Friday
January 9, 2009
Advertisement
News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education
Dec. 5, 2005
The Missing Black Men
Since the 1960s, colleges have been working to increase black enrollments, which have lagged behind those of other groups. For the last decade, many colleges have started to worry about the falling proportions of male students at every level of higher education.
Related stories
- Communication and Comfort Across Ethnic Lines, March 13
- Minority Gains and Gaps, Oct. 30, 2006
- Justice O’Connor’s Deadline, Sept. 18, 2006
- New Arguments on Affirmative Action, June 21, 2006
- If There’s a Will, May 12, 2006
Put those two trends together and it’s not shocking that black male enrollments are shockingly low at many colleges and universities, even those with good track records at attracting a diverse student body. While some demographers have noted this situation for years, many colleges have shied away from dealing with the issue head on, fearing that doing so could reinforce stereotypes, offend women, or draw conservative criticism.
This fall, however, the City University of New York — the largest public urban university in the United States — started the Black Male Initiative. Based on a year-long study by a panel of college presidents, deans and leading social scientists and other academics — and assisted by a series of focus groups with black male students and black men who aren’t students — the system has developed perhaps the most ambitious program to date to attract more black men to higher education, and to help them succeed.
More than $2 million will be awarded soon for a variety of efforts: counseling programs for black men; the creation of new centers to help black men deal with academic, financial and personal issues; recruitment programs in top high schools and in prisons; and efforts to help faculty members — male and female, of all racial backgrounds — better reach black students.
“The more we looked at the numbers, the more chilling they were, so we thought that it was time to ask: What can a university do?” says Selma Botman, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at CUNY.
The numbers are chilling indeed. Last year, 31 percent of CUNY’s 188,000 undergraduates were black. Of those black undergraduates, women outnumbered men 2 to 1 (a ratio that is quite common at colleges nationwide). The gender gap appears to be the greatest at CUNY colleges that have the largest proportion of black enrollments. Medgar Evers College, for example, is 92 percent black. Only 23 percent of those black students are men. At York College, which is 62 percent black, only 29 percent of black students are men.
One theme of CUNY officials working on the Black Male Initiative is the interrelationship between the issues facing the university system and those facing the New York City schools and economy. Here too, the challenge is obvious. At the high school level, for instance, only 31 percent of black males graduate after four years. And of the black male labor market (defined as those 16 to 64), only 55 percent are employed.
What to do?
One model that is generating a lot of talk at CUNY is the creation of special programs to focus on black men, such as the Male Development and Empowerment Center at Medgar Evers. Despite the enormous gender gap at the college, black enrollment and retention have been edging upward the past few years, something many link to the creation of the center.
Peter A. Holomon, director of the center, says that the key to its success has been basing programs on interviews with students — “asking the brothers why they or others are coming or not coming to school or staying in school.”
Based on those interviews, the center’s services include:
- “Word Is Bond,” a monthly discussion about issues that affect black men — anything from relationships to news headlines to hip hop. Whatever the designated topic is for a given month, there is also a chance for students to raise any issue affecting them, and a few academic administrators are on hand so that the students can get help instantly. According to Holomon, students who would never go to an academic administrator’s office with a question they will ask in these sessions.
- “Phat Pockets,” a series of financial literacy programs that Holomon says as coming “from the perspective of people who have no to low income.” Topics have included cashing and making sense of paychecks, opening bank accounts, and understanding Social Security.
- Fatherhood programs that include scholarships for single fathers who have custody of their children and workshops on how fathers without custody can fulfill their parental obligations and get more involved in the lives of their children.
- “Re-entry” programs to help those finishing prison terms. Medgar Evers counselors visit prisons to identify those who might enroll and then work with them, once they do enroll, on adjusting to post-release life.
Faculty members at Medgar Evers also see the center as a way to give legitimacy to programs to which they want to attract black male students. Brenda M. Greene, a professor of English and executive director of the Center for Black Literature, says that co-sponsoring events with the center involves more black male students in selecting authors they might like to read, meet or discuss. “This is key if we are going to make race visible in the classroom, which we have to do, and if we reach out to all of our students,” Greene says.
