Progress or Peril?; For seven months, The Post has explored what it means to be a black man in America. Two scholars respond to the stories -- and look to the future.
These two themes struck me as I read The Washington Post's "Being a Black Man" series. I was impressed with how the young black men profiled in the series acknowledged their plight and assumed responsibility for it. Their unsentimental realism contrasts sharply with the persistent victim arguments of the experts and specialists interviewed for the series, and those of many academics and social scientists, white and black alike, who think they understand black men and the solutions to their problems.</br></br>The Post's survey found that 60 percent of black men attribute their plight to their own personal failures and attitudes rather than to racism. They do not underplay the persistence of racism in the United States, but they refuse to explain away their troubles by blaming the system.</br></br>It is heartening to see that young black men, even more than whites, think that to "blame things on other people" is not only a false take on reality but a sure way to guarantee failure. The men interviewed repeatedly made the point that viewing the world as a victim can be self-fulfilling. Most telling is Rahsaan Ferguson's account of his father's mantra, "You are a black boy. That's two things you will always have against you." This, Rahsaan fortunately came to realize, was terribly disabling advice: "It kind of brings you down," he said. Indeed.</br></br>Rahsaan's father, nonetheless, can be forgiven for so badly misadvising his son, because his views are consistent with those of most members of the academic and professional community who interpret or work with blacks. Among such professionals, the overwhelming dogma is that blacks are victims and that racism -- personal and institutional -- is the main explanation for their troubles. It is striking that an overwhelming majority of the professional analysts interviewed for the series emphasized victimhood in their explanations.</br></br>"Even successful black men are victims of this crisis," argued Courtland Lee, a University of Maryland professor and former editor of the Journal of African American Men, in one of The Post's articles. "They know they walk around with a target on their backs."