The Past and Future of The Cultural Analysis of Black Men
Chapter one starts off by going into the idea of "the crisis of the black male" which is the idea that the rate of crime and incarceration among blacks is directly connected to the high rate of unemployment among blacks. Young attributes the crisis to two key factors; structural and cultural. Structural meaning race-based residential segregations and mobility prospect. Cultural meaning attitudes and behaviors that culture sees that prevent acceptance into the work world.
Young then talks about how most research on poor black males only focuses on behavioral traits and their value systems. He then goes on to say that good research would include those aspects but also include a deep analysis of how these men create their worldviews and beliefs regarding the present and future. Cultural analysis is the main topic of a huge debate right now. On one side "the debate asks whether black men adopt or promote distinct cultural patters that contribute to, if not cause altogether, their demise.
The other side questions "whether these men, who are taken to be cultural actors in the wayrs that other groups of Americans are, might simply experience unique life circumstances and conditions that overdetermine the social outcomes comprising their everyday lives." Young then finishes off the chapter talking about Social Isolation which is the idea that these poor young black men are unable to get jobs because their class standing keeps them away from mainstream society. They are isolated from the area where all the jobs and opportunities are.
Read more about this topic: The Minds Of Marginalized Black Men, Chapter 1
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—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“To begin to use cultural forces for the good of our daughters we must first shake ourselves awake from the cultural trance we all live in. This is no small matter, to untangle our true beliefs from what we have been taught to believe about who and what girls and women are.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
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