Posted on 03/19/2006 9:12:59 PM PST by summer
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics,...
Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
...These were among the recent findings:
¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly...dropouts....
¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years....
¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.
...According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.
Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. ..
Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.
"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society."...
All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling...
...Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent ......
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And, yet, ironically -- I think today we have more black men making it bigtime in Hollywood and in the music industry than ever before. Hello out there, ever think of helping your "brothers"??? (Maybe if you stopped singing about whores and pimps for a minute, you could do something really worthwhile for these black men...)
This was a good article. It was not, however, an "editorial."
BTW, in my post #1 , I am not talking about all black boys -- I am sure Obama Barak's Harvard educated parents were on him about school all the time; I am talking about some of the inner city black boys in public schools.
I know it is not an editorial! I never said it was.
Yes, you could be right about that. I was actually talking about one specific segment of black boys I have seen.
Also see my post #4.
Thanks, I had missed that one.
Re your post #3 - Yes, I see what you mean now -- it came up as "editorial" in the link, but that was a mistake. I know it is not an editorial. Sorry about that link coming up like that!
I wonder how much concern there is for the victims of these Black Men, many of them Black themselves.
And those victims include -- more black kids without fathers in the home. It's like an endless cycle.
life is a bit od a race and the ones with their waist bands down around their knees are just not going to make it.
But you see --- they look at the black men making millions and that's how they dress. So, they think: that's the way to go.
You know, I like to think of myself as being able to find something of value in all kinds of music, but, truly, I just hate rap and hip hop for the most part. I jsut hate it. I think nothing good has come from the vast majority of those lyrics. Yes, it made millions for the creators and performers, and yes, it gave some jobs to people, and yes, it's a means of expression -- but all the violence and hopelessness in those lyrics are imprinted on the brains of these young black boys. Just terrible.
Let's say that you are not an intellectual giant, in fact, you barely squeak through high school. Maybe not even that. Forget about race for now, just look at the eduacation aspect. You aren't one of those folks who are going to start their own business, you are just a real "average joe. 30 years ago, you could certainly find work in a factory of some sort. Folks with that 'gearhead' mindset would end up in some sort of machine shop or something involving steel. Not quite up to that level? Well, somebody needs to assemble Barbie dolls, right?
Ah, but this is the 21st century! There are good jobs if you know technology and you job hasn't been outsourced to India yet. There are plenty of jobs working at Wal-Mart, but they pay like the bumper sticker, "Low Wages...Always".
Okay, what about jobs for the remanining what, 30% of society who don't have software development kung fu skills, but who are certainly more skilled than a Wal-Mart clerk? In our enlightened society that has embraced the "Cheapest price rules" mindset, we've shipped away all the jobs for which the "average joes" were perfectly suited. Auto mechanic? Not any more, with the complexity of cars these days. Construction? Sure, but the constructin field goes through some pretty nasty boom/bust cycles. There just aren't a lot of average jobs anymore!
People live the way the want to live, if you are in a gang infested sewer you can just walk away.
I wont spend one more dime to help anyone that doesn't want to help themselves.
Skin tone has nothing to do with it, if anyone wants to live like that its just peachy with me.
The welfare state has destroyed the black family. Also, doing well in school incurs the wrath of other blacks with accusations of "acting white". The "gangsta" culture glorifies failing in school, not working, being a violent thug, etc. Until "black leaders" quit whining about whitey holding them down, and focus on the real problems, blacks in this country will continue to be marginalized until they are totally inconsequential as contributors to society. Escaping from the democrat plantation would be a good first step.
Yes, that's one part of it -- the article mentions that, too (the loss of manufacturing jobs). But, here's another part you have to consider: white and Hispanic men do not have the same problems at the same rates as black men.
Black men bear a lot of children out of wedlock, and now, with stricter child support laws, the article explains how these black men, already absent from the home where their children are being raised, see any kind of legitimate work as coming with a "tax" of child support payments. So, they avoid it. Which leads them into more problems.
Not a very well paying job at about .25/hour.
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