BET Tackles Issues in the African American Community With “Heart of the City”

BET News Travels to the Frontline of the Issues Devastating the African American Community with ‘HEART OF THE CITY’ Premiering Saturday, September 12, at 10:00 p.m.

From gang wars to police brutality to the sexually transmitted disease epidemic facing young women, BET News goes inside America’s cities to examine the issues devastating our communities in a new one-hour documentary series, HEART OF THE CITY. Each month HEART OF THE CITY will tell the stories of those most directly affected by leading issues in the African American community, and go beyond simply reporting on the challenges to highlighting the efforts of those working tirelessly to create change with real solutions. Premiering on Saturday, September 12, at 10:00 p.m.*, HEART OF THE CITY will first travel to Detroit, the ground zero of our national education crisis, to understand why so many African Americans are failing and why the system is failing our kids.

What’s been a growing problem for years is now a full-blown emergency. More than 6 million American students drop out of high school, most of them Black and Latino. Almost half of all African American youth never finish high school. That’s more than double the rate of whites. During the premiere episode of HEART OF THE CITY: DROPPED OUT IN DETROIT, BET News will travel to the predominantly Black city of Detroit, where the statistics are even more shocking: two out of every three teens drop out.

The decision to quit school has a long-lasting domino effect on the lives of these youths, their families, communities, cities and even states, which suffer huge losses in income revenue, skilled productivity and increased social spending. In Detroit, and nationwide, drastic solutions are called for. The Obama administration has sounded the alarm over the crisis and has zeroed in on Detroit to come up with a formula to turn the tide of this national crisis. Through strong and intimate storytelling, HEART OF THE CITY: DROPPED OUT IN DETROIT will break down the causes and effects of this massive crisis, and present them through the eyes of students, parents, teachers and educationists living this crisis.

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