Houston Group School (HCC) gives a various array of nontraditional programs for college students. These embody style and inside design, photo voltaic installer certification, culinary arts, building administration, barber/stylist, cosmetology and HVAC applications.
One other notable initiative is the Group Studying Program, which gives free workshops and studying sequence for youth, adults and seniors aged 50 and above.
The applications are positioned on a number of of HCC’s campuses all through town. The town is residence to greater than 527,000 Black or African American residents, but solely 22.6% of these graduating from a college are Black. On this situation, short-term credentials could make an impression.
Based on U.S. Information, certificates applications are sometimes cheaper than faculty however pay a median of greater than $30,000 yearly.
At occasions, a lack of understanding about these applications can forestall college students from pursuing alternate careers. Nonetheless, these applications will also be helpful in equipping college students with specialised abilities that employers could also be on the lookout for.
The “Black Smithsonian” debate
President Trump not too long ago issued an govt order titled “Restoring Fact and Sanity to American Historical past,” singling out the Smithsonian Establishment, comprising 21 museums and the Nationwide Zoo. The order says the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition is pushing a “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Whereas Trump calls it a transfer to “restore reality” to American historical past, critics say it’s extra in regards to the erasure of Black historical past.
Historians, civil rights leaders and Black lawmakers are sounding the alarm. They argue that the Founding Fathers enshrined slavery within the Structure U.S. and declared enslaved individuals to be “three-fifths of an individual.” They added one can not discuss in regards to the nation’s story with out speaking about racism and resistance.
The order additionally shocked many critics. In 2017, initially of his first time period, Trump praised the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, saying he was “deeply proud we now have a museum that honors the thousands and thousands of African American women and men who constructed our nationwide heritage.”
“It looks as if we’re headed within the course the place there’s even an try to deny that the establishment of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow legal guidelines and segregation and racial violence in opposition to Black communities, Black households, Black people even occurred,” stated Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse School.
Black comedian outlets: there’s just one in Texas
Byron Canady’s Gulf Coast Cosmos Comics in Third Ward is Texas’s solely Black-owned comedian e-book retailer. The store is subsequent to Kindred Tales, a Black-owned bookstore, and gives comics, graphic novels and manga that includes Black characters written by writers of shade.
Black comedian characters, some argue, are crucial not only for illustration’s sake however to form the imaginations of younger individuals. Characters like Storm, Black Panther and Miles Morales can develop what heroism appears to be like wish to youngsters. It might present that Blackness isn’t a monolith.