Many of these programs could, in theory, apply to men and women equally. But Holomon says that many black male students would not participate in programs that are for both men and women. “It’s just a dynamic that’s there. They won’t talk about this stuff if they have to be afraid of the reactions from the sisters,” he says.
Holomon says that the idea isn’t that different from the concept behind the creation of women’s centers on many campuses — and indeed Medgar Evers had one for women long before it adopted the program for men. “This isn’t about slighting the sisters, but about doing something that will work,” Holomon says, adding that the black female students on the campus — seeing the impact of the center’s programs — are among the best recruiters for the program.
The Medgar Evers effort is the kind of program that may be receiving more support from CUNY, but many other kinds of programs are also expected to be in contention. One set of grants — to be awarded competitively — will go to programs focused on student success for black males. Proposals being reviewed focus on preparation, retention, graduation rates and academic support. Botman says that these efforts are crucial for making sure that black men who enroll at CUNY graduate.
She notes that graduation rates and year-to-year retention rates for black males lag behind those of other groups, both at CUNY and nationally. At CUNY, only 27 percent of black men who start at a four-year institution and 15 percent of black men who start at a community college have earned a bachelor’s degree six years after enrolling.
Other grants for which CUNY will be awarding funds will deal with pipeline issues — recruiting more black men, helping black men earn equivalency degrees so that they go on to higher education, and identifying those who can move from prison to college. Other segments of CUNY’s program focus on issues of criminal justice and law enforcement. For instance, CUNY’s administration is currently working to make sure that a significant number of jobs related to a building boom going on at the system go to black men.
The men working on construction projects may never be CUNY students. But Botman says that the study committee for the Black Male Initiative stressed that any long-term success depends on an improved economic outlook for black men in New York City. “There was a lot of discussion on to what extent we should focus just on CUNY and to what extent we should focus on public policy issues, and the consensus was that we had to do both,” Botman says.
William E. Cross Jr., a professor of psychology and African-American studies at CUNY’s Graduate Center, led the “social relations” subgroup for the studies on the Black Male Initiative, and he says it is crucial that CUNY educators realize the impact on black men of larger societal trends.
Black men in New York City “live under surveillance” and in poverty, so just throwing open the doors at CUNY isn’t going to magically transform things, he says. Culturally, he says, it isn’t enough to have black educators as role models, but the colleges need to have people who are familiar with the language of urban black life and are comfortable using it (while at the same time not assuming that such language will be appropriate for all black students).
“Hip hop culture crosses over to issues of the underclass and poverty,” Cross says. “It’s one way young people have resisted and fought back, and it’s a creative stance. People who run the programs need to be very familiar and comfortable with hip hop culture. But not every guy is going to want to see that.”
The poverty that is one source of hip hop culture is also a factor that can’t be underestimated, he says. New York City’s history is full of stories of immigrant groups who arrived with nothing and worked their way up (with CUNY institutions playing a role in many of those stories). But Cross says that educators today forget that the Italian and Irish and Jewish immigrants who flocked to CUNY’s City College and elsewhere had parents who had jobs — perhaps poorly paid, non-professional positions, but jobs nonetheless — and that was the generation before the one that entered higher education.
“If you ask other groups how they have made it, it’s because society had employment at the level they were at — period,” Cross says. With today’s black men, there are no decent jobs for many of them or their parents, so they are growing up in a no-income society. “This is unlike what happened for every other group. We’ve created a mass of redundant workers, and we’re paying a price.”
Cross raises these issues not to criticize the CUNY initiative — he supports it as one part of a solution to the problems facing black men in New York City. But he says that without dealing with these societal and economic problems, progress may not be something CUNY can control.
Based on that philosophy, part of the CUNY effort will focus on criminal justice. Black men currently face a 32 percent lifetime chance of spending at least a year in jail (the comparable figure for white men is 6 percent). Jeremy Travis, president of CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says that CUNY will not turn things around with black men unless it plays a role in bringing down the percentage of incarcerated black men — and working with those who are behind bars.
