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The Best and Worst of Times

By Salim Muwakkil

Barack Obama wowed them with his speech during the Democratic National Convention. Not only is he likely to make history as only the third black U.S. senator elected since Reconstruction; pundits already are touting his presidential possibilities. With his probable electoral victory this November, Sen. Obama will join a number of African-American men who are making a real mark on American culture.

Obama’s stage is politics. Black men are exerting their influence in every other nook and cranny of American life—cinema, athletics, media, medicine, theater. These are important milestones, but we can’t let them obscure a more troubling assessment of black men’s status.

It’s an “emerging catastrophe,” New York Times’ columnist Bob Herbert wrote on July 19. And he’s not alone in invoking such urgent language. Many experts are warning that black men are in the midst of a social crisis that Americans seem eager to ignore.

“Ignore” may be the wrong word. The media focus relentlessly on one aspect of this crisis: crime. But that focus is from the “if it bleeds, it leads,” angle. The street crime that captures so much media attention is just the effect of a long list of causes. This crisis has many components—high unemployment, under education, poor healthcare, inadequate housing—that are not quite as media friendly.

Herbert’s Times column highlighted a study by Andrew Sum, of Boston’s Northeastern University, that found “by 2002, one of every four black men in the U.S. was idle all year long.” And this unemployment rate of at least 25 percent did not include homeless men or those in jail or prison. “It is believed that up to 10 percent of the black male population under age 40 is incarcerated,” Herbert writes.

That study had a national focus, but things are even worse in some urban centers. In Chicago, for example, the urgency of the situation prompted three Illinois Democrats—Reps. Danny K. Davis, Jesse L. Jackson Jr. and Bobby Rush—to convene a State of the African American Males Conference in June. In the press release announcing the success of the conference, organizers asked a number of questions:

“Why are more than 50 percent of African-American males between the ages of 16 and 22 out of work and not in school? Why are 87 percent of juvenile parolees African-American males? Why are 60 percent of adult parolees African-American males? Why have only 38 percent of black males graduated from Chicago high schools since 1995, while 62 percent have dropped out?” Most of those numbers pertain to Illinois and Chicago, but also echo the stats of other urban centers.

Earlier this year, the Community Service Society of New York released a report, “A Crisis in Black Male Employment,” that found only 51.8 percent of black men between the ages of 16 through 64 were employed from 2000 to 2003.

But issues of criminal justice are perhaps the most troublesome aspects of this crisis. According to Justice Department figures, 12.9 percent of black males ages 25-29 were in prison or jail; for white men in the same age group the number is 1.6 percent. These racially disparate incarceration rates influence public perception of black men and debilitate other aspects of black community life.

The corrections complex occupies too much space in African-American culture and long has exerted disproportionate influence on the lives of young black people. Long lists of statistics detail the depths of this crisis, but just one—the U.S. Justice Department projects that 32 percent of African-American men born in 2001 will spend time in prison—is enough to reveal its debilitating effects.

A flurry of research is unearthing the interlocking dimensions of this crisis. A study by Becky Pettit of the University of Washington and Bruce Western of Princeton University found that “fully 60 percent of African-American male high-school dropouts born between 1965 and 1969 had been incarcerated by the time they reached their early 30s.” (See, “Prison in the Cards,” Page 8)

Despite Obama’s promise, conditions are worsening for far too many black men. Rep. Davis wrote President George W. Bush a letter urging him to establish a federal commission to analyze the dire plight of African-American males. “I urge you to take this step to bring national attention to a very serious problem and a great need,” he wrote.

Davis supports Democrat John Kerry, who now has the national spotlight. Perhaps he should write Kerry a similar letter.

Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor of In These Times, where he has worked since 1983. He is currently a Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute, examining the impact of ex-inmates and gang leaders in leadership positions in the black community.

More information about Salim Muwakkil

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  • Reader Comments

    For many years the U.S. government and the white American culture have turned deaf ears to the pleas of Afro-Descendants for civil rights and human rights.  They have ignored the wisdom of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Dr. Martin Luther King and Mr. Silis Muhammad.  For the past twelve years Mr. Muhammad has spear-headed a legal battle inside the United Nations to establish Human Rights and secure Reparations for all Afro-Descendants in the Western Hemisphere.  In numerous interventions before diverse U.N. bodies they have documented how long-term and on-going U.S. government policies of ethnocide and forced assimilation blatantly violate U.N. Covenants.  However, the mass media, though well-informed of this Movement, intentionally hides it through non-coverage.  In elevating figureheads like Mr. Barack Obama, the power structure wants to breathe hope into a declining political system.  However, one Black Senator cannot redeem an inherently unjust system, especially when that sytem consistently fails to address the roots of centuries-old problems and with-holds justice from its victims.  Both Senator Kerry and President Bush have rejected Reparations for African-Americans.  In Massachusetts the masses of Black and Brown youth are catching more hell this summer while Senator Kerry repeats the hollow words “Help Is On The Way.”
    Sincerely,
    Malik Al-Arkam
    www.AllForReparations.org

    Posted by Malik Al-Arkam on Aug 6, 2004 at 5:43 AM

    The problem with Black Culture

    Civil rights came in the 60’s and now is a done deal. Equal opportunity is already a fact, at least for those under 40 or 50 (and in fact more than equal opportunity still exists, in the form of affirmative action, at least until AA dies its natural death). What is not equal is outcomes. This has very little to do with opprotunity, but a great deal to do with black culture. If one models shiftless behaviour to ones children, the outcome is not difficult to forecast. I could go on and on, but it has already been said. See Bill Cosby’s addresses, for instance.

    In short, the key problem now is in the family. This applies to all races, but the the largest failure (statistically) falls on the black families.

    Posted by ken on Aug 6, 2004 at 8:08 AM

    The Black Commentator has an article on the confusion of Cosby’s idea of responsibility.  Cosby (I’m new here but hopefully tagging works.)

    Posted by elita rr on Aug 6, 2004 at 10:05 PM

    To blame the families for the deplorable disproportion of blacks vs whites who are incarcerated is ridiculous, Bill Cosby notwithstanding.  Too many black parents are so discouraged by their own experiences in the white world that they can’t possibly be expected to be strict, strong, hopeful role models for their children.  Until this country CARES about what happens to black youth, provides free day care, and above all spends EQUAL amounts of money on schools, sports, after-school programs, early childhood education, tutoring and remedial programs, etc etc. as they do on white children, and until we have a sensible “drug war” program instead of throwing thousands of children in jail (black and white) for minor offenses, the situation won’t change.  It’s a disgraceful situation that should make us all ashamed.

    Posted by Diana Beliard(I am old and white) on Aug 8, 2004 at 1:27 PM

    Anyone who believes that civil rights is a done deal has little knowledge of the very real problems facing minorities in the US.  It is obvious that anyone who believes that family values is the main problem in the impoverished areas of our country has never actually visited or spent time in those areas.  The list of injustices and inadequacies is long and we still have work to do to make civil rights a “done deal”.

    Ken, the racism dripping in your commentary is indefensible.

    Posted by Brian on Aug 11, 2004 at 12:59 AM

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Appeared in the August 30, 2004 Issue
Also by Salim Muwakkil
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