Sharpton, reached via e-mail, described the meeting as “constructive.”

A White House official sent She The People this readout from the meeting

Today, Valerie Jarrett, Tina Tchen and Broderick Johnson met with a group of stakeholders to discuss how they could work more closely with the White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG) to increase opportunities for girls and young women of color. During the meeting, the officials walked through the Administration’s accomplishments on issues critical to women and girls of color. The group also discussed ways in which stakeholders could become more engaged with the CWG and My Brother’s Keeper. At the conclusion of the meeting, everyone agreed to continue the productive discussion and to work together to provide opportunity for all young people of color.

Announced in February, MBK is a $200 million dollar public-private partnership, that will direct resources and attention to boys of color, who statistically have high incarceration and drop-out rates. The White House released a 60-page task force detailing some of the barriers and difficulties young men of color often face. Obama first announced his intention to address the social problems of young men of color in the wake of the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, which sparked anger among many, particularly African Americans.

AD

AD

Melanie Campbell, chief executive of The Black Woman’s Roundtable, attended the meeting and said it was “a good start.”

“We had different viewpoints and it was a good dialogue for how to move forward and to continue that conversation,” she said. “We all need to figure out how to make life better for our kids, boys and girls and men and women of color. We will continue to work together on these issues.”

Over the last few months, a letter-writing campaign spearheaded by the African American Policy Forum has voiced the concerns of prominent Obama backers, among them Rosario Dawson, Danny Glover, as well as legal scholar Kimberle W. Crenshaw, who also attended the Tuesday afternoon meeting. Almost 1500 people signed a letter saying they were “profoundly troubled about the exclusion of women and girls of color from this critical undertaking.”

AD

AD

And on twitter, the hashtag #whywecantwait cropped up:

Really disappointing when otherwise progressive voices use their platform to support #genderinequity. #MBK #WhyWeCantWait — Adrienne D. Dixson (@AdrienneDDixson) July 15, 2014

Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality” to describe the ways in which women of color face discrimination based on race and gender, said the meeting was both frank and productive.