What Loretta Lynch as attorney general would mean for California's issues, how violence and incarceration impact black men, saving the Serrano language.
America’s million missing black men
A study recently published in the New York Times examines the ebbing population of young black males in America. The report says street violence, HIV and incarceration have removed from society nearly 1.5 million black men between the ages of 25 and 54.
The Times also finds that, on average, there are only about 83 non-incarcerated black men for every 100 black women.
The gap is the worst in two familiar cities: Ferguson, Missouri and North Charleston, South Carolina. Their ratios are 60-100 and 75-100, respectively. Meanwhile, white communities average about 99 out of 100.
David Leonhardt is the editor of the Times’ Upshot section and helped to author the report. He tells Take Two that the gender gap exists in nearly every black community in the country:
“Almost every place where there is a really sizeable African American population has these large numbers of missing men. Los Angeles, San Bernardino County [and] Alameda County have ratios that are nearly identical.”
He explains that gender ratios among children in communities of color tend to be equal. As those children age, the disparity begins to widen. The gap plateaus around the age of 30.
Brenda Stevenson is a professor of history at UCLA. She says mass incarceration creates a vicious cycle within communities of color.
“You’re talking about pulling out a significant part of the population [during] their most productive, creative and nurturing years. These are years in which people form their own families. They’re partners, parents, political activists … When you don’t have a significant part of that population being able to do these kind of things, it has a devastating impact on the community.”
Stevenson notes that while blacks make up 6.6% of California, black males make up 29% of the state’s prison population.
Study author David Leonhardt admits that numbers may improve in the coming years, but he contends that there’s no reason to celebrate: it’s only because two leading killers of black men, homicide and HIV are decreasing in the nation.
“We’re talking about the situation not getting worse, but it’s stabilizing at a level that is extremely harmful to very large numbers of people.”
Press the play button above to hear more from The New York Times’ David Leonhardt and UCLA’s Brenda Stevenson on the impact these missing men are having on the country.
If confirmed, what can US, California expect from AG Loretta Lynch?
The Senate has agreed to vote on the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.
It's been a long time coming. The US attorney for Eastern New York was tapped by President Obama for the Department of Justice top job five months ago. But the process got tied up in a Republican bill on human trafficking.
Now that lawmakers have that bill figured out, Lynch is expected to jump the final hurdle to become the nation's first African-American female US attorney general.
If she's confirmed, what impact might her appointment have on a variety of hot-button legal issues?
Timothy Phelps covers the Justice Department for the Los Angeles Times, and he spoke with Take Two about Lynch's interesting personal history, and her tough record prosecuting police brutality and organized crime cases.
Phelps also talked about Lynch's stance on recreational marijuana, which could become legal in California in 2016 (a recent survey showed most voters support legalization).
Early in Lynch's confirmation hearings, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she does not support legalizing marijuana — which could become an issue if pot prohibition ends in the Golden State next year.
San Bernardino to pay Francis Pusok $650K in settlement
San Bernardino County has agreed to pay Francis Pusok, the man who was beaten by sheriff's deputies, $650,000 in a settlement. The entire incident was caught on video by a news helicopter.
This ends any potential claims Pusok could make against the county or Sheriff's Department. But will the settlement deter further instances like these from happening again? UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz joined the show to talk more about this.
Should you be negotiating lower medical costs with your doctor?
In recent weeks on Take Two, we've been talking about the high cost of health care and ways that you can try to reduce some of those costs.
It's tough, because negotiating what we pay for health care isn't something most of us have ever done. Usually, if there's something wrong with you, you go to the doctor and he or she will tell you what you'll need to pay, no questions asked. But times are changing and these days you may actually be able to haggle with your physician.
Southern California Public Radio's Rebecca Plevin joins Alex Cohen to talk about what it takes to negotiate better medical costs on our weekly health segment called "Impatient."
To check out Rebecca's post on haggling with your doctor here.
Cal State helps save Native American languages
In a classroom at Cal State San Bernardino, Ernest Siva shares a traditional Serrano story with students. He reads aloud in a language that was spoken by as many as 30,000 Native Americans in the San Bernardino mountain areas before settlers arrived in the 18th century.
The 78-year-old Siva remembers speaking Serrano at home with his mother and grandfather as a child. But in his generation, pressure to assimilate led English to become the tribe’s dominant language. Now, Siva is one of just two living speakers of Serrano. He’s hoping to pass on as much as he knows.
