1988_11 The Daily Collegian November 1988

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Page 2    Tuesday. November 8.1988    Uhara Na Umoja
Young, Black, In Critical
Condition
.
By Jewelle Taylor Gibbs
Los Angeles Tunes. 1988
Young black males in America's inner
cities are an endangered species,
constantly threatened with physical.
psychological or social annihilaucn.
They fajve. bveeo mtseducated by the
educational system, mishandled by the
criminal justice system, mislabeled by
the mental health system and mistreated
by the social welfare system.
Their inner-city neighborhoods have
become "welfare plantations," their
families dependent on government
benefits, isolated form the mainstream
and uanable to escape from the ghetto.
They are rejects of our affluent society
and misfits in their own communities.
Since the march on Washington on 1963,
the status of black males, ages IS - 24,
has deteriorated by most significant social
and economic measures. As conditions
have worsened, young blacks have grown
increasingly angry and alienated from the
dominant culture. It is time for policy -
makers'to ask: What has happened to
these youth? Why? And what can be
done to address their problems?
Six major social indicators reveal
what has happened in the past 25 years.
First, while overall school dropout
rales of black youths have improved in
recent years, rates for inner-city black
males have increased to levels of 40 % -
SO %. In 1980. one of five black male
teen-agers was unable to read a: the fourth-
grade level, thus unqualified for most
entry-level jobs, apprenticeship programs
or military service.
Second, sjncmploymeni rates for these
inner-city youths also range from 40 *X -
60%, three times higher than in I960.
Employment rates for black males 16-19
dropped from 42 % in I960 to 36 % in
198a In 1984 nearly half the Mack
youths, 16-24, had never held a regular
job.
Thrid, crime and delinquency are
rampant in the inner cities, with black
youths accounting for close to one-third
of juvenile arrests for felony offenses, yet
they represent only one-fifth of the youth
population. Most victims are poor and
Mack.
Fourth, drug abuse is endemic in
many inner-city neighborhoods,
transformed into battlegrounds over the
sale and distribution of cocaine and
berion. Tbe drug industry has not only
created lucrative jobs for unemployed teen¬
agers, it has also created a violent life
style and a new health menance fa black
males. Heterosexual intravenous drug
users account for more than one-third of
the AIDS cases among black males, who
now represent one-fourth of all male
cases.
Fifth, homicide is the leading cause of
death among young black males. A
young black male has a 1 in 21 chance of
uci/sg murdered before he reaches age 21.
primarily by a gun fired by another black
male. Young black males are six times
as likely as young white males to be
victims of homicide.
Sixth, suicide is the third leading
cause of death for young black m-i'-js.
Since 1960. suicide rates have nearly
tripled for young black males; while
suicide among whites increases with age,
it is a peculiarly youthful phenomenon
amoog blacks. ,
The "new morbsdity." a term coined
"Government programs
alone are not sufficient."
J. Gibbs
to describe these unacceptably high youth
death rates caused by social rather than
biological factors, is particularly
applicable to young black males.
Three major factors explain how these
problems developed and why they have
worsened in less than three decades.
First, structural and technological changes
in the society have shifted the economy
from an agricultural and manufacturing
base to a service and high-technology
base, requiring a more skilled and educated
labor force. As new jobs have moved
form; city to suburbs and from East to
West, urban "black youths have had
neither the skills nor the mobility to
qualify. Without     employment
opportunities, they have developed and
undergrond economy in drugs, stolen
goods and gambling.
A second factor is the growth of b I act-
female-headed families- form 22 % in
1960 to 42 % in 1983. This increase
parallels tbe increase in unemployment
among black males snd is a major cause
of lowered marriage rates in this erouo.
Those who claim that welfare programs
have encouraged higher teen-age birth
rates are wrong on two counts; black
teenage birth rates are generally higher in
States with the lowest welfare payments
and the highest rates of male
unemployment
Two of every three children in black
female-headed households are poor, they
live in substandard housing, attend
inferior schools, lack access to adequate
health care and are exposed at early ages
to drugs, crime and violence.
