As a wise man said: “It is better not to know a lot than to know a lot that is not true.”
Misinformation and deceptive numbers about African-Americans obscure real injustices and dissuade effective changes.
These statements — one in three black men can expect to go to prison; and there are more Black men in prison than in college and than had been slaves — fail to meet the smell test. But I have been flabbergasted by the number of well-educated people who accept and spread the distorted information.
The remarks set forth the notion of inevitability: that male descendants of America’s former slave class constitute a genetically-based, monolithic subculture lacking in acceptable moral and ethical values; and that we are helpless victims in the cradle-to-prison pipeline because we are unable to refrain from objectionable and felonious behavior.
The most vulnerable Black youth who see evidence that seems to confirm prison-certainty, such as high numbers of ex-convicts, are likely to conclude that they will not be able to circumvent this fate.
The statements convey to the evil Americans, who reside on the misanthropic, racist side of America’s humanity-scale, signals which affirm that America has succeeded in retarding the entire population of Black men irrespective as to who, what and how we are.
Moreover, it establishes in the minds of even the “best” Americans hidden biases that drive expectations, actions and reactions with regard to Black boys.
Huge numbers of Black boys are engaged in pursuits that lead to conditions where they are increasingly less likely to have encounters with policemen, and on those rare occasions of an encounter, the outcomes on the spot and in the criminal justice process do not lead to deleterious consequences.
Nevertheless, certain demographic characteristics are strongly predictive for the incarceration pipeline. In 1980, about 2% of incarcerated Black males were college educated; and about 10% were high school dropouts. The college number has barely changed today, but the incarceration rate for high school dropouts has jumped dramatically.
Incarceration of young people who drop out of high school is 63 times higher than among young four-year college graduates. Nearly 70 percent of incarcerated men are high school dropouts.
The leading causes of Black male incarceration are drug, person and property crimes.
Poverty is a stronger predictor of arrest rates than race.
Neighborhood poverty accounts for a greater portion of the Black-white economic gap than the effects of all other family characteristics combined!
Nearly 26% of African Americans earn below $15,000 annually, among which is a disproportionate percentage of youth. In 2014, 32 percent of black children, the highest percentage, were living in poor neighborhoods. Black children are four times as likely as white kids to live in extreme poverty. The poverty rate for ALL Black children is about 40%, and for Black children under five, the percentage below the poverty line is nearly 50. If Black children faced the same odds as white children, about 3 ½ million fewer would live in poverty.
On the other hand, 1.4 million Black men are in college as compared with 825,000 incarcerated. Correlated directly with educational attainment, nearly 6 million Black Americans earn more than $75,000 annually; 3 ½ million Black people earn between $100,000 and $200,000 a year; 610,000 earn more than $200,000 a year, and nearly 40,000 are millionaires.
Why do the statements on prison, slavery, and education continue to neglect demographic specificity among African-Americans?
Many African-Americans talk about the negative Black-White disparities because we want to make sure white America and the world understand the sins that were committed against us during 400 years of slavery and racism; to remind everybody that effective remediation for maltreatment has not been achieved; and to renew the declaration that this nation’s local, state, and national governments have the primary responsibility for assisting with solutions for the lingering problems.
Truly malevolent Non-Black people emphasize our overall, or average, negatively-disparate situation to tell Black people and the world that the gazillions of dollars expended in education and other supports since the mid-sixties have not and will not close the gaps with white people because, they say, we are genetically inferior.
By highlighting the lack of clarity and truth in the prison, slavery and education statements, I am not suggesting that Black males do not face monumental societal challenges. But there is potential for great harm but no help in continuing to publicize figures that, while undeniable, long accepted, and easy to understand, omit significant exceptions.
Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. Ludwig Börne
If you hear those statements, read them, say them, or write them, ensure that comprehensiveness is the governing factor and that they tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If not, even the best Americans with the most honorable intentions and the worst Americans with the most depraved, harmful objectives can cause and perpetuate the same crippling effects among Black children.
