Over-incarcerated, Under-educated in the Black Community....

Slippery Rock University's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), hosted an event, Wednesday, about the over incarceration and under education of the black community. Over-incarcerated, Under-educated, had a very enlightening message. There are more women in college than men. In the black community the ratio from women to men in school is much higher. There are more black men in jail than seeking a degree.

SRU’s own Dr. Matambanadzo was the speaker for the evening.

From May 6, 2012

Dr. Matambanadzo, African American history professor, spoke for the NAACP event, explaining how he's visited jails, but also why African Americans, especially males, seem to find themselves there.
He teaches African American history among other things at SRU. He said he’s visited jails on many occasions and will be going again soon and offered for students to visit with him as well. Matambanadzo gave a lesson on what he believed was the root cause of mass incarceration of African Americans and how, if at all, it might change.

“The incarceration of African Americas all started with slavery,” he said.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, as of March 24, there are about 217,000 inmates currently incarcerated. Around 81,000 of those inmates are African Americans. The incarceration rates of African Americans is nearly three times that of Hispanic men and seven times that of white men.

Tierney Smithson, senior political science major and vice president of NAACP, believes this is a very important topic that we should be educated on. The turn out could have been better, but she appreciated those who did show up and felt it wasn’t a bad turn out, she said.


When individuals entered into the room, Terrell Foster, NAACP executive member =, directed them to either the right side or left side of the room. Those who were on the right side of the room were incarcerated. Those on the left were free and were able to pick out a lollipop to show their freedom. The exercise was supposed to show how those who are not in jail are free to make their own choices, whereas those who are not are able to reap benefits of being free.

Malik Harrison, a SRU senior, attended the event and happen to be one of the individuals incarcerated during the activity.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “As a young black man I know the odds of my peers going to college or going to jail, it’s a wake up call.”