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SELECTED PRESS RELEASE:
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posted on:
5/2/2012 9:27:52 PM EST
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Where are the Black Men?
African Americans, prison, black males, poverty, law enforcement,
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A few weeks ago, I attended an Arts and Crafts night at my daughter's elementary school. The evening was great, many parents and children were in attendance, but I was alarmed at one particular thing. I did point this out to my wife and she had not really noticed, because all of us have been socialized in away that this goes right over our heads. Out of the perhaps 40 children at this event, there was less than five black young boys or young men some would rather say. I ask that question,"Where are the young black men?" If there was a group that should have been there, that was the one.
Many of us don't realize it, but the African America male is disappearing right before our eyes. Statistics show that 70% of all births in the African American community are out of wedlock. So the chances of the children growing up in a traditional home are quite small. Over 50% of all African American males don't graduate from high school. African American women outnumber the males almost two to one in colleges and universities in America. My daughter is in grade school now and many statistics show that as you go higher in the educational system, there will be less minorities and the African American male is becoming extinct.
Less than 200 years ago, most persons of African descent in America were enslaved. But according to Michelle Alexanders book,"The New Jim Crow, in the Age of Colorblindness," there are more African Americans under correctional control today---in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850. This is quite alarming. Ms. Alexander puts much of the blame for incarceration on the so called "War on Drugs." African Americans make up 12-13% of the population, but are 80-90% of the drug offenders sent to prison. Black poverty is at the same level as it was when Martin Luther King was fighting for civil rights. One fourth of African Americans live below the poverty line and this is growing.
America must get a handle on this. The African American family is being destroyed and the young black men are destroying themselves. Crime in America is down, but one needs to only look at the evening news to find that African Americans are killing each other at alarming rates. All of us, black, white, red, brown and yellow must come together to get this under control. Can we afford to continually build prisons and employ more and more law enforcement. It costs $30,000 per year to house a criminal, but much less than that to bring a child up in the way it should go. Let's not continue to ignore this situation for if we do this catastrophe will grow much larger and the consequences will not be good.
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