5 Things Black Men Can Do To Move Us Forward

Faith Matters Join and build institutions that uplift the community. Spirituality has been an important part of black culture before slavery, during and after. The African-American churches have served the community in many different capacities, often functioning as schools, orphanages, and general places of refuge from the hostilities we faced from greater society. Churches also provided spiritual, moral and political leadership, and reached out to build and strengthen our community with social welfare programs, prison ministries, and youth organizations. According to a 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, black people were most likely to participate in a formal religion, with 85 percent belonging to the Christian church. Historically, black men have held positions of power in the church, but because many of our men have now opted to distance themselves, there have been only a few men left to do the work. Churches, synagogues, and mosques can still be instrumental in driving social and economic change in our neighborhoods that are facing violence, poverty, moral depravity and other failures. By returning to these religious institutions and becoming active members, our men can harness this potential power to bolster their families and transform the community. If spiritual institutions are not an option, any organization that helps to uplift and provide moral leadership should be considered. Health Matters Use our strength to close the health gap Lack of access to health care, exercise, and proper diet have been obstacles to good health within the black community for centuries. However, recent studies show that more African-Americans are exercising regularly and embracing healthier diets. Although we are improving our health habits, we need to do more to close the wellness gap so that we are strong enough and stay around long enough to make a difference. Many traditional African-American foods are healthy. Yams, sweet potatoes and collard greens are examples of foods that are high in vitamins and nutrients. By cooking soul food recipes in healthier ways -baking, roasting, broiling or steaming - black people can eat a balanced diet with dishes we are familiar with. Fitness clubs and exercise campaigns are being promoted with a mandate to help African-Americans achieve higher physical well-being. We should join these organization and do our part to make them bigger and stronger in our communities. Also, we should leverage our national interest in sports to build leagues that focus on healthier lifestyle choices. Wealth Matters Build businesses and buy black Black men have always worked hard; our people have been building civilizations for thousands of years. We were even forced to build other people's civilizations for free, under institutional slavery. So how did the people who built America suddenly become unemployable? From 1900 to 1954, blacks were more active than whites in the labor market. Until about 1960, the black male labor force in every age group was equal to, or greater than, that of whites. During that period, black teen unemployment was roughly equal to or less than white teen unemployment. As early as 1900, the duration of black unemployment was 15 percent shorter than that of whites; today it’s about 30 percent longer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, before the Great Recession of 2007, 64.7 percent of all black men over the age of 20 were in the civilian labor force, compared to 73.3 percent of white men. As of August 2013, those numbers have dropped significantly for black men - only 52.9 percent are employed compared to 68.2 percent of white men. Even with racial discrimination and the Great Recession, more of us are still working than sitting at home, but this is not good enough. With the unemployment rate of African-American men nearly twice the national rate at 14 percent, and at 12.2 percent for African-American women, the earnings gap between whites and blacks is the widest it has been since 1927. The black community is suffering its own Great Depression. As leaders, black men will have to implement a New Deal for our communities to recover from these unacceptable conditions and prevent us from becoming a permanent underclass. Black men should look to themselves for employment. Black businesses are the second highest employer of African-Americans after the U.S. government, but they only make up 7 percent of the nation's small businesses, while we are 13 percent of the population. African-Americans certainly have an entrepreneurial spirit because we are more likely to start a business relative to other racial groups. However, our limited access to resources, capital, clientele, etc., causes high failure rates. Currently, one dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month; in Jewish communities for approximately 20 days; and in white communities for 17 days. The black community circulates its dollar for only six hours. Leveraging our trillion-dollar purchasing power to invest in black businesses either as a consumer or an investor would be one of the most dramatic ways to undo the financial crisis within our communities. Family Matters Uplift black women and protect our children The family is a microcosm of society because it is the reflection of society at large. Both family and society reinforce each other toward development or destruction. Therefore, the best way to fix the ills of our community is to repair the ills in our families. When it comes to black family trends, the media reports doom and gloom. The misleading figure - 72 percent of black children are born out of wedlock - is often repeated along with the notion that black men are undependable marriage partners for black women. Some observers believe these myths and others are used by predators seeking to capitalize on our women’s dreams and anxieties about love, to encourage them to abandon black men for better prospects among other races. Although there is much room for improvement, the truth is black men are marrying black women. Howard University researcher Ivory A. Toldson says: “The often-cited figure of 42 percent of black women never marrying includes all black women 18 and older.” After examining census data from 2005 to 2009, Toldson and Bryant Marks of Morehouse College found that 75 percent of black women marry before age 35. Moreover, black women in small towns have higher marriage rates than white women in urban centers such as New York and Los Angeles, Toldson said. The researchers also found that 85 percent of black male college graduates and 83 percent of black men with six-figure incomes tie the knot with a sister. One of the fundamental roles of manhood is to provide protection for our love ones. We have to advance our efforts to uplift our women and protect our families from internal and external forces that profit from their destruction. This means taking a stance against all forms of media (music, movies, TV, newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. ) that devalue our families and communities. Race/Community Matters Stand up to black-on-black violence. Contrary to what the media wants the world to think, murder and violent crimes remain rare events among African-Americans. Violence involving young African-Americans has fallen to the lowest levels ever since the statistics were reliably recorded. The continued use of charged rhetoric and misused statistics appears to be a persistent attempt to create widespread fear of young black males. The latest figures from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and public health agencies show that among black youth, rates of robbery and serious property offenses are the lowest in more than 40 years. Rates of murder and rape are now lower than when nationwide crime statistics first appeared in 1965. Violence and other criminal victimizations of young African-Americans have also plummeted to record lows, as have a host of other ills, including unplanned pregnancy, drug abuse and school dropout rates. Still, these numbers remain considerably worse for blacks than for other groups. We can no longer wait for outsiders to determine how our young boys are dealt with. Very few leaders have addressed the root of the problem, and have opted to capitalize on the criminalization of an entire generation of young black males instead. Groups like the Detroit 300 are examples of self-policing organizations that can be developed to properly engage our troubled youth and steer them away from a life of crime.

Faith Matters

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