Despite the fact that our community is perpetually besieged by multiplicity of social ills, there is a tragic sense of apathy — if not antipathy — that permeates our community and prevents us from working to obliterate these deplorable conditions.
1. Prison: One-fourth of all African American men have some affiliation with America’s penal system. Flagrantly unjust laws and, just as important, selective implementation and prosecution of these laws have created what we now know as the prison-industrial complex that is decimating the ranks of young black men. The stats have been regurgitated for decades: there are more black men in prison than in America’s colleges and universities.
2. Education: President Obama needs help working to transform a system that forces us to pay taxes for school systems that don’t educate our children properly. Graduation rates have reached epidemic lows. In Detroit, less than 25 percent of students complete the 12th grade in the normally prescribed time frame. And there are scores of major metropolitan areas throughout the country reporting abhorrent drop-out rates.
3. HBCUs: If it is true that the overwhelming majority of graduate degrees and doctoral degrees are produced at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, then it only makes sense to get involved in politics and push for legislation designed to sustain and upgrade these iconic institutions.
4. Health Care: Here is a system that is revolting against itself. Some healthcare experts say the exorbitant cost of health care in America, combined with some 40 million citizens who do not have health insurance, is causing the nation to collapse upon itself. Despite boasting the best technology and allegedly, the highest trained doctors in the world, African Americans lead the nation in obesity, cancer, diabetes and other malignant maladies. Also, black male life expectancy falls far short of his black female counterparts and much less in comparison to his white counterparts.
5. Sentencing Disparities: In California alone, Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying futilely to keep the state afloat after the bloated prison-industrial complex caused the state to crumble financially. The problem is so prevalent that federal judges ordered the release of tens of thousands of non-violent offenders caught in the net of the aforementioned draconian laws. Yet, today’s politicians are nevertheless moving at a glacial pace to reverse, erase or alter these laws. –terry shropshire
