William Ballentine Public Relations Writing October 2, 2013 A paper such as this with this type of topic may

not be unique, but it is written by an 19-year old young, African-American man that has never been incarcerated, handcuffed or face down on the ground with a gun pointed to his head. Why is that relevant? Society and the media would have people to believe that African-American men are only subject to two things in life: extreme success (President Barack Obama, Colin Powell or name your favorite athlete) or extreme failure (look at your local news). This is not a dissertation on how the media or a majority Caucasian society treats African-Americans. Rather it is a call for help or a request for consideration of the views of a young man asking that the real story of young black men be told in a way that demonstrates the fullness our abilities and not the sad tale of how some get caught up in the criminal economy. My story is simple, I have not faced the harsh realities of poverty and I did not grow up in an inner city. While some believe you cannot understand the plight of those individuals unless you experience it yourself, few understand that young black men, and I imagine young women, face challenges every day. These challenges are not necessarily money, but rather the ability to do well, regardless of how you achieve that goal. I have had struggles in doing well in school. My mind often shifted during class. I lost focus easily and have gone through periods of being unsure if I could accomplish the things that I wanted in life or that my parents believed I was capable of achieving. My father always told me that life is about

choices and I must make the right choices in life. I chose a path that has allowed me to achieve my goal of graduating on time and being accepted into several colleges and choosing to attend Delaware State University. I am certain that many parents made similar comments to their sons. I used the term parent generically and with full recognition that many black boys grow up in households with one parent, generally the mother. I have wondered if that could be the reason for the high incarceration rates of young black men, simply because they did not have a black male father figure in their lives to direct them. Could the answer to an age-old question be that simplistic? You put a male into the house, stir the pot and a generation of young black men would transform themselves into contributing members of society rather than drains on the tax system. Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple and a deeper analysis of why so many young black men are incarcerated has to be explored with a much broader understanding of the history and plight of African-Americans. Several data sources indicate that big increases in black inmates have occurred since the 1980s, during a period of increased distribution of crack cocaine, a deep recession and new sentencing guidelines that many African-Americans have argued unfairly punish drugs commonly sold (a crime) by young African-American men. During that period the number of black males incarcerated was roughly equal to the number of black males living in college dorms. According to Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of sociology and education of Columbia Universitys Teacher College, there are a lot of reasons why black students do not reach college at the same rates as whites. Professor Wells said black

students are more likely to attend segregated schools with high concentrations of poverty, less qualified teachers, lower expectations and a less demanding curriculum and they are perceived by society as terrible schools, so it is hard to get accepted into college. She continued, even if you are a high-achieving kid who beats the odds, you are less likely to have access to the kinds of courses that colleges are looking for. This stark picture described by Professor Wells provides a glimpse into how society and to a large extent how our local and federal government continue to impoverish our majority black school system. This creates generations of black males who churn in a system of mediocrity and suffer from low expectations. It explains why the high achieving students in less thought of schools systems are spotlighted simply because they have overcome the mediocre standards designed in the school system. What it does not explain is why so many young black men choose a life of crime. According to Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, students who dont graduate high school are much more likely to go to prison. Mr. Orfield says, The criminal economy is one of the only alternatives in some of these places. You basically have the criminalization of a whole community, particularly in some inner cities. This is further verified by the census data, which shows that nearly 40 percent of inmates lack a high school diploma or the equivalent. So why are so many African-American men behind a glass speaking to love ones or behind bars calling out their number to a prison guard, rather than hearing their name called at a college graduation? According to the Sentencing Project 1 out

of every 8 black men in there 20s is in prison or in jail and 1 out of 3 black males born today is expected to go to prison. With those daunting statistics it is not inconceivable that a young black man would not simply give up and choose the criminal economy as the expectation is that is the life that black men are destined to choose. However, perceptions combined with statistics do not always tell the complete story. There are 41 million black people in the United States, which represents 13.5 percent of the population. Eighteen and a half million of these people are black men and 2.8 million of them are black men in their twenties. Despite the long held belief that that there are more black men in prison than in college, here are some encouraging numbers. According the census there are an estimated 2.5 million black students in college, 919,000 of who are black males. The number of black men in prison, although still extremely high, is estimated at just over 825,000. We should never be pleased at anyone, particularly young black men, choosing a life that will lead them into the criminal justice system. As a college bound student who intends to major in criminal justice my hard grows heavy at the prospect of arresting, questioning or penalizing a young black man for violating the law. While my story may not be unique, I hope my lifes journey to date is an indication of the hope for the future of young black men. While I am fully aware of the dangers of being a young black man, my hope is that the life I lead will be an encouragement and an example for other young black men to break the cycle of incarceration and begin a cycle of high expectations.

Why do African American young men think that they have to live and die by the streets? What makes you think that a street would die for you? It takes one man such as myself, to take a turn for the good. In 2009, Walter Mosley, wrote an article called Ten Things You Can Do to Reduce Incarceration. The second point that he mentioned was Pay a Kid to Graduate. The research found that paying students to finish high school prevented more crime in their communities. The reason they came up with was, less school dropouts creates a lower risk of ending up in jail. There are two paths in life, success or failure, unfortunately there are too many individuals taking the wrong path. Take a step back and look at your life as an African American male. It is already hard being black and a man, and on top of that you add a criminal record to your bag of things to carry in life. I believe there needs to be more positive influence of Males, not just African American, to step up to the plate and make a change for our youth to make better decisions in life. Second, our communities need to change. Where we grow up, what we see everyday is who we will become. Our communities that hold negative energies for our youth influence them to make negative decisions in life. Finally, a change within our self is what ultimately will impact this problem we have with our males choosing the bars rather than the books. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Stay single minded and succeed, make a decision on one path that you want to take and dont make one mistake ruin your life.