Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 20, 2006
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.

Black Men Falling Behind

Plight Deepens for Black Men Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.

Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.

Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.

"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

More @ http://tinyurl.com/ojtpn NY Times

I'm old enough to remember the 'War On Poverty' & 'The Great Society'. We have thrown millions and millions of dollars at this problem since the days of FDR, JFK, and LBJ and have damn little to show for it.

Money, housing, and yes even education will not address the problem of black or even white poverty. Poverty has been with humans since the dawn of recorded history. Poverty has its own history and its own 'lifestyle'.

I have noticed several things about the people who adopt poverty as a lifestyle. Large families with the matter of paternity a matter of supposition. A dogged determination not to work if something can be had by mooching, stealing, or other nefarious means. An arrogance concerning poverty that seems to say, "Yeah we don't work and don't you wish you were smart enough to be like us." And finally it seems to be passed on from generation to generation without a break in the pattern.

Depending on who doing the research between 10% & 20% of any given able-bodied human population is unemployable simply because they don't want to work no matter the work or the conditions. I say stop throwing dollars at the problem as that just feed the problem. We'll end up caring for these people in any event in prison or by charity. Ignoring the problem isn't really ignoring it, you just have to accept the fact that some people have chosen poverty as a way of life and let it go at that.