Given John Jay’s focus, the college will take a lead role in this area. On the policy level, Travis said that there will be an increased push for faculty research on inequities in the criminal justice system and alternatives to incarceration. But on more practical levels, John Jay will be working to recruit more minority students to its police training programs, to work with researchers to identify high school students who can be recruited to college (and away from crime), to create a prisoner re-entry program that might be adopted by other CUNY colleges, and to work on making the campus welcoming to black students who enroll.
In all of the above, he says that “a systematic approach” is key, with researchers constantly evaluating what is working and what isn’t — and that the focus needs to be on black men. Too often in the past, he says, such efforts may have been started and had successes for some groups, but not for black men.
Travis says that this is a “historic moment,” both in the negative sense (unprecedented percentages of the black population ending up behind bars) and in a positive sense (the number of CUNY leaders getting involved in recruiting more black men). Given CUNY’s history of helping those who other colleges ignore, “we have a moral voice to raise here,” Travis says.
“If the nation’s largest urban public university gets serious about slippage that is being experienced by black men in our society, we can raise the profile of this issue and show what can be done,” he says.
CUNY is not the only higher education system taking the issue of black men seriously. Notably, one of the other systems with ambitious plans is the University System of Georgia, which in many ways is quite a contrast to CUNY; the Georgia system has many rural institutions, some historically black institutions, and is spread across an entire state. Like CUNY, however, Georgia has a two-to-one ratio of black women to black men enrolled as students (40,043 to 18,714 headcount in 2004).
Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative just handed out its third round of grants (this round’s total was $200,000) to institutions to help them improve the recruitment and retention of black men.
Coastal Georgia Community College is receiving support, for example, for a program that identifies black male seventh-graders with academic problems and provides them with extra academic help and (officials hope) a path to stay in school and not drop out. Valdosta State University is receiving funds for the Heroes Institute (Helping Everyone Research Optimum Educational Success) in which black men at Valdosta State serve as mentors for local ninth-graders who are black males.
Another effort receiving support was a program started this year at the University of West Georgia in which a group of black male freshmen are living in the same dormitory while taking courses as a cohort and receiving extra guidance and support.
In the three years that Georgia has been awarding grants, black male enrollment has increased by 13 percent.
Botman, the CUNY vice chancellor, says that tracking performance will be a big part of the system’s plans. She notes that CUNY’s campus presidents are given measures by which their performance will be reviewed and their salaries will be set. Matthew Goldstein, CUNY’s chancellor, recently told all the campus presidents that their success in applying the Black Male Initiative on their campuses would be a new performance measure in their reviews.
“He’s very serious about this, and cares deeply about this,” Botman says. She adds that the programs for black men will have a positive ripple effect on other students as well. “Ultimately this is about student-centered programs,” she says. Just as CUNY is focusing on black males now, the university will keep the attitude that any group that is found to be not succeeding deserves focus. Right now, however, she says that the situation with black males requires attention.
Says Botman: “It’s the right thing to do.”
Want it on paper? Print this page.
Know someone who’d be interested? Forward this story.
Want to stay informed? Sign up for free daily news e-mail.
Advertisement
Comments
Why ?
As an African American male that graduated from a Historically Black College with a MBA in marketing. I often feel that Hip-Hop is used as an escape got for the explanation of low enrollments and unemployment. When people are discriminated against and won’t be hired maybe being a rapper is not such a bad idea. I truly believe that most African American men look to hip hop for entertainment and a way to relate to each other. As a black young man I feel that we are often criticized unnecessarily and when we disagree we are considered abrasive and impolite and this translates to some as being negative or disgruntled. Often on job interviews or when having conversations with the potential employer one remark or one comment that is not “correct” or “professional enough” leads to the dismissal of the candidate all together. I truly feel that the music genre of music has nothing to do with the individual’s work ethic. Until the creativity and differences are embraced then the black men in question probably would rather be employed by other means simply due to the fact they have to give up there opinions, beliefs, and the music they created and choose to listen to. The thing that needs to be remembered is we are men first. Most men refuse to be belittled or put in a position of begging and pleading to be employed at a degrading job. For example, in the military everyone’s job is viewed as important. Even the lowest ranking individual is given a sense of responsibility and honor. This leads to a willingness to work harder because you are treated with some level of respect and dignity. Correcting people on every technicality in grammar, tardiness, or anytime you feel like it can and is often used as an aggregate. Embracing people’s different culture and opinions by the people in charge is the real problem. Not the other way around and it’s hard for me to believe that only I can see this.How would it look for me not to hire white men to work for me because they listen to Garth Brooks? If he is willing to work and get the job done I don’t see the problem. Do you?
