The Best and Worst of Times
Barack Obama wowed them with his speech during the Democratic National Convention. Not only is he likely to make history as only the third black U.S. senator elected since Reconstruction; pundits already are touting his presidential possibilities. With his probable electoral victory this November, Sen. Obama will join a number of African-American men who are making a real mark on American culture. Obama's stage is politics. Black men are exerting their influence in every other nook and cranny of American life--cinema, athletics, media, medicine, theater. These are important milestones, but we can't let them obscure a more troubling assessment of black men's status. It's an "emerging catastrophe," New York Times ' columnist Bob Herbert wrote on July 19. And he's not alone in invoking such urgent language. Many experts are warning that black men are in the midst of a social crisis that Americans seem eager to ignore. [more]
- According to Justice Department figures, 12.9
percent of black males ages 25-29 were in prison or jail; for white men
in the same age group the number is 1.6 percent.
- the U.S. Justice Department projects that 32 percent of African-American men born in 2001 will spend time in prison.
- It is believed that up to 10 percent of the Black male population under age 40 is incarcerated.
- Not including homeless men or those in jail or prison one of every four Black men is idle all year long.
- Only 51.8 percent of Black men between the ages of 16 through 64 were employed from 2000 to 2003.
Links Between Prison and AIDS Affecting Blacks Inside and Out
Blacks now account for more than half of all new H.I.V. infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black women account for 72 percent of all new cases among women. During the decades that the AIDS epidemic has spread, the number of people incarcerated has also soared, to nearly 2.1 million, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Of that total, more than 40 percent are black. As the number of people living with H.I.V. increases, and with roughly 600,000 prisoners re-entering society each year, researchers are starting to address the two issues as intertwined epidemics requiring combined prevention and treatment strategies. Researchers have found "a robust correlation" between incarceration rates and the rates of H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. [more]