Brother, Brother, Brother!

A number of new studies, including one featured prominently on the front page of the New York Times this week, have confirmed what nobody in America can disagree with -- at least not with a straight face: A large segment of black men, mostly under-educated and mostly poor, are being locked out of the economic and social mainstream of American life. Compared to white men and Hispanic men from similarly poor backgrounds, the number of black males living on the margins of society is higher and growing more rapidly.

The studies reveal that a majority of the 5 million black males in America between ages 20 and 39, are unemployed, under-employed or, because of criminal history, unemployable. In 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20s who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts. In this age range, there were also more black men in jail than working. This is no run-of-the-mill problem.

Still, the reports do not prompt surprise. Neither will they arouse much sympathy. Problematic black men in America. Nothing new. From disappearing baby-daddies and down-low brothers, to gangbangers, hustlers, petty criminals and players, the black male has attracted more stereotypes than anyone one person could, with any degree of sanity, truly live down.

So who's really shocked that this "low-reaching, underachieving, criminal-minded" sub-segment of society ends up being the American rearguard? Nobody.

What these studies, conducted by scholars at Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, along with some other policy wonks from around the country, do, however, is harden the edges of the problem and make it more conspicuous, uncontestible. There is an elephant in the room and its sucking up a whole lot of your tax dollars and a lot of your societal energy as well. What will we do about it?

"With the current political climate in our country, we won't get any kind of constructive response from the national policy establishment," says Georgetown Law Center professor, Peter Edelman."It's time for the community to wake up and ask itself, 'what will it take to change these conditions?' All of us, not just blacks, must take responsibility for all our children."

Edelman, who has extensive thoughts on this topic based on years of research, argues that compounding the problems facing black males are: benign neglect by the government, out-of-wedlock births, enduring forms of institutional racism and deficient schools serving black and Hispanic youth.

Edelman says he hopes with more prominent news coverage of this topic, there will be more public debate on it and the country will finally begin to make some progress towards solutions.

Mychal Massie, a conservative columnist and fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, on the other hand, believes the blame squarely falls on black males themselves and their tragic decision-making processes.

"Anti-social behavior has a price; and that cost is admittedly being born disproportionately by black men in today's workplace," argues Masssie. "But it is not because of some nefarious or Machiavellian conspiracy to hold black males down." Massie says it is a tragic situation but responsibility must be assumed by those responsible.

"The black family has collapsed under the weight of irresponsible decisions and multiple out-of-wedlock births to single mothers," he continued. "In essence, the repetitive sins of the fathers are being born by the children. The study underscores what many of us have argued for a long time -- no education, poor social skills, no marketable employment skills and participating in violent criminal behavior -- results in near-zero opportunity for success in life. Sadly, even after a decision is made to correct said aberrant behavior." Massie points out in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was signed, 82 percent of black households had two parents and 40 percent of those owned businesses.

The solution can be cobbled together from both Massie's and Edelman's points of views. Massie stresses individual responsibility. Edelman sees the problem as society's collective failure.

While Massie's tough-love, tough-talk posture is provocative, perhaps even necessary, to excite people to action, it is a results-focused approach that completely overlooks key contributing factors: the history of job discrimination, the history of social discrimination, of legal discrimination (that only ended only some 40 years ago), the ingrained sense of self-doubt that being on the bottom of society can over time instill.

Edelman acknowledges the need for improved parenting and personal responsibility, but he also believes the nut of the problem can be attributed to society's missteps. He takes into account politics, racial history, social trends and historical biases of government.

Edelman gets to the origins of the problems but, although this type of probing gives his point of view breadth, that's not where the solutions to these problems generally begin. Black kids in predominantly, well-funded, majority white high schools are not doing that great either.

To solve the black male problem, it must be regarded in the light of both Massie's and Edelman's perspective and attacked as the complex social tangle it has become over time.

Obviously, millions of black men have jumped the hurdles and made it. It can be done. Therefore, the reasons large numbers are still being left behind at a time when America is at its economic and social best, must become the focus of our energies.

Black men, too, must drop all excuses and hold themselves to the results of their actions in the upstanding, paternal, man-of-the-house way, that Malcolm X advocated. But doing that shouldn't have to preclude pointing out where society has historically slipped, faltered and failed.

Being aware that you must run twice as hard to get to first base can be as defeating as it can be empowering.

Get More of Today's Top News Stories