In one of the most significant steps of its kind taken by any Administration, President Barack Obama has unveiled a plan which he hopes will lift young minority men out of a persistent cycle of despair and hopelessness into productive lives. Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative will be in the hands of a top-level task force, which the president has appointed “to develop a coordinated federal effort to improve significantly the expected life outcomes for boys and young men of color,” he wrote in a memo outlining his plan. The program will cover not only young African-American men but also...