Being Black in America

Senator Obama's speech on Father's Day continues to create a stir: “We know the statistics - that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”

Was he dumping on the Black family, letting society off the hook? Add to that CNN's new series "Black In America" and you've got the makings for a rich and revealing conversation. GRITtv convened an extraordinary panel of Black men: Byron Hurt,Mo Beasley, Brian Jones, Michael Jones -- fathers, a grandfather and a teenage son. And the conversation ranges from slavery, to New Orleans and the responsibility of those who would lead the world's richest country. We end up with Nas at Fox TV.

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