Young Black Males: What Has Gone Wrong?

A certain percentage of Black Males have drifted far from Mainstream America, marginalized themselves of their own doing, skirted their responsibilities as fathers, become willing participants in crime, taken to higher incarceration rates in prison as opposed to getting a college education and in general become problems for society. If this continues, the emasculation of the black male will become reality. Witness an Atlanta Judge and his comdemnation.(The Cultural Strategist, blog Archive, April 24,2008)

I am a black male, okay biracial. I'm writing this article in the
hope and in part from the recent remarks brought to the forefront
by Barack Obama, that the black community needs to stop operating
with blinders on, open up their eyes and address "pipe dream mentality",
where sports is seen as the only way to succeed, while ignoring education.
Black America doesn't like to air its dirty laundry. Both Barack Obama and Bill Cosby have tred on uncomfortable ground in speeches that highlight problems with black males within our society; in specifics, the preoccupation with sports such as Basketball as the only means to achieve. Both Cosby and Obama's delivery is caustic but timely.

Barack likewise tuned into the misleading and detrimental effects of "rap" on black males, and its contribution to the sloven, carefree attitude of many young males, yes, even some young white males. Obama also spoke of the undo influence of Basketball, and in this context as well as my opinion, any popular sport, seeded in the black community and inordinately idiolized.

Sports and Rap compose the pipe dream construct as a way to escape poverty. Jesse Jackson didn't like Barack's comments and made it known through some nasty remarks of his own. Unfortunately, these remarks were picked up by a microphone that Jackson assumed to be off.

But the issue here is not about white males, they have their own set of problems. They also have much higher rates of matriculation through college and influence within our society. Now, before we go there, which is another topic, and we can point to past injustice all we want, but the issue is real- a sizable percentage of young black males lack the wherewithal, fortitude and drive to succeed in our society.

How many times can you walk down the street, go into a store, go anywhere for that matter, and you see Black Males behaving in a embarrassing manner? When you see them, how often do they appear to be "scowling," angry at the world? Unfortunately, this is more of the norm than exception. As bitter a pill this is to digest, it is present reality and effectively acts as a shackle about the necks of young and middle age black males.


The very actions of these males in trying to somehow make themselves seem 'unigue' or 'exotic', now make them prisoners of their own device.

I live in a neighborhood which borders the hood. Every day, and it never ceases to amaze me, how many aimless young black males are walking the street with no direction and with no sense of pride and self-esteem. If this continues we will most likely have two generations of black males lost to what I call "attitudinal suicide."

The black community cannot let this happen.We need to step up to the plate when we see wrong: when we see the elderly treated with disrespect by black males, when we see young blacks watching the school bus as it goes by them, when we see them congregating in gang" like groups, when we see them dress like old time sharecroppers, sloven by choice not by economics, when we hear disrespect toward women in rap lyrics and when street talk or Ebonics takes precedence over speaking the English language properly. These are just some of a multitude of actions that threaten the black community and the world community at large.

We are here as one, separate cultures, yet bound to a common humanity. That humanity must flow from every dimension of our civility toward each other. We need to address that which is 'poison' to our ranks, because the metastasizing effect of ignorance and neglect has long range implications for the race, for the nation and for the world.