Mentoring African American Men During Their Postsecondary and Graduate School Experiences: Implications for the Counseling Profession

For decades, society was warned of the potential difficulty some youth would have in transitioning into adulthood and into postsecondary institutions (Edelman & Ladner, 1991). Because this warning was not heeded, society is witnessing a crisis within certain segments of the population, specifically African American men. In 2006, the Urban Institute assembled researchers to investigate potential causes of this transitioning difficulty and offer creative interventions to prevent this continued crisis. The collection of these researchers resulted in an edited book, Black Males Left Behind (Mincy, 2006), which focused on the plight of young African American men. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization. The Urban Institute conducts research on social and economic issues that affect and pose a potential threat to the United States and offers possible solutions to these issues (Mincy, 2006). The significance of this research and subsequent publications was the findings of the researchers regarding the urgency of the crisis being faced by African American men. The research reported that African American men were becoming more disconnected from mainstream society and to a much greater degree than were White or Hispanic men. Of particular importance was the finding that these young men were finishing school less often and were being incarcerated more often; the researchers noted that U.S. society can no longer continue to ignore this dilemma (Eckholm, 2006; Mincy, 2006). Additionally, Frierson, Pearson, and Wyche's (2009), in Black American Males in Higher Education: Diminishing Proportions, addressed the issues facing African American men in higher education. The authors explored issues of education, incarceration, stereotypes, economics, and underemployment of Black men. Their research indicated that the plight of these young men begins at an early age, typically around the third grade, and continues into doctoral and advanced professional educational settings (Cuyjet, 2009; Holzman, 2006; Jackson, 2003). Not only is the educational/professional community beginning to recognize the importance of addressing this crisis, through research and attention to these young men (Cuyjet, 2006), but individuals in African American communities have also voiced concerns about the future of these young men. In 2010, three African American church denominations developed a national advocacy plan, called Ease the Plight of Black Men, which was focused on keeping African American men in schools and churches, and out of prisons (Kwon, 2010). This was the first time a collaborative effort had been developed by African American communities to address this concern. This collaboration demonstrates the significance in the African American communities concerning the crisis being faced by the men. Concomitantly, Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, outlined some of the statistics on Blacks and imprisonment and called the phenomenon of African American men in the penal system the greatest crisis for African Americans since slavery. Edelman noted, "a black boy, if he is born today, has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a black girl, a one in 18 chance" (Kwon, 2010, para. 7). She also noted that hundreds of thousands of children are trapped in a "cradle to prison pipeline" (Kwon, 2010, para. 8). Counseling professionals know that men typically do not seek counseling services. This fact is magnified among men in minority populations (Boman & Walker, 2010). Helping professionals must address the significant role that counselors may play in working with all populations--specifically how they may work effectively with at-risk populations, such as African American men, who are at risk for disrupted education and possible incarceration. An African proverb begins with the question, "How do you eat an elephant? …