|
Last month I had the pleasure of introducing my good friend and colleague Danny Davis (D-IL) during one of his State of the Black Male summits at Paul Quinn College. During the meeting, we discussed a number of problems and solutions around improving the quality of life and opportunity available to our young men. One of the thorniest problems identified during the summit and echoed in testimony before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee last week was unemployment.
Over the past two decades, unemployment rates among black males have reached alarming levels. Today, approximately half of all black men are jobless. This is a far worse situation than unemployment statistics would suggest, as the official numbers issued by the Department of Labor do not include those incarcerated, or individuals who are not seeking employment. This number is not only shocking, but a potential social and economic crisis if it persists.
One factor contributing to this problem is a lack of educational attainment among black males. The bottom line is that education is the single greatest factor in determining financial success. We know that as few as 43% of all black males graduate on time. Many are dropouts who will never attain a degree; making it very difficult to obtain a job with benefits that pays a living wage. The availability of family-sustaining traditional ‘blue collar’ jobs has been deteriorating. While previous generations may have been able to get a manufacturing job that paid a living wage despite having limited education, the same opportunities do not exist today. Most of those jobs have been sent offshore, and it’s highly unlikely they will return.
The stereotypical goal of the American Dream has vanished for our young Black men, and in its absence there exists a pervasive sense of hopelessness. With a lack of positive outlets, there has been the emergence of a new worldview. Those who obtain significant financial gains rapidly are the new role models, and violence, misogyny, and illegal activity are accepted forms of making that happen. As a witness told the Joint Economic Committee, since there is no hope for the future, the focus is on the here and the now, and the possibility of going to prison is no longer a deterrent for many black men.
In fact, many young black men have come to expect that incarceration will be a part of their life. It’s shocking that for African American males in their twenties, one in every eight is in prison on any given day, and among dropouts in their late twenties, more are in prison on any given day than are working. There is a revolving door of ex-offenders into our urban neighborhoods with over 600,000 prisoners returning home each year. These ex-offenders face serious impediments in obtaining employment, only adding to the staggering numbers of joblessness.
Since there are a multitude of factors contributing to unemployment among our Black men, we must examine and address each one if we wish to reverse this trend. We can begin by preventing our at-risk youth from forming destructive mental patterns. The U.S. Department of Justice has predicted that one in three African American men born in 2001 will end up in prison. We simply cannot let this happen to our children. It is time to restore hope and create positive options for the future. We must invest our time and more federal dollars into ensuring that every child has access to a high quality education, and the opportunity to complete that education.
This challenge motivates my search for ways to open opportunities for youth to pursue the science and technology skills the job market increasingly demands. Whether seeking to interest students in science and math careers at an annual lecture series, helping provide for grants so schools can purchase state-of-the-are equipment or participating in town hall meetings like the black male summit, the Congress should be constantly looking for ways to improve our children’s educational outlook. We must provide our children a path to success, not a path to prison.
For those black men who are incarcerated or are ex-offenders, we need to provide them with rehabilitation programs that not only teach job skills, but teach life skills, such as conflict resolution, parenting, and decision-making. We must work to create initiatives that connect individuals reentering society with meaningful employment. That’s why I supported Congressman Davis’ bill in the last Congress that provided increased funding for ex-offender re-entry programs. If we simply leave our ex-offenders jobless and desperate they will end up back in prison.
Perhaps the most elusive factor that needs attention is a change in attitude and the creation of an environment of high expectations for our black men and youth. We must alter who our young people view as role models and instill a sense of self-worth. Part of this change must come from within our community itself. We cannot sit back and continue to let the futures of millions of young black men simply slip through the cracks. Unless we can change these negative mind-sets and give our young people viable alternatives, we’ll continue to see increases in unemployment, arrests and dropouts among our black men. That was the message I took away from the committee testimony and the State of the Black Male summit: There is a hopeful future out there; we just need to take the steps to realize it.
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. She represents the 30th Congressional District, which includes downtown Dallas, Northeast, East Oak Cliff & Pleasant Grove; all of Balch Springs, De Soto, Lancaster & Hutchins and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Glen Heights, Wilmer and Ovilla.
|
|
