A few weeks ago, in a hotel room, I watched Chris Rock’s current show–which is very funny. One segment concerns his suburban New Jersey neighborhood, where the houses cost millions. He notes that there are only three other African Americans in town, and all are extremely famous and talented cultural figures. But his next-door neighbor, who is White, is a dentist. He says that for a Black dentist to reach this level of success, he’d have to discover a cure for cavities (or something to that effect).

I get the joke, but it sends the wrong message. I cannot find statistics on dentists’ income by race/ethnicity. But I suspect that Black dentists make roughly the same as White dentists; and if there is a gap, it is partly explained by the greater willingness of Black dentists to serve African American communities. African American male physicians earn slightly more than White male physicians; Black women physicians earn less. (See this and this.)

I fully understand that the path to dental school can be much harder if you are an African American teenager than if you are White. On average, schools that enroll lots of Black kids score lower on tests and have weaker curricula; and African American youth often have fewer educational networks and resources at home. Further, there is evidence that once African American students reach dental school, there is “subtle discrimination and miscommunication.” Only 5.4 percent of current dental students are African American (pdf).

Nevertheless, the main message has to be that there is a path to prosperity that runs through a high school diploma, a BA, and then a professional degree. While that path is hard, it is much easier than trying to be a world-famous actor or athlete. Dental school can get you to Summit, NJ; but Hollywood or the NBA probably cannot.

(Framingham, MA) I am involved in several networks devoted to public goals, some of whose members have connections to the Obama transition. I’m getting urgent emails and phone calls with tense messages about the need to get our positions right, succinct, forceful, and in the hands of people closer to the President Elect than we are. Meanwhile, some 300,000 people have already submitted their resumes to the transition–compared to 44,000 resumes that were ever submitted to the Bush transition. These people want jobs, of course, but they are also idealists who see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance their causes. If you have worked all your life on community banking, or wind power, or relations with Sierra Leone–to name completely random and hypothetical issues–it suddenly seems as if this is your one best chance to make a big difference at the national scale. So you are pounding out memos for the transition team, uploading your resume, calling people who know people who know Obama team-members.

It’s all very important. There really is a window of opportunity that will begin to close in a few months. Those who advocate effectively will make more of a difference than those who do not. But somehow I think we all need to adjust to the reality that there are far more vital causes than there are opportunities to act in the first few months of a new administration; and there are far more talented activists than jobs. We need strategies that go beyond the first 100 days and that involve other branches of government and other institutions. As always, we need cool heads, broad coalitions, and careful deliberation.

And now, back to that urgent draft email to someone who knows someone in Chicago …

(suburban Maryland): I’m here with a group of young leaders, mostly young people of color who work with youth on service projects, social justice efforts, and community organizing. At a previous meeting, a subgroup decided to focus on issues of violence–or, as they put it, the “peace piece.” With characteristic energy and vision, they launched a practical project: a “Peace Jam” in Los Angeles.

Their idea is that violence emanates from Los Angeles because the global mass media, headquartered there, broadcasts images and stories of violent youth and gang culture to the whole world. The music, movie, and game industries essentially profit from local youth violence. My friends are organizing a youth peace culture right in the heart of LA. On September 7, they played a role in bringing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and other Nobel Peace laureates to town to work with kids. Sign up, watch their videos, and give them money; they’re great.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for ages 16-19 was over 20% in October. For ages 20 and older, the rate was 5.9%.

Youth unemployment, seasonally adjusted

Unemployed youth are not only missing income and benefits. They are also losing crucial opportunities to develop skills, networks, habits, and experience. The Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act is certainly not the whole solution, but I think it should be passed quickly as an element of the economic recovery plan. It is an efficient way to give as many as 250,000 young people highly educational work experiences. They will also exemplify public work for Americans of all ages.