BBC Learning English Words in the News Obama's youth initiative

28 February 2014
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President Obama has launched an initiative called "My Brother's Keeper" to help young, minority men in the United States. He said that these young men consistently do worse in society and urged stronger efforts to create more opportunities for them. The BBC's Beth McLeod reports from Washington. America's first black president has generally avoided policies defined by race, but in an emotional speech Mr Obama said it's an outrage that young Hispanic and AfricanAmerican men have the odds stacked against them in US society. He cited what he described as heart-breaking statistics, saying that these young men were more likely to have no father in the house, more likely to end up in jail, and more likely to be victims of violent crime. The unemployment rate for African-American men was 12% last month, more than double that for white men. President Obama said that he could identify with this group, and announced a new federal task force to develop ways to keep minority youths in school and out of the criminal justice system.

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Vocabulary and definitions

defined by outrage have the odds stacked against cited heart-breaking identify with

(here) created because of; concerned with anger and shock be very unlikely to succeed due to difficult surrounding circumstances mentioned information from a particular source causing a lot of sadness understand someones situation and feelings due to experiencing a similar situation

task force

group of people brought together to carry out a particular mission

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online: Related story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26378052

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2014/02/140228_witn_minority.shtml

Words in the News bbclearningenglish.com

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