Racial Learning Gap -- The Civil Rights Issue of the 21st Century: Vanguard Civil Rights Group, Community Advocates, Candidly Probes Issue with National Experts

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 4, 2006

Community Advocates, Inc. (CAI), a vanguard civil rights and social criticism organization based in Los Angeles, CA, contends that many civil rights organizations are focused on past ills, their agendas centered on the proverbial rear view mirror, as opposed to the road ahead. With this in mind, since its inception, CAI has argued that education, in particular the racial learning gap, is the civil rights issue of the 21st Century. The President of CAI, David Lehrer, and the Vice President, Joe Hicks, are well-known Los Angeles civil rights leaders, one a black conservative Republican, and the other a white, Jewish Democrat, who joined forces four years ago to head CAI. CAI is striving to re-frame discussions about issues, particularly race, ethnic tensions, education, multi-culturalism, immigration and inner city violence through new and updated lenses.

CAI’s Critical Issues Seminars were created because Lehrer and Hicks contend that, for too long, the discussions and debates surrounding key issues confronting this country have been predictable, orthodox and punctuated by political correctness. The first of theses seminars, The Minority Education Achievement Gap: A Provocative Look, which takes place in Los Angeles at the Center for the Preservation of Democracy on Thursday, October 5 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM, features three of the USA’s leading education experts: Professor Abigail Thernstrom, Professor Richard Rothstein, and Shawn Arevalo McCullough. The seminar will be moderated by Larry Mantle, Host of AirTalk on 89.3 KPCC-FM, Southern California Public Radio, and the entire seminar and Q & A will be broadcast on KPCC. Each forum in this continuing series will feature panelists chosen for the quality and diversity of their ideas.

CAI believes that various ideological assumptions regarding the causes and, therefore, possible solutions to society’s toughest problems often prevent creative and dynamic interactions that might result in new approaches. Advocates are often heard in isolation offering pre-packaged, platitude-laden solutions to our most intractable problems. Spontaneous and open discussions among thoughtful individuals with differing viewpoints in a challenging, yet controlled and civil setting, are quite rare. CAI chose this issue because it has historically proven to be particularly difficult for the formation of “common ground” understandings among the advocates on various sides of the debate. In fact, the tendency of advocates to demonize those of opposing viewpoints has been particularly pronounced when these matters are discussed. Chaired by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, CAI has been at the forefront of a fresh approach to race, ethnic and cultural issues in Los Angeles and throughout the country, attempting to challenge the dominant strategies of civil rights and human relations groups in Los Angeles and the United States, promoting instead critical discourse about common ground issues that transcend one's race, ethnicity, gender or religion.

http://www.cai-la.org

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