What We'll Change:

Education

• In 2002, one of every four Black men in the United States was idle all year long. This idleness rate was twice as high as that of white and Hispanic males.
• Forty-two percent of all Black boys have failed an entire grade at least once.
• The national average high school graduation rate for Black boys is 47%.
• In New York City, the rate is 24%
• In Chicago, the rate is 30%
• In Oakland, the rate is 31%
• In Los Angeles, the rate is 45%
• Black males account for 8.62% of total enrollment in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools, but account for 21.69% of total expulsions.

Employment and Wealth:

• The 2001, recession and jobless recovery have accelerated the shift to low-wage work. A recent survey of more than 1,000 workers by Rutgers University found that nearly one-fifth have been laid off since 2001.

• The impact of the current economic context on Black men and boys is stark. In New York City, 49% of Black men are unemployed. At the beginning of the 1990s economic expansion, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 12.7%; by comparison, whites had an unemployment rate of 5.0%. Between 1992 and 1999, 17% of the net job growth came from jobs ranked in the worst 10% based on job earnings. In contrast, during the 1960s, the worst 10% of jobs contributed less than 2% of net job growth. In addition, the creation of bad jobs was accompanied by a “racially polarized job expansion”: over ¾ of the net expansion in the worst 10% of jobs went to African Americans and Latinos, while whites received ¾ of the net expansion of the best 20% of jobs.

• If you have a criminal record, the odds of securing a good paying job are dramatically decreased. In Chicago, for example, having a felony record makes you ineligible for such jobs as being a barber or driving a school bus.

Fatherhood:

• …The majority of fathers who fail to meet child support obligations are uneducated, unskilled, and – perhaps most significantly – disconnected from social supports that might help them overcome these deficits.

• A 2002 Department of Justice survey of 7,000 inmates revealed that 39% of jail inmates lived in mother-only households. Approximately forty-six percent of jail inmates in 2002 had a previously incarcerated family member. One-fifth experienced a father in prison or jail.
Source: James, Doris J. Profile of Jail Inmates, 2002. (NCJ 201932). Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, July 2004.

• Even after controlling for income, youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.
Source: Harper, Cynthia C. and Sara S. McLanahan. “Father Absence and Youth Incarceration.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 14 (September 2004): 369-397.

Health:

• Black men live 7.1 years less than other racial groups
• They have higher death rates than women for all leading causes of death
• They experience disproportionately higher death rates in all the leading causes of death
• 40% of black men die prematurely from cardiovascular disease as compared to 21% of white men
• Black men are 5 times more likely to die of HIV/AIDS

Justice, Rights and Responsibilities:

• On any given day in the United States, nearly one in every three black males in their 20s is in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole.

• Currently, more than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and Black men make up nearly 50% of that population. Nationally, 46% of prison inmates and 42% of jail inmates are Black, yet Blacks are only 12% of the overall population.

• Black males have a 29% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives, as compared to 16% for Hispanic males and 4% for white males.