Against All Odds

Poor African American males living in urban settings in the United States face a myriad of social, cultural and historical stigma, which influence and alter the ways that they engage the world around them. They face the obstacles of trying to find personal social relevance in a world that devalues them by and large. This devaluation comes primarily as the result of a legacy of racism in America. Not only are they trying to find a personal level of comfort and belonging, but they too are seeking the American Dream. It is in attempting to navigate the dominant culture in the pursuit of this dream that they often come to identify themselves as the “strange other.” This term is indicative of the fact that black males are imaged as altogether different, and perhaps even more different than any other racialized group in America. They are so different in fact that they are estranged from many other groups. They are frequently known only through stereotypical images, and framed as undisciplined, incapable of conforming to social norms, ignorant, violent, lazy, and unintelligent. The media parades images of thugs, drug dealers, and corner boys on the one side; and athletes, entertainers, and fabulously flashy preachers on the other side. One set unlawful and another set lawful, but all disparaging to some degree. Rarely are the paraded images those of scholars, doctors, lawyers, teachers, activists, and African American male professionals. It is amidst these images that many African American males fall by the wayside, while some still manage to achieve against the odds.



I have been trying to succeed against all odds ever since I was 4 years old and decided that I was the "man" of the house because I was the only "male" in the house. When I think back to my childhood growing up in Jersey City, I realize that there were a myriad of forces aligned against me... such that, just surviving to live a somewhat "normal" life is a tremendous triumph. I'm happy to be able to walk down the street, to be fairly healthy, and have my mental faculties mostly intact... Then, to have a good job, to have somehow graduated from college and gone on to graduate school, to have a good wife, own a home... things that many Americans take for granted is a bigger deal -probably- than it feels like to me. They say that I have beat the odds. They say that I should not have made it this far. They say that I am a statistical anomaly.



In a recent sermon I preached in Washington, DC, I noted:

Black men make up 6% of the general population U.S.…
…a full 35% of all HIV/AIDS cases in the U.S…
…a full 67% of all stroke victims in the U.S….
Black men are twice as likely to get cancer…

Over 70% of the black men in the U.S. are unemployed….

49% of the murder victims in the US are black, mostly male and 93% of them are killed by other black people…

Black men make up over 40% of the prison population in the U.S….
There are in fact 25% more black men in prison than in college…
AND In fact, according to statistics, only 37% of the black men enrolled in college in 2008 will actually graduate…

The odds are not on our side... But I've never been a betting man, and so, odds never meant much to me.