Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Young Black Men : Dropouts and Character

Yesterday the N.Y.Times had a front page report of recent " scholarly" studies about the " plight" of young back men. Experts were quoted from Colombia, Harvard and Princeton Universities. The report included these statistics, " In 2000 65% of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless. By 2004, the share had grown to 72% .By comparison 34% of white and 19% of Hispanic dropouts [were jobless]".

The studies blamed poor schooling and lack of personal character i.e. self-discipline, positive goal behavior etc. One of the poster boys for this demographic was Curtis Brannon of Baltimore, M.D. He quit school in the 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered 4 children by 3 mothers and spent time in jail for numerous violations of the law. He's not out of his 20's yet!

The study suggests another $ 50 billion be spent by the Federal government to help people like Curtis.I don't think so. I have a simple observation and suggestion for Curtis and others who similarly situated . Get a job and keep it.Start by following were the legal and illegal hispanics get their daily work. Stand in front of stores that are frequented by contractors who are looking for day workers. Then Curtis can start supporting all those children he help create.

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