The Way I See It
By Joseph C. Phillips

Black Manhood

Reuter’s news service announced a new study pointing to a “crisis among U.S. Black men.” The study may indeed be recent, but the story is not so new. All through the 80’s there were stories that painted a bleak picture of Black manhood. The 90’s were filled with tales of gang violence, crack cocaine and the crisis of black manhood. Two years ago Time Magazine devoted an entire issue to what was wrong with Black men. Now, on the heels of black history month, this story detailing what a sorry bundle of testosterone we black men are.

Like all the exposés before it, the Reuters piece runs down the familiar lists of ailments. HIV infection among Black men is seven times the rate of white men and three times the rate of Latinos. Twice as many Black women as men attend college; the unemployment rate for Black men is double that of White men and most distressing, in 2003, nine percent of black males ages 26-29 were incarcerated.

Peter Goff, a state senator from Colorado, is quoted in the article as saying “there is a discussion going on in the [black] community about what we need to do about Black males.” Just a guess, but perhaps a beginning would be to cease treating us as lab experiments, poking and prodding us, and releasing reports every few months that make it appear as if there is something pathologically wrong with Black men.

After all, it isn’t as though Black men have invented something new. White men are infected with HIV, White men drop out of school and White men represent a sizable portion of the prison population. The truth is that when you control for variables such as employment, education and stable relationships, the gaps highlighted in articles such as this close considerably or disappear altogether. In spite of all the university courses on the plight of the Black male, when comparing apples to apples Black men are not so different from any other. Who would have thunk it?

Instead of reporting that insight, we are treated with study after study that perpetuates the notion of Black men as “other than” as some alien, predator species unconstrained by morality, inherently anti-intellectual and violent. The stereotypes that emerge from such notions create a cultural virus that feeds on itself growing ever larger and more destructive. There is no amount of status or education that can escape the impact. If black men are as abnormal as we are constantly told, I would be wary of hiring them, would be frightened of being alone with one and certainly wouldn’t want one dating my daughter.

I wonder, given all this scrutiny, isn’t there anything Black men do right? I mean aside from playing basketball? Perhaps Reuters will publish an article or two that proclaims most Black men are not intravenous drug users or engaging in irresponsible homosexual behavior. Why not report the discovery that the overwhelming majority of Black men 26-29 are NOT involved in the criminal justice system? How about some up close and personals with Black men that get up every morning and bust their humps to take care of their families, who play with their kids in the park and send roses to their wives? We exist and we are the rule, not the exception!

Ohio is one of many states that have established a state commission devoted to “African American men.” Leonard Hubert, the chairman of the Ohio commission, says addressing the plight of the Black man will take hundreds of millions of dollars. Disabusing ourselves of the notion that Black maleness is a disease for which we should search for a cure might be a lot cheaper.

Send me your ways of seeing it at Josephcp@netlistings.com