BLACK MEN ON THE MARGINS

Canada should pay attention to the desperate social and economic
plight of young American black men, because these pathologies don't
disappear at the border.

Several new books and research articles show that in the U.S., a
disproportionate number of black men are dropping out of school and
into prison. Employment rates for young black men have dropped
significantly in the last 30 years.

There was a time not long ago when the first impulse would be to
identify poverty or white racism as the main culprits, but that's hard
to do today. Black women and Hispanic men, groups that have known both
poverty and racism, were able in the 1990s to take advantage of a
strong U.S. labour market in a way African-American men did not.

So what's going on with young black men? There could be an element of
racism or prejudice involved, but it has more to do with fear than
hate. Employers, black and white, might be happy to hire a black woman
but reluctant to hire a black man, owing to the popular image of young
black men as criminals and thugs.

Unfortunately, too many black men perpetuate the stereotype. More than
half of all black men in the inner cities are high school dropouts
and, by their mid-30s, a majority of those dropouts will have spent
time in prison. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, if
the 2001 rates of incarceration continue a black male has about a one
in three chance of going to prison during his lifetime.

In some ways the justice system treats black men less fairly than
white offenders -- for example, black drug users may get into trouble
more often than white addicts because the former use drugs in more
public places. It has also been said that black users of crack are
treated more harshly than white middle-class users of powder cocaine.
But the main reason a disproportionate number of young black men end
up in prison is because young black men are committing a
disproportionate number of crimes.

In Canada, the recent spasm of black-on-black gun violence in Toronto
has raised legitimate questions about the relationship between hip-hop
culture and social dysfunction. In other parts of Canada, aboriginal
men have found themselves facing the same kind of bad social outcomes
as black men in the U.S. (Interestingly, statistics show that
aboriginal woman are pulling ahead of aboriginal men, just as black
women are pulling ahead of black men.)

Researchers are beginning to agree that in communities and cultures
where positive father figures are absent, the boys will suffer. What
kind of dad can a man be from a prison cell? The only role models
become figures from popular culture, where criminality is glorified.
Call it the normalization of gangster life. This is profoundly
destructive.

At least in Toronto, some of the afflicted neighbourhoods now
understand that these pathologies have not been imposed by external
forces but must be addressed from within. Solutions must almost
certainly start with community leaders, with the creation of positive
spaces and role models for young men. Most importantly, they must
start with young men themselves.