Our society faces a great dilemma, and it pertains to Missing Black Men. New studies find them falling further out of the labor force and further into elements undesirable. We have too many African American males standing on the street corners trying to make “quick money” through whatever means available to them. Many of them have given up on hope, coming to believe that dreams of success cannot be legally realized for them. We need more options, but what are they and how can we change things?
The first step to changing generations of societal failure is to truthfully acknowledge the problems. What are they? How do we identify them? What are some areas that are being negatively affected?
The Family - Forty years ago, a government report on the state of the black family in America warned that almost one of four black children were born to unmarried mothers. 2005 figures suggest that almost 70% of black children are being born out of wedlock, leaving the burden for their existence squarely on the shoulders of the single, working mom.
Rates of Imprisonment –
Almost 20% of young black men who are not college students were either in jail or in prison. African Americans are seven times more likely to go to prison than whites. Almost 60% of black male high school dropouts in their early thirties have spent time in some form of lockup facility.
Crime – There is little doubt that racism is still very much alive in America. Bigotry remains a clear and present danger, but it is not nearly as deadly as we might think. Did you know that the leading killer of young black males is young black males? Peer pressure driven by alcoholism and drug abuse is the primary reason for the thefts, household break-ins, rapes, and murders committed by the black male.
Employment – An L.A. Times article provided another stark illustration of how unemployment trends in America are so greatly different. The story, “Blacks Lose Ground In Job Slump,” reports that in Feb 09, while the national unemployment rate was 8.1%, for blacks that figure was 13.4% … and for black males, 16.3%.
Hosea 4:6 - "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"
Education – Since the 1960s, colleges have been working to increase black enrollments, which have lagged far 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. City University of New York, the largest black urban university in the U.S., started the Black Male Initiative. More than $2 million was awarded 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 high schools and in prisons; efforts to help faculty members better understand and reach black students.
In 2004, 31% of CUNY’s 188,000 undergraduates were black. Of those black undergraduates, women outnumbered men 2 to 1. At Medgar Evers College, 92 percent of the enrollment is black. Only 23% of those black students are men. At New York College, which is 62% black, only 29% of black students are men.
A Feb 2004 report indicated that, while 75% of white students graduated from high school in 2001, only 50% of blacks did. It was worse for the black male, for only 43% of them graduated from high school. Good news, though, the graduation rate actually increased almost 10% in 2003.
Religion – All of us can agree that the greatest majority of church attendance is that by women and children. Men have offered many reasons for their absence from religious functions.
- The preacher doesn’t excite them with their oratory skills
- They have better things to do with their money than give it to a church
- After working hard all week long, Sunday is “their” day off
- Other things to do and other places to go
- No connection to the salvation message
- Churches don’t relate with the struggles they face
- Recognition of hypocritical and double standards
Proverbs 29:18a - "Where there is no vision, the people perish"
Vision
- The act or power of sensing with the eyes (sight)
- The act of power of anticipating that which will or may come to be (prophetic)
- An experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present (hallucination)
What was man’s position in the creation? What was his purpose? Genesis 1:26 tells us that God created man and gave him dominion over every living thing upon the earth. It was man's position, initially, to rule the earth as God would. He had been given all the tools required, but his disobedience cancelled his inheritance.
What happened to derail or to hinder him? Genesis 6:5; John 10:10a;
1 John 2:15-16; Romans 1:21-25;
Jesus Christ told Simon Peter that Satan desired to have him, and to sift him as wheat. Peter, at the time, was very unstable and unpredictable, many times reacting without thought or meditation. He would often times do very good, but his lack of focus would lead him in the wrong direction. Christ told him that, after he had been converted, it would be his mission to strengthen his brethren.
2 Chronicles 7:14 - "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land"
African American men desperately need positive role models. Who are these men?
- Accomplished men who have been through the struggle and have survived victoriously.
- Men who have a love and fear towards God, and are reverently obedient to God’s word.
- Men who recognize the importance of real fatherhood.
- Men who can relate with the present struggle without being too judgmental towards those being affected by it.
- Men who can lead by example – Not saying one thing and doing something totally different.
- Men who are willing to sacrifice their time and resources for the good of those who need them.
What Must We Do?
- We must, with all our heart, return to our love for God, love for ourselves, and love for one another.
- We must convert cheap talk into action, coming together as small groups first, organizing coalitions to reach out to our struggling brothers.
- We must teach our young men to love their wives and to not treat them as subjects to be controlled. Scriptures instruct us to love them even as we love our own bodies.
- We must teach our young men to treat their young women with respect and dignity. That will elevate their self-esteem and minimize the negatives so many of them endure.
- We must continue in our efforts to increase in learning, taking advantage of every opportunity afforded us to improve.
- We must become producers, entrepreneurs, people who manufacture a necessary, consumable commodity.
- We must not withhold lessons learned from the generations that follow us. The bible tells us to “train up a child in the way he should go”. Proverbs 22:6
- We must be honest with ourselves, not always placing the blame for our demise or the responsibility for our success on the actions of others.
John 8:32 - "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"
