Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn [More black drop outs in prison than working]

NY Times Editorial ^ | March 20, 2006 | Erik Eckholm

[chris1]

The problem is that so few actually make it, yet way too many believe that they are going to be either a b-ball star or rapper, or pimp.

I see many mexicans and dominicans who are going into the trades and doing very well for themselves and shun the whole pimp mentality.

Its really sad in fact.

[taxed2death]

It's not cool to get an education.

It's not cool to get a legit job.

It's not cool to speak the language of corporate America.

It's not cool to be a responsible parent......


I could go on and on.....

[taxed2death]

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!"

___________________________________________________________

Excellent post. Here's the real hidden problem. I'll use myself as an example here. I went to a tech (trade) High school. There were blacks, whites and Hispanics that went there. Upon graduation.... if we took up carpentry...or Machine shop...or "Heating / HVAC ..."electro-Mech" or any other trade... we could basically graduate and walk into a pretty darned good job. I chose Auto Body repair and within 3 years of graduating I was making more than my father. At 22 years old I was making $600.00+ a week...and this is back in 1984....not too bad for someone with no college education. When I look around now and see many businesses (blue collar) in a 30 mile radius....most of my fellow classmates went on to be very successful business owners. I know of several plumbers who make over $250,000.00 a year. That's no joke!
The normal chain of occurrences is that when these business owners need new help...all they do is stop off at any local trade school and ask the teachers there for the best and the brightest.

All this has changed now with the influx of illegals. One USED to be able to make a decent living and or have a GOOD job upon graduating from carpentry in a trade school. Now the illegals have driven down the wages by so much there is no incentive to be a carpenter or a framer here in CT. If you choose that line of work....you should also be aware that you'll have to live in a house with 15 other dudes and work for 8 bucks an hour.
Now....if you're a legit business owner here in CT....you simply can not AFFORD to go to a trade school and hire one of the students. You have to put them on the books. This crappy situation pits legit business owners against scumbag tax cheat employers. It has become a race to the bottom. How does this effect black kids?

Well as I had mentioned before.....a large percentage of my graduating class were blacks. Now they've been sold down the river (once again) by this bull$hit line from GWB that we "need" (illegal) immigrants. Go talk to the black (and white and Hispanic) youth graduating from trade schools. They can not find employment when they graduate from a trade they've trained for 4 years. If you are a legit business owner you will find yourself underbid time and time again by these scumbags who pay no FICA, or SS or any other insurance for their illegals.

GWB and his ilk are complicit in this. There is no job stability in the blue collar workforce anymore and we are importing cheap (near slave) labor to the tune of 10,000 to 15,000 persons a week through our insecure borders.

This illegal mess is just another way that people (all races) of lower economic means are getting shafted by their own government. I don't think our own government should pit the lower economic groups of Americans against illegals for the sake of "cheap labor". That hardly seems "American".

[Freee-dame]

I went to a Catholic grade school that became mostly black by time I graduated. All the boys went to high school and several of them to the highly rated Catholic military school in town.

I am never surprised when I hear that a prominant older black person went to Catholic school, at least for grade school. Expectations were high for all kids in the class, at least back in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

[mlc9852]

And more young white kids are joining. Drop-out teenage moms, daddy no where to be found, grandparents raising babies - doesn't bode well for their future or ours.

[Kelly_2000]

"Well as I had mentioned before.....a large percentage of my graduating class were blacks. Now they've been sold down the river (once again) by this bull$hit line from GWB that we "need" (illegal) immigrants. Go talk to the black (and white and Hispanic) youth graduating from trade schools. They can not find employment when they graduate from a trade they've trained for 4 years"

. you are ignoring the statistics that point to the fact, that most black men end up dropping out or never attend higher education.

Stop blaming society and start blaming an MTV rap culture that promotes gangster rappers shooting each other form moving cars and glorifies stealing and selling drugs instead of honest work. The issue is not about employment statistics or we would be looking at a list of black men out of work. What we see is black men in prison, committing crimes or failing to finish and graduate from high school.

This is more about a failure in the culture of the black man to provide adequate role models and decent conservative moral values.