rob, at 5:50 pm EST on December 9, 2007
missing the mark
the articles points out some really great initiatives that are being done to raise black men up, the problem is that I think the solutions being offered are not addressing the issue of why black men aren’t present in higher education. The solutions do provide access which is absolutely needed, but does not speak to the motivations and probably distorted world view brothers are sharing. As a black man myself, and a graduate of an HBCU I would have to say from my perspective the single greatest contributor to the lack of brothers in higher education and the professional world period is the lack of presence of black fathers. Boys learn how to be men, and frame their behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives from their fathers. It is their absence that is at the root of all these other issues and unfortunately our community is trying to make it the worlds job to mentor our boys because recently we have stopped doing it. I have been blessed to have a father in my life my entire life, and i compare my world view with my fellow black men who didn’t have fathers, and to me that fact is the difference between success and failure, optimism and defeatism.
brian, Mr., at 2:45 pm EDT on May 21, 2008
education vs. culture?
Have you read Thomas Sowell’s book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Your article suggests that “we” have created a society lacking jobs for black men. I doubt Sowell would agree, and an honest examination of history may suggest other alternatives. There is nothing in hiphop culture about fidelity or sustained effort or educational achievement. That culture itself has to be given up, or the classroom seats will stay vacant on the men’s side of the room.
northeastern reader, at 7:17 am EST on December 5, 2005
Northeastern Is Right
CUNY is to be congratulated for attacking this problem head-on. I hope the Title IX folks will give them some space to try different approaches for the male students.
The Hip Hop culture reminds me of the early hippies who “dropped out” of the larger culture as a means of rejecting it. This is a sure way to remain at the bottom of society. There are wiser ways to express one’s contempt and rage—why not take over the society by excelling in every field? Respect can still only be earned the old-fashioned way... The leaders of the Hip Hop movement should look at ways to encourage achievement through their very engaging music and lifestyle.
Have a happy day!
Cal, at 9:38 am EST on December 5, 2005
Northeastern is absolutely correct
In addition to the books by Thomas Sowell, the fine research by John Ogbu and Elijah Anderson confirms that not doing homework, preferring bling-bling over books, scorning the discipline of academic learning and imagining that ungrammatical, childish rap-talk will cut it in the real world and hence maroons an astonishing number of black males in social purgatory.
None of these matters are ones that any university can do much about......except to have its PC faculty ignore them and blame others instead. I expect to soon see some prime examples of this academic buck-passing on this very list.
Watch and see.
Chuck, at 10:43 am EST on December 5, 2005
Hip-hop culture may not be terribly supportive of the collegiate ideals of mainstream culture, but I have to think that schools that won’t let students take textbooks home because they’re afraid the students won’t bring them back, but at the same time won’t buy actual textbooks anyway, getting by with less-than-informative pamphlets, have a little bit to do with the problem. This was the state of 6th grade education in a neighborhood within walking distance of York College (mentioned in the article) at the beginning of the 21st century. When the administration learned that I had actually gone to a classroom and talked to a teacher there, as well as to a librarian, on future visits they stopped me and held me at the office in a store room while they got the teacher. It was as if we were both being punished (in a grade school way) for discussing conditions there.
Thane Doss, at 11:45 am EST on December 5, 2005
Old wine, New Bottle
Another new yet old hot topic for researchers and scholars to explore an area which we have spent millions of dollars examining the intersection of race, poverty, gender and policy. I think we know the answers to these questions already what is more difficult to address is the power of the messages and images in hip hop that influence young men in general but black men in particular. When Kanye West produces a number one billboard album entitled “College Dropout” where the lyrical content reinforces the notion that college is a dead end route to success for black men, we have a serious problem at hand. Ironic that when hip hop was at its peak of expressing knowledge is power (late 80’s early 90’s, think Public Enemy) and there were images of black men in college on television (think A Different World) black male enrollment at HBCUs was at an all time high. We have produced a culture where the main mechanism that gives voice to the marginalized no longer believes knowledge is power, power is now embodied in rims, bling and anything on MTV cribs.