Tbe thud factor is a conservative
political climate that fostered a backlash
to civil rights advances and alTirrrtative
action programs in employment and
education. The naiional debate has shifted
from an active emphasis on policies of
jvc-cvi-v. .M-id early intervention to a*
reactive emphasis on policies of
retrenchment and rehabilitation.
The combination of factors has
resulted in an escalating cycle of
disadvantage dysfunction and despair.
Efforts to reverse these trends, with few
exceptions such as Head Start and the Job
Corps, have failed because they have not
been carefully conceptualized, planned or
implemented. Fragmented policies and
pieceme*: pr> %:.■;• is have failed to
recognize Ihe interrelationship of the
problems and tbe need for a well-
coordinated network of services.
Then what to do? We can begin by
developing a set of family - assistance
policies to improve income supports for
poor families and children, to increase the
self-sufficiency of welfare recipients
through education and employment
training programs and to provide adoring"*
social services, health care and housing to
strengthen family funcuonmg.
The educational system must be
radically restructured to eel die needs of
black youth. Priority areas of change
include: increased funding for early
childhood programs, compensatory
education and improved vocational
education; improvement in the
recruitment and training to teachers, with
a special focus on increasing the pool of
minority teachers, and implementing
dropout prevention programs. In 1987,
the Committee for Educational
Developmem reported that for each dollar
soent io prevent educational failure, S4.75
would be saved in future costs for
remedial education, welfare and crime.
Employmfent and training efforts
should   concentrate   on   the   riajdcore
Uhuru Na Umoja
Shawnda Grice - Editor
Staff Writers: Rodney Branch, Dcmetra Vincent   .
Production Staff: Phyllis Braxton, Lisa Flores, Sylvia Castro, Hector Amezcua
Uhuru Na Umoja is an insert of the Dairy Collegian, under a separate editorial staff. Opinions expressed in
Uhuru Na Umoja do not ntxcssarfly reflect those of the Daitf Collegian.
such programs as the Job Corps, me
Youth Ctaservation • Corps and the
Private Industry Council school-to-work
transition programs. Advocates of the
Job Corps pointed out that each dollar
spent on a training slot will return $'1.46
in taxes within two yean from a youth
v.fto would otherwise be unemployed. If
the $15,000 cost of training 2.5 youths
per year is compared to the $22,000
annual cost of incarcerating one youth,
the advantages are obvious.
To reduce rates of homicide and
violent crime, a strong and enforceable
gun control policy must be adopted at all
acres: to weapons. Drug education and
prevention programs should be linked to
AIDS education and prevention through
community-based clinics.
Comprehensive health clinics should be
established in the junior and senior high
schools to provide a wide range of
services, including family planning,
counseling and crisis intervention.
Solving these problems is no longer a
matter of conscience or choice. U is a
demographic imperative and a public-
policy priority. Black youth will
constitute about onef-fifth of the labor
force hi the early 21st Century; the
nation's productivity will depend on their
ability and employability. If this society
dees not invest in preventive policies and
programs, it win allocate far more
resources lo maintain punitive programs-
to build more prisons, to treat more
addicts, to battle unacceptable levels of
community violence. Finally, the
growing urban underclass is a threat to
the political and social stability of this
nation.
Government programs alone are not
sufficient. Cooperative cffoils should be
developed among all the major social
ireutjtioias-busincsscs, professional
organizations, churches and civic
ori*aiuzations.
If black youths are given real
ofportuniues for education, if they are
provided with meaningful jobs, if they
have adequate income to care for their
families, if they have hope for future
mobility, then they will contribute their
fair share to the larger community. We
have the knowledge, technology and the
resources to improve life chances for
young black males. What we need b the
compassion, commitment and censensus
to create a human environment for all
youth in this country.
CONGRrVDULAstlONS
TO OLJMPIC GOU>
MEDALIST: TOM
GOODWIN