Report: Problems With Black Men Are Major U.S. Crisis

Urban League Cites Incarceration, AIDS, Joblessness

POSTED: 7:55 pm EDT April 17, 2007

NEW YORK -- Citing bleak data on incarceration, joblessness and AIDS, the National Urban League said Monday that problems facing black men represent America's most serious social crisis and proposed an aggressive campaign to provide them with more opportunities.

The 97-year-old black empowerment organization, in its annual State of Black America report, called for universal early-childhood education, more second-chance programs for school dropouts and ex-offenders, and expanded use of all-male schools emphasizing mentoring and longer class hours. "Empowering black men to reach their full potential is the most serious economic and civil rights challenge we face today," said Urban League President Marc H. Morial. "Ensuring their future is critical, not just for the African-American community, but for the prosperity, health and well-being of the entire American family."

According to the report, African-American men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white males while earning 74 percent as much per year. They are nearly seven times more likely to be incarcerated, with average jail sentences about 10 months longer than those of white men, the report said. In addition, it said, black males between 15 and 34 are nine times more likely to be killed by firearms and nearly eight times as likely to suffer from AIDS.

"I could rattle off the names of African-American men who have overcome the odds and have risen to national prominence," Morial said. "But for all the Barack Obamas, Tony Dungys and Colin Powells out there ... there are many more black men who face very limited opportunities and diminished expectations." "It's not enough to have role models to give them hope," he added. "We need a public commitment in the form of concrete policy strategies to help lift them out of their state of underachievement and put them on equal footing with white men in this nation."

Obama, the Illinois senator who is a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, wrote the report's foreword. "The crisis of the black male is our crisis," he wrote. "It is in our shared interest and in the interest of every American to stop ignoring these challenges and start finding the solutions that will work."

On several key measurements, the report found greater disparities between black and white men than between black and white women. For example, it said unemployment for black men was 9.5 percent, compared to 4 percent for white men, while the jobless rate for black women was 8.5 percent, compared to 4.1 percent for white women.

In terms of annual median income, black men earned less than 75 percent of what white men did, $34,443 vs. $46,807. Black women made 87 percent of what white women made even though they earned $5,000 less than black men -- $29,588 a year. The report did highlight a few bright spots for blacks of both genders . One example was the improved readiness level of children entering elementary school.

However, the report cited a widening gap after elementary school as blacks begin to fall behind on standardized tests. In fourth grade, the report said, blacks perform at a level of 87 percent of whites; by the time they reach 12th grade, their scores are at 74 percent of whites. By high school, blacks are more likely to drop out -- 15 percent compared to 12 percent for whites. For black males, the percentage rises to 18 percent compared to 14 percent of white males, the report said.

In an essay accompanying the report, University of California, Berkeley, lecturer Christopher Knaus said the rising emphasis on standardized testing would not yield major improvements as long as heavily minority schools had the least experienced teachers and highest faculty turnover. "The curricula in most public schools also fails to adequately engage black students," Knaus wrote. "Disinterested students who are labeled as problems or disruptive often become the victims of 'zero tolerance' policies. ...contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline, especially among black males."

The report suggested that all-male schools with a strong emphasis on mentoring could help keep black boys "focused on their education and away from distractions that could lead them down the wrong paths." The Urban League also recommended increased federal support for a summer jobs program in cities nationwide, and stressed that any overall progress will need a boost from parents.

"They must continually talk to their children about how much better off they will be by graduating from high school and college," it said.

Speaking as someone who is close to several people teaching in primarily black school, separating by gender sounds like a good idea, honestly.

There’s a lot of show-boating and a lot of fights that result out of relationships/you said this about my girlfriend.... That sort of thing.

But honestly, the family is at the root of this. That and a culture of dependence that shuns achievement in anything academic.

I attended an intersting high school in the late 90s. It was about 60% white, 40% black. A majority of the families worked in the same factory, so their salaries were comparalbe. The tax dollars this plant brought in made our school system the most well-funded public school system in the state, despite not really having a wealthy student population.

There was one black (a girl) to finish in the top 10% of my school in a decade. The opportunity was there, the facilities were there, the quality teachers were there, the socioeconomics were as equal as they were going to be. And yet still, the above result.

That’s a cultural failing. No mistake about it.

http://www.nul.org/thestateofblackamerica.html

you can’t even read the damned thing unless you BUY it...

Geez! I guess they want the full results of their report available only to the elite, not the poor black Americans whom the report is supposedly about.

According to the Amazon listing, the document is 320 pages long but they could still release it as a free PDF download if they were truly interested in getting their report out to as many people as possible.

For a lot of people, eleven dollars plus shipping would represent a significant chunk of a week's grocery money. But I guess that this report isn't meant for them.....

Thanks for your excellent research. I would never have thought to check, assuming as I did that such a report would 'of course' be free to all.

How naive of me.

Some twenty years ago, the President of Hunter College in NYC, a woman who is of Jamaican descent, advocated for public boarding schools to get young black children out of their culture of crime and into a culture of progress.

I'm guessing that Jamaicans aren't regarded by other black Americans as "authentic" blacks, just as Condi Rice and Colin Powell aren't regarded as 'authentic' because they aren't hard-left Socialists who are focused on endless Government programs and handouts in an effort to maintain their political power.

She was roundly condemed (By the Black Community), but I think she was on to something.

They would need to first recognize where the problem is, which they have no interest in doing. And yes, you are indeed onto something.

Boarding schools for the early grades seem unusual to us, but in the Brtish culture, and even throughout Africa, children went off at a young age and returned home on holidays. They were in a controlled environment, and in Africa, learned to speak excellent English.

It's a wonderful idea that would address and most likely solve a very great need. The difficulty is that it would represent political suicide for black as well as white liberal politicians, who have been telling us for decades that all of the problems of black America are exclusively due to white racism. To see instant successes from such a worthy plan as yours would show the voting constituency of these politicians and activists that they have been lied to for the past sixty years, and all would be instantly booted out of office. The Urban League, the NAACP and other racial pressure groups would fall apart and black America would become a powerful economic engine with a strong cultural base that would make all Americans beam with pride.

But this won't happen because too many people make their living off of maintaining a modern black Plantation, where everyone on the Plantation is beholden to Government for their meager existence.

Yes, it's evil. Yes, it should be criminal. But that is the face of modern Socialism and the American hard Left.

"sigh"

That’s a cultural failing. No mistake about it.

Obvious truths such as what you state are typically dispensed with as "racist and closed-minded innuendo that is not supported by statistical models"

Fascinating story, thanks very much for posting. The saddest thing is all of the lives that are needlessly wasted over this anti-intellectual plague which has obvious and tangible solutions.

In a similar vein, I recall a massive (and breathtakingly expensive) test that was done in (I believe) East St. Louis. In fact, I think that there was even a '60 Minutes' segment on it, hard as it may be to believe. Anyway, what was done was a Liberal's dream. The most destitute, most poorly-performing and most run-down school system was identified and I believe hundreds of millions of dollars were thrown at it. A new High School including an Olympic-sized pool, all of the best equipment everywhere, all of the best books and study aids imaginable. And the results? The test scores went DOWN.

The age-old question is, how do you change a culture when you have Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters standing in the schoolhouse door screaming RACIST! at you?

How can anyone overcome this?

Millions upon millions of people have had their entire lives needlessly destroyed as a result of our inability to answer this question.

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