Jordan, at 11:46 am EST on December 5, 2005
The article states that 31 percent of CUNY students are black, and that the female to male ratio among black students is 2 to 1, suggesting that 10.3 percent of CUNY students are black males. CUNY predominantly serves residents of New York City. According to the 2000 census, 26.4 percent of the city’s inhabitants are black. Of college-aged (18-24) black in the city, 53.1 percent are female and 46.9 percent are male. Black males account for 12.5 percent of college aged (18-24 year old) people in the city. (Source: infoshare.org). Therefore, although black males appear to be somewhat under-represented at CUNY, the disproportion is slight. In this context, Botstein’s comment that the “numbers” were “chilling” seems inaccurate. One might note that black females are OVER-represented in the student body at CUNY, but you won’t see anyone saying that. Of course, proportions of ethnic groups in a population do not necessarily determine their proportions enrolling in any given college or university system.
a reader, at 4:09 pm EST on December 5, 2005
Peace, Culture, Education
I deeply appreciate the people who are searching for answers to the problems our country faces concerning black men. However, I believe a philosophy that embraces the value of human beings and our ability to transform life at the core of society, is needed. Developing a desire for knowledge produces determination, leading to power, leading to achievement.
If each of us can take action to serve education, that is teaching the value of thinking critically, exploring new ways to confront old problems, and reading more, we can begin the battle.
Reginald Waddell, Asst. to the Director at UCLA, at 4:42 pm EST on December 5, 2005
Finally, some attention
I’ve been worried about Black men and college success since graduate school when I advised at-risk student-athletes; many of whom were Black men.
Upon accepting my first job at a private, predominately white institution..I immediately noticed the lack of Black men and for those who were there, the disconnect. I’ve tried to do my part by connecting with them on an individual basis; trying to understand their fears, their hopes, their barriers. And they’re dealing with some heavy issues out there. Most of the time I found that they just needed someone to listen, someone to pay attention to them, someone to challenge and support them.
I’m confronted with the issue on a more personal level because my 16 year old brother is at a critical stage in his development. I try to combat the images and messages that are abound. As a Black woman, a Student Affairs Administrator and a lover of knowledge, I understand how revolutionary an education is. How do we reconnect, disspell the myths, and encourage Black men? Sometimes it seems like a daunting task, but it just has to be possible. I can’t imagine the state of affairs without them.
Jennifer, Director of Residence Life & Housing, at 10:16 am EST on December 6, 2005
Black Men
A sustained collaborative effort aimed at ’saving’ the Black male is important. The Black community faces many problems, and with many Black men not enrolling in traditional colleges [or any college/training program at all] beyond high school in the United States, this limits Black potential and reinforces global black stigma. The consequence of low Black male enrollment at traditional colleges is decreased economic, political, social and cultural capacity to sustain and/or improve Black life not only in the United States, but for other Black/African lives all across the world. It is obvious that there are other ‘fixes’ that need to be put in place, but, the academic institutions and educators have a broader responsibility than to just grant degree letters to their graduates—Instituitons have a moral and ethical obligation to affect change on a global scale. I congratulate the CUNY male initiatives and the intellectuals involved for recognizing, and never forgetting, us.
Bruce Ormond Grant, Dept. Of African Studies at Howard University, at 5:03 pm EST on December 7, 2005
I commend CUNY and the other institutions mentioned in the article for beginning to address this issue.I would just encourage all of these institutions to form more collaborations with middle and high schools. If young Black males do not have a good foundation in reading, writing, math and science it does not matter how much money higher educational institutions pledge to the “cause". The other part of this equation is to make sure that Black males see role models. Where are all of the Black professors, deans, provosts and even directors? Let’s take that a bit further and spend some money on educating professors on issues around race and oppression and help them to understand that when they have low expectations for Black males in their classroom their students will perform accordingly. Connect their tenure eligibility to this concept. I bet they would get it then. Finally, if we are going to really change this problem this country has got to start talking about its history and make ammends for it. What better group of people to start a real movement about race, oppression, discrimination, equality,and poverty than the higher educational institutions in this country. If professors would spend more time on students and less on their research we might end up not needing this forum in the future. Ladies and gentleman this crisis will effect all of us in some way at some point. We will deal with Black males when they are holding respecful jobs and places in society or when they are out on the street committing crimes or in the penial system. We have got to understand that we are all connected. Did 911 not teach us anything?
