Greg Freeman: Poor Blacks Need A Hand With Self-Help. P-D 7/13/1990

Headline: POOR BLACKS NEED A HAND WITH SELF-HELP
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., July 13, 1990
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR

LIKE IT OR NOT, black Americans in general - and black poor males in particular - are facing a serious dilemma, the likes of which we have not seen before.
Poverty, drugs and crime are ravaging African-Americans on a daily basis. The stories are put out there for us to see daily, in the newspapers, on television and radio. The statistics are there as well, and the bad news just keeps on coming. According to Fortune magazine:

Young black men are ten times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts.
Less than 3 percent of black men are in jail, but they make up 46 percent of the prison population.
Just 76 percent of black men ages 18 to 24 have completed high school, compared with 83 percent for white men.
More than 30 percent are not in the work force - they may be unemployed or simply unaccounted for. That compares with about 15 percent for white men.
Their median annual earnings are $12,044, compared with $19,959 for white men.
Fifty-four percent are married. But for every 100 unmarried black women between the ages of 25 and 44 there are only 63 marriageable black men.

The grim statistics come at a time when far more blacks are doing well than in the past. The median U.S. family income in 1988 was $32,191, and roughly 30 percent of all blacks live at or above that level. Within the past year, New York City and Seattle have elected their first black mayors, joining the ranks of such cities as Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles. In addition, Douglas Wilder of Virginia has shown that it is not impossible for a black to be elected governor.

Despite the successes, the problem of the poor black male continues to vex us. It is impossible for the black middle class to rest comfortably knowing that such an underclass exists. Like a fetus connected to its mother by an umbilical cord, the black middle class is connected to the black underclass.
There is no one solution to the problem. Instead, it is one that needs to be addressed on several fronts.

First, some serious changes in attitude and mindset are in order. Many young men must be taught that fatherhood begins - not ends - at conception.
The stigma that once went along with having a child out of wedlock seems to have disappeared in many homes. Instead, some are actually congratulated for fathering children out of marriage as some sort of male rite of passage.
But multiple babies and unwed mothers can be a deadly combination among poor blacks because they continue a cycle that is difficult to break. More than two-thirds of the black children in some poor neighborhoods live apart from their fathers. And in today's world - where even middle-income families often have a difficult time making ends meet on two incomes - many of these families are forced into welfare.

In addition, children - especially boys - who grow up in homes without fathers often lack the role models that they need to succeed later in life.
Several role-model programs exist; the best-known one is operated by the St. Louis Public Schools. But those programs alone will not solve the problem. Ways must be developed to get many of these young black men to take more responsibility for parenting. The schools and community programs must take a more active role in teaching young men how to be fathers, because many of them really have no idea.

A greater emphasis must be placed on education than ever before. When I was a kid growing up in St. Louis, many black men worked at places such as Scullin Steel, the old GM plant and Krey Packing Co. Those factories were good places to work, because they paid relatively well and didn't require college educations. But those plants - and many more like them - are gone now. America's needs have changed, but many of us have failed to change with those needs.
As a result, many of the same types of men who once were able to support families on their paychecks from those plants are now working in more service-oriented jobs - jobs that pay minimum wage or slightly more. And others are dealing in drugs, an area that is more profitable, albeit considerably more dangerous, than minimum-wage jobs.

To deal with these problems, middle-class blacks must return to the tradition of self-help that allowed us to survive slavery and segregation. It's up to us to reach out and help our less fortunate brothers. That may mean supporting the United Negro College Fund or getting involved in tutoring programs. It may mean volunteering with a program that teaches young men how to be real fathers. It may mean getting involved in a mentoring program.
There are those of us who would prefer to think that if we ignore the problem, it eventually will go away. But this problem is too large, too unwieldy, to simply go away without serious commitment.
It's up to us to make that commitment.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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