Our Issues.
Learn more about the core issues The Black Institute (TBI) continues to work on so that the lives of Black families and immigrants are infused with power and hope.
You’ll learn how we incorporate our three-step strategy to confront and influence policy.
Owning the Issues
Our three-step strategy is simple:
KNOWLEDGE: We find the facts and create new ideas for justice.
LEADERSHIP: We train people to be leaders within their own communities.
COMMUNITY: We organize communities to take collective action.
Our Three-Step Strategy
1. Head (Knowledge)
As an action-tank (A think-tank that takes action), we first research, gather data, poll, and build academic partnerships.
2. Heart (Leadership)
We provide civic education, training, and leadership development.
This leadership pipeline allows us to develop initiatives that build and deliver wealth, power, and justice to Black people and people of color.
3. Feet (Community)
Informed by the data we’ve gathered, we mobilize the community to confront injustice.
This allows us to build power and deliver justice to communities of color.
Our Three-Step Strategy Applied to Public Education
TBI has researched the numerous challenges that immigrants and people of color face in the education system. Their reports have examined teachers in the Caribbean community as well as immigrant communities across the city.
Dream Deferred / Black, Invisible & Undocumented: The Plight of Caribbean Immigrant Youth
All Races, All Faces: A Guide to NYC Immigrant Communities
Since the Spring of 2018, TBI has been working on the Ovation TV campaign entitled “Bringing the Arts: Stand for Ovation.” Altice, the parent company of Optimum, has chosen not to carry the Ovation TV channel rather than make a good-faith effort to work towards an agreement that would provide Optimum customers with Ovation TV, which provides curated and arts-related series, specials, documentaries, films, original programming, and original productions.
In early 2018, TBI launched the STARZ campaign to bring back the hit television show “POWER,” which is the most-watched show among minorities on cable television, after Optimum Cable took it off the air. TBI successfully ran a social media campaign and grassroots canvassing effort that led to Optimum putting STARS and POWER back on cable television.
Public Education
The Black Institute seeks to expand educational opportunities to all communities. A quality education–consisting of great teachers, active parents, outstanding principals, out-of-the-box thinkers, stellar curriculum, safe learning environments, and the expectation and treatment of all students as scholars–is critical to closing the gap between a segregated and unequal education. Educational opportunities also include increasing and expanding the arts and culture in all communities, primarily low-income communities of color.
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