[dfwgator]

They're just 'keepin' it real.'

[Roccus]

Withou realizing it (IMHO), you hit on the crux of this and many of the economic problems of Americans today. It is a problem, that for some reason, neither Fed nor state leaders are willing to address. That problem is the 'underground economy'.

[pop-gun]

They just see no connection whatsoever between school and their lives. And, very few of them have fathers or male relatives in or near the home.

Thanks to Lyndon'w GREAT SOCIETY....which essentially destroyed most black families.

[ccwoman]

I live in Iowa where we have a large influx of blacks from Chicago. I work with many black women from this area and they are fine employees pulling double shifts, really trying to make a better life.
downside..all of them and I mean ALL of them have boyfriends/husbands who do not work which is why they must pull the double shifts. Only three of the men even care for the children while the woman works. The other women actualy pay babysitters so their "man" can go hang out!!

[AD from SpringBay]

Whitey's fault - always has been, always will be.

[Roccus]

Sorry, my post was meant for taxed2death's #63.

[Roccus]

Please see my #69. I meant it for you.

Need more coffee.

[185JHP]

BTTT

[DennisR]

Here's a solution for the people in this situation:

1. Finish high school
2. Do not have children before the age of 20
3. Do not have children before you get married

These points (hope I got them right) were developed by someone else - cannot remember his name. But they will keep anyone out of poverty, essentially. And probably out of prison.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

In a sub-society where blacks who study and get good grades are put down for "trying to be white"..

Exactly RIGHT...I have seen this attitude in a local high school, and it affects other kids who come from good homes.

[Drew68]

I think today we have more black men making it bigtime in Hollywood and in the music industry than ever before.

True, but black men who make it big as rappers, actors and professional athletes are a miniscule percentage of the black male population. Off the top of my head I'd say there are about 15 million or so black men in this country. How many superstar rappers, actors and pro-athletes? Maybe 1000? Not a positive career outlook if you ask me.

[Drew68]

How many superstar rappers, actors and pro-athletes? Maybe 1000?

How many superstar black rappers, actors and pro-athletes?

[CIB-173RDABN]

If these Universities really were interested in finding the answer to this problem, they would would do a study of family and working life of black prior to the 1960s then compare it today. Prior to the 1960s, the rate of birth out of wedlock for blacks and whites were similar. There was a thriving black middle class in many of the big cities.

The Civil Right laws of the 1960s were correct, and long over due, but they had some unintended consequences.

If you are driving along a lonely road, and you are coming up to an intersection with a stop sign but you can see both left and right for miles, and there is no traffic coming, do you stop?

Most do. Why? Because we obey laws and rules even when no one is watching. How do we get like that? Simple, we were taught from a young age. First by our families, right and wrong behaviour, then in school, and later in life.

There are many laws, and many social rules that we obey without even thinking about it. We were "programmed" to do certain things.

But what happens when we do not receives such feed back from our family, and later society. What happens when we discover we can act out with little or no consequences?

Without self restraint, which is a virtue that is taught, we are not born with it, quite the contrary, it is our instinct to do what pleases us.

Along with the Civil Rights movement came a companion, the idea that every action by a white person towards a black was racist in nature. The unintended consequences of this movement was that any critism of a black person by a white person made the white person a racist. Not wishing to be labeled a racist, critism was muted, and then ended.

This was soon expanded so that any negative act against a black was percieved as rascist. It has gotten to the point today that whites can not even discuss the issues of blacks in America without being labeled racist.

And so the problems between Blacks and Whites can not be resolved because there is only one safe mode of dialog, and that a one way conversation, blacks towards white.


If we can not have an open and public discussion, if misdeeds or bad behaviour can not be pointed out, then there is no hope for a solution.

The advise I would have for a young black man in America today is the same I would give to a young white (yellow, red, green or purple) man, it is the same and not based on color.

1. Stay in school
2. Learn to speak well
3. Learn to read and write english
4. The golden rule (treat others as you wish to be treated)
5. Be willing to do any job you can get, work hard, and you will be rewarded
6. Wait until you are married to have children