It is a bit exciting to me to see so much about racial issues in the media spotlight this week. Earlier this week I posted about a survey that was a headline on Yahoo News about the different experiences white and minority students were having in regards to their educations in the United States. (if you missed these posts you can read them here and here).

Today, MSNBC has a front page story on what it is like to be a black man in America. The story from the Washington Post is titled “At the corner of progress and peril- Black men describe shared existence, dueling realities of success, failure”.

The article paints the picture pretty quickly by starting with:
“Imagine three African American boys, kindergartners who are largely alike in intelligence, talent and character, whose potential seems limitless. According to a wealth of statistics and academic studies, in just over a decade one of the boys is likely to be locked up or headed to prison. The second boy — if he hasn't already dropped out — will seriously weigh leaving high school and be pointed toward an uncertain future. The third boy will be speeding toward success by most measures.”

I wonder how different it would be if three white kindergarten boys were compared?

I loved the quote from a 17-year old black boy, who is excelling in school, music, foreign language, etc. He said, “It used to be "a hindrance" to be a black man, McMaster says he's been told by his elders. "But with everybody trying to diversify now, I think it has become almost an advantage."

It is my personal opinion that the most successful people in this world use their unique challenges, whether it be a health issue, a physical handicap, a difficult child hood, being a minority race, or anything else, and despite the extra challenges life and the world will put on them, make it a positive and a strength for themselves.

And yet as some young black men are finding strength and success, many still struggle. From the article:
“The path to the corner is set early for some black men. While school achievement has been a growing concern for boys of most every ethnicity, the problem is most acute among black boys, who are far more likely to be left back, be assigned to special education, score poorly on standardized tests, be suspended from school or eventually drop out than any other demographic group, numerous studies show. Once they leave school, nearly three-quarters of black men in their twenties are jobless or incarcerated, an unemployment rate much higher than that of similarly situated white and Hispanic youth, according to a report from the Urban Institute.”

Some frightening statistics from the article:
-a black man is more than six times more likely to be slain than a white man
-a black man is nine times more likely to die of AIDS than a white man
-fewer than half of black freshmen go on to graduate high school

So, as the title implies, the article not only discusses the progress made for the life of black men in the United States, but also discusses the “perils” and sad realities that still exist.

As the mother of two little boys who will grow up to be black men in this country, I found the article to be highly interesting, somewhat encouraging and yet still quite discouraging all at the same time.