description: Young black American men are experiencing a serious modern day crisis. The antebellum, the Emmitt Till case, and countless civil rights atrocities are largely after-the-fact public musings. Today, however, the privatization of the prison system sanctioned by legislatures, e.g., the Corrections Corporation of America and others, is very quietly yet deliberately placing young black men from diverse backgrounds into state and federal prisons. Many are decent young men from good families having been betrayed by historical constructs, familial maladies, and maniacal cultural neurosis, and their own failure of personal responsibility. Some fall for the subterfuge of the street only to be unceremoniously warehoused under revised sentencing guidelines for most of their ruined lives. Three strikes keeps many incarcerated for life, while others succumb to premature death by drugs or violence. The African-American family shares a great degree of responsibility in all this allowing drug use, gang influence, and fatherless households to permeate our communities, while the rappers tell our children that it's cool to be a convicted felon.
language: English
title: Requiem for Ordinary Black Men
titlecomplete: Requiem for Ordinary Black Men
publisher: Charles Crable