually be key to the changes, he said. It has likely played out differently in Hispanic students' lives: U.S. Census data show that more Hispanic students live in states hit hard by the nation's housing bust and subsequent high jobless rates. As a result, Fry said, completing high school and going immediately on to college looks more attractive."

To read the rest of the article please click here.

If There Were Only 100 People In the World...

Photo Credit: United Nations Photo

If there were only 100 people in the world, this is how those 100 people could be broken down:

- There would be 50 women and 50 men.

- There would be 26 children and 74 adults.

- There would be 33 Christians, 22 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists, 12 people from some other religion and 12 people without a religious affiliation.

- 83 people would be able to read and write; 17 people would be unable to read and write.

- Only 22 people would have access to a computer and a mere 7 would have a college degree.

- 21 would be overweight, 63 would have adequate nutrition, 15 would be undernourished and 1 would be starving.

- 87 would have safe drinking water and 13 would not have access to clean water.

- 77 would have shelter and 23 would not have a roof over their head.

- The primary language for 12 would be Chinese, 5 Spanish, 5 English, 3 Arabic, 3 Hindi, 3 Bengali, 3 Portuguese, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese and 62 would have some other language as their primary form of communication.

- 60 would be from Asia, 15 from Africa, 14 from the Americas, and 11 from Europe.

You can find a cool infographic with this information here.

(h/t to Scot McKnight for the link.)

The African Roots of Christianity

Photo Credit: babasteve

From Ebony.com:

"According to a 2007 Pew Report, 78% of Blacks in America identify as Protestant while a 2011 report by Pew notes that nearly 24% of Christians live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Christianity’s explosion across Africa led many to call for the Vatican to select a successor to Pope Benedict from the Continent with Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson among the suggested shortlist. This said, many think of Christianity as "the White man's religion." 

The Christian faith occupies a complicated, often racialized place in the history of Blacks all over the globe because of how it was abused by White colonists and slave traders to subjugate Blacks. “Christianity was a double-edged sword [for African-Americans],” says Dr. Lawrence H. Mamiya, Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College and co-author of The Black Church in the African American Experience. 

“On the one hand, well, Whites wanted to use Christianity to make slaves docile and obedient.  [On the other hand,] the Africans adapted Christianity for their survival and liberation.”
But long before colonialism and slavery, Africans were practicing Christianity. “We know that Christianity has had a long history in Africa itself, pre-dating any kind of European influence,” Mamiya says. 

Christianity reportedly arrived in North Africa in the latter part of 1st century AD/early part of the 2nd, while “the adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth-century,” according to findings by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Bible also documents the conversion of an Ethiopian eunuch as the early church was forming. Likewise, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta mentions Christians in Nubia (an area that covers present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in his 14th century travelogue. But when Europeans penetrated Sub-Saharan Africa in the 16th Century, ultimately mining the region for Africans to enslave, the historical narrative shifts which is perhaps why many associate the religion most with Europeans to this day."

To read the complete Ebony article please click here.

To read a previous post I wrote entitled "The Presence of African Christians in History" please click here.

(h/t to TheRoot.com for the Ebony link.)

That's My King!

You can also watch the video here. Happy Resurrection Day!