Tracy, at 2:08 pm EST on December 8, 2005
same thing, different school and city
This is definitely an ongoing, nationwide issue; as an academic advisor I coordinate/facilitate a Black Male support/retention Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago UIC). We have 16000 undergrads, about 8.5 % are Black and about 25-30% of THEM are male. That breaks down to about 420 Black male students last time I checked our records.
This is nothing new but doing something about it never gets old. Always looking for new insights and perspectives.
talim, academic advisor at UIC, at 12:35 pm EST on January 27, 2006
The Missing Black Men
I have found racism both fluid, challenging, and constantly denied by both blacks and whites. The sad part is African Americans are discriminating against black males too in many cases in the name of “controlling the atmosphere and protecting the masses” and not allowing those who are “too aggressive” to excel. Black men are naturally aggressive in most cases — it is necessary for survival in an oppressive society. I will be glad when we can stop fighting racists and or own people (some — not all) to excel. This denial of discrimination, hiring only the passive — non aggressive Blacks, and the like is still racism and is often supported by (unfortunately) some Black females and passive Black men/boys. It is going to take aggression 9fromblacks and whites) to stop racism and to increase the number of black males in universities. It is going to take black, white, and other males and females to overcome this dilemma. Yes, African American males attend colleges and universities in disproportionate numbers — and that is fact. Sometimes however, the culprit to this is Black on Black restrictions and collaboration or allowance of these practices by none other than black in power who say nothing and forget that the next Black child that may be held back may be your own son or daughter. Black and whites need to speak up about this and DO SOMETHING about it.
Request: Please send me any information that you have on the persistence ad retention of Black students from 1985-2005 for a dissertation study.
Sincerely,
Lester L. WashingtonLLwashin@cahs.colostate.edu
Lester Washington, Doctoral Candidate at Colorado State University, at 4:35 am EST on February 21, 2006
My Email Address
My email address is:
Thanks,
Lester L. Washington, MA, M.Ed., ABD
Lester L. Washington, MA, M.Ed., Mr. at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, at 4:45 am EST on February 23, 2006
Brilliant Comments Lester
It is well known in black america that aggressive black males come off as threatening, while aggressive whites are just “go-getters".
I say this as one of those non-threatening black males that constantly grinned and smiled to keep my job in corporate america. It did not work because I was considered a recluse because I didn’t want to go to the bar or baseball games away from work. I couldn’t take it and had to leave. I now know why I can count the number of black males I know making it in corporate america on my hand.
My boy who was much more accomplished than I (double major chem eng and business, 3.7 GPA) barely got a job, and did not keep it for long. It leaves other black males to just laugh at all the energy wasted, and to call him a sucker.
George, at 3:40 pm EST on March 18, 2006
The elephant in the room
If white females attended college at a rate of 50% of that of white males, the argument would be against a male-dominated power structure. With 70% of African-American men growing up without fathers (a number that has doubled in the last thirty years), we shrug our shoulders and point to the same tired analysis — hip hop and discrimination. This problem will not come close to solution until two questions are answered -(1) Is gender more important than race in role models (2)who’s your daddy? A great study would compare children of two parent black families to those of single parent families and kids raised by single Black males.