“I hope more and more people learn enough about it to keep the fire going. It’s our heritage. It does mean something to us and it really was important to the people,” Siva said.
Finding instructors
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has been making a formal effort to preserve the Serrano language since 2004. Two years ago, the tribe teamed up with Cal State San Bernardino to offer college courses in the language.
The challenge was finding an instructor who could teach a language almost no one speaks.
Michael Navarrete, who describes himself as "Nicaraguan-Sicilian-German-Russian-Jewish,” is one of the people the tribe turned to. Navarrete said he didn’t even realize there were still Native Americans in California when he got the job. But, as a trained linguist, he was intrigued by the idea.
“It really is kind of a linguist’s dream job that I’m working on. For all intents and purposes it’s an extinct language, but I’m trying to bring it back, so it’s very interesting, even if I can’t talk to anyone,” Navarrete said.
Navarrete is teaching the introductory Serrano class at the university with Siva’s help. This semester they have just seven students.
None of the participants in Navarrete and Siva’s class have Serrano heritage. Most of them enrolled out of simple curiosity.
Learning the language
A 21-year-old psychology major, Vanessa Rodriguez, already speaks Spanish and Romanian. She said Serrano just seemed interesting.
“I can learn a language outside, but this is a language that not many people know, so it’s not easy to come across to go find a book or something where I can learn from there,” she said.
The university hopes offering these courses will encourage students to take an interest in the cultural history of Southern California and help connect students with other parts of the community.
Carmen Jany, chair of CSUSB’s Indigenous Languages program, said, “The local tribes are part of our university community, so we obviously want to serve the tribes as well. What is their main concern? To keep their languages and cultures alive. So we want to help them in that endeavor.”
The university started the program in 2012. It now offers courses in three Southern California indigenous languages: Luiseño, Serrano and Cahuilla. This year, the school also introduced a certificate program in California indigenous languages and cultures.
Jany says the courses are available to community members, as well as university students. She said she hopes that CSUSB students might someday learn enough about indigenous languages to work on the tribes’ reservations as teachers.
So far, enrollment has been low. The individual tribes pay for language instruction, and Jany said without the tribes’ backing, the university probably wouldn’t be able to offer these courses.
Still, it’s an investment the tribes are willing to make in their future.
“Based on my experience, most tribes in the U.S. are playing catch up,” Navarrete said. “Most linguists think more than half the world's existing languages will disappear by the end of the century.”
Southern California’s native languages are among those threatened, Navarrete said.
Navarrete and other linguists have helped compile a dictionary of about 4,000 Serrano words, but a lot of the language has already been lost. It’s something that concerns Siva.
"The main thing is to pass that on as much as we can,” Siva said.
Siva never thought he'd see a university teaching his language in his lifetime. This course makes him feel hopeful.
There’s a traditional Serrano teaching on the matter, Siva said. “If you lose your language, you won’t have the deep roots of the oak, you’ll have shallow roots like grass, which withers and is gone.”
It’s a sentiment he hopes future generations will share.
The outlook for the Angels' Josh Hamilton, Pacquiao-Mayweather fight
Wednesday means it's time to get sporty with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky.
Josh Hamilton, outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, was one of baseball's best power hitters in recent years, which is why the Angels signed him to a gigantic contract that has over $80 million left. But, he has had a very public battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction, and this off-season he self-reported a relapse to MLB. The Kamenetzky brothers begin by filling us in on what this means for the team.
From there, they tell us more about:
- The NFL schedule is out, and Tim Tebow is back, sort of.
- The Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather is 2 1/2 weeks away, but there's one tiny detail that's still missing.
The history of the Armenian Genocide
This week Armenians all over the world will stop to remember the deaths of more than one million people, killed by the Ottoman Turks a hundred years ago.
Even though its been a century - a debate continues about whether the event should be called a genocide.
Today White House officials reported that President Obama would not officially refer to it as a genocide.
We'll talk about how Armenians are responding to the news with House Representative Adam Schiff of Burbank.
Then we'll look at the history of the event with
, Director of USC's Institute of Armenian Studies
'Third LA' series draws to a close at the LA River
The Los Angeles area, in true Hollywood style, has a way of reinventing itself.
The latest chapter of the region has been the subject of a series of lectures called Third Los Angeles. The final event is happening Wednesday night along the L.A. River.
LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne has been leading the Third LA series with Occidental College, and tells more about his final installment.