sillyone, at 10:50 am EST on March 27, 2006
There are several issues in this debate. White kids are the main consumers of hip-hop. They feel it makes them cool but even this is an intersection of racism and classism. If the record companies had accountability like they try to get teachers then we could get to the real problem...economics. Racism is more american than apple pie. This country was founded on lies, deception and sin and can never make right a 450 year mistake. America and higher ed forgets when we could not come to their institutions because of the color of skin. Now is it our fault that your sins and indiscetions have been exposed to show how racist and classist this country really is. How about first trying to level the playing field with white males by training all higher ed professionals in cultural sensitivity. BLACK MALES ARE NOT MONOLITHIC LIKE EVERYONE BELIEVES. Black males can be from America, Africa, the Carribbean or Latin descent. It is not an issue of intelligence after all Humanity began in Africa and so did civilization. Let’s talk about the times that led up to today and how these racist higher ed professionals still jobs today. Let’s talk about the number of Black tenured professors and the overall commitment to diversity everyschool claims. If every institution is truly committed to diversity would we have this problem???
Blackscholar, Fingerpointing and blame at USC, at 11:40 pm EDT on April 22, 2006
California
1. Public policies addressing the unique plight of “Black Men” pre se are prohibited by Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative.
2. I do not see the constructive good in “Hip-Hop” or “Rap,” however those terms are defined. I just don’t. When my pre-adolescent boys turn on the radio, they hear lyrics that denigrate women and romanticize gangsta life. Soo, it’s up to me and my wife as parents to ensure that our boys recognize hip-hop and rap as non-sense, as reflecting nowhere values and attitudes.
3. Fatherless boys are at prime risk for becoming antisocial and oppostitional. I fault absent black fathers, not the children. If you have children, raise your children! This isn’t rocket science.
Dismayed, Writer, at 8:30 pm EDT on July 5, 2006
-Morehouse grad class of nearly 600 Black men
If you do not know Morehouse in Atlanta is a predominately African American College. In 2006, they graduated nearly 600 AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN!!!! Where is CNN, CBS< NBC< FOX to report this. I see all these articles in newspapers, but nothing positive is written and only negaive aspects are researched. Go to this website and see for yourself!!!!!!! You will see proud, educated African American men with degrees, dignity and pride.Stop the lies!
http://www.morehouse.edu/events/2006/commencement/update.html
Monika, at 1:30 pm EDT on July 31, 2006
Black men omitted in education advertisements
When I am on the train or bus in New York City I see advertisements of colleges and business schools encouraging black women to attend their institution. I saw a black male face only one time in the last ten years I’ve seen the posters. And the same instance is seen in television commercials.
A friend of mine told me that institutions use their money to attract the students they feel will most likely respond. These same institutions can make a contribution in changing the chilling statistics of black male students. Putting a black male face on the poster and in television commercials might make a difference if only a small one.
Linda, at 3:25 pm EDT on August 7, 2006
Older Black men who are on SSI disability
My 39 year old son is currently receiving SSI benefits and wants to attend a technical school such as DeVry, here in California. His illness is such that he has to take a combination of online and physical classes. He is a brilliant young Black man who was forced to quit his computer engineer job over six years ago. Initially, in addition to his physical condition, he also strugged with depression. He is better now and only wants to get on with his life, as much as possible. As a retired teacher, I cannot afford to subsidize his education. Since there is such an outcry about the lack of higher education among Black men, surely someone can point us in the right direction in order to get the financial assistance needed for him to “start” his life over. Thank you.
vernetta northcutt, at 6:05 pm EDT on August 26, 2006
Victims, entitlement, and handouts
I am sorry to hear about Vernatta’s son. I assume that his physical limitations force him to develop his mental abilities more, so as to hold down a decent job and put food on the table. However, at $53/unit/semester at the local community college, with night courses, online courses, Social Security (if has previously worked and is now truly disabled), and financial aid available, what is the problem? All you basically need is a pulse to enter and a willingness to learn. Vernatta does not mention what her son’s limitations or interests are, but even a paraplegic [and possbily a quadraplegic with some movement and aids] can develop or update websites for the local stores, or buy/sell on eBay/craigslist, and earn a decent living. Why should I, or anyone else, go further out of our way if his own mother can’t help him that last little bit, or he can’t help himself?Nobody can help him if he is being too narrow-minded or picky as to what career he now wants to persue; lack of available funding also usually means that the certain career path has no real future, since scholoarships are aplenty were there is a big demand (such as the medical or teaching fields).
Su, at 3:01 pm EDT on September 5, 2006
Missing Black Men in colleges
It follows that high percentage of single black mothers and the multi-generation ‘Strong Black Woman’ image is getting more black women in a position to be the wage-earner in the family, while black fathers are often out of the main picture. Young Black men generally only have the MTV gangsta rap stars and drug dealers in their fancy cars to look up to as role models. They do not see the black engineer going to work in his Camry and supporting his wife and 2.2 kids, and it certainly does not look exciting as a career choice, nor earn them prestige amongst their peers. If successful and integrated into society, black men often catch endless grief from their peers for ‘acting white’. As an example, I have a college educated non-spanish speaking male friend who is half black, half Puerto Rican, and fits in with *neither* side of his family! White young men rarely do jail time for ‘pranks’, but Jail time is often an accepted part of a black man’s life, much like parking or speeding tickets, and therefore loses its value as a strong deterrent to petty crimes or anti-social behavior. Medical care, a bed, TV, a gym, 3 meals a day, and a chance to better theur job skills in jail is often better than what they have on the Outside. However, those ‘job skills’ might be car-jacking or working cons.Since incarceration costs about $35k to $60k (or more) per inmate per year (depending on security level and location) in California, they joke about how it would be cheaper to send them to Harvard instead. There is a lot of truth in that!!!! I just wish they’d do something like it.
Su, at 3:55 pm EDT on September 5, 2006
Advertisement
Jobs Related to The Missing Black Men
or search for jobs directly.
Associate Director, Textiles Library and Engineering Services
NC State University
Join the Pack! A community with nearly 8,000 faculty and staff, and 30,000 students. NC State is one of the largest employers ... see job
Assistant or Associate Professor, School of Leadership Studies
James Madison University
Join one of the finest regional universities in the nation. James Madison University, home to 18,000 + students, welcomes you ... see job
Faculty
Suffolk University
Position Summary: The Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University seeks faculty candidates who can deliver ... see job
Lecturer
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
The University of Minnesota is a premier employer and a talent magnet attracting leading faculty and staff from around the ... see job
Associate Vice President, Donor/Alumni Relations and Stewardship
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
The University of Minnesota is a premier employer and a talent magnet attracting leading faculty and staff from around the ... see job
Reading Lab Assistants Pool
Howard Community College
Reading Lab assistants work with course instructors and students in an electronic lab. Students work individually to improve ... see job
Division Director, Urogynecology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This is a faculty position at either the Associate Professor or Full Professor rank, most likely a tenured position. The ... see job
History/Political Science Professor
Merced College
The professor will teach a broad range of history and political science courses, with an emphasis in U.S. History. The ... see job
Assistant Dean for Student Services
Ithaca College
Job Description: Ithaca College’s School of Business invites applications for a full-time Assistant Dean for ... see job
Personal Counselor
Howard Community College
Seeking a skilled personal counselor/therapist to work with predominately low to moderate-income women who are either single ... see job
Home
| Sign up | Log in
| About us
| Work for Us
| Press Releases
| Rights and permissions
| Contact us
| Advertise
| Partners
| RSS 
| Podcasts
| Links
| Privacy
| My Account
© Copyright 2009 Inside Higher Ed
Jails
When the poster above mentions that it is cheaper to send them to Harvard then it is to Prison, its actually a true statement. So why then does our country apply the same expensive approach to the poverty and unemployment that creates crime?
I’ll answer that with a question? Who pays and who profits? We pay, our tax dollars pay for the costs of prisons. Who Profits? The top of the pyramid of the Prison industrial Complex. Locking people up is now a huge business. With a large conglomerate of companies lined up to build more prisons and make more money, there is no a financial incentive NOT to fix the problems in the inner cities that continue to send black and latino men to prison in droves.
Sad thing about it is, this is only one piece of the puzzle, its a big one, but its still only one piece.
To the other comenters about Hip Hop, yes it now plays a destructive role, but Hip Hop is barely 30 years old, the problems that black men have faced in this society go way beyond 30 years. Hip Hop is a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself. It may, however, be able to provide some answers...some day.
Kai, at 5:20 am EDT on August 15, 2007