African-American males and the struggle for economic power.
...tment of African-Americans. It is a rare occasion that an African-American male will have his judicial fate decided by a jury of his peers. The cause of this is in direct relation to the negative social consequences of being an African-American male in today’s society. When an African-American male goes on trial, many of his peers are unreachable because of economic demand. His peers cannot afford to take time off work, or work more than one job. Often times because of an impoverished state of living, his peers are viewed as not reliable, or they are undereducated. Economic strife, and inability to contact peers of an accused African-American male are only two of the many reasons a jury of peers is rarely found. Even in our “advanced” society, African-American males are continually bombarded by racism. It can be as blatant as verbal or physical assaults, and often times as subtle as not being given an equal opportunity at a job opening or being discriminated against when looking for housing. Even after exposing such racism there are many in society who choose to look the other way when it happens. African-American men have struggled for many generations in response to a mainstream culture that has denied them personhood and dignity. Prior to the late 1960’s, adult African-American men were often referred to as “boy,” a label that denies any recognition of their status as adults. Many people have described the situation of African-American males as a national crisis, because this population of males is besieged by high rates of unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, premature death attributed to violence and preventable diseases, crime victimization, and incarceration. It is staggering to find that one out of every four African-American males is incarcerated at some time during their life. This figure is even more staggering when compared to the figures of other ethnicities, one in six Hispanic males, and one in twenty-three White males. Societies view of African-American males and the above stated statistics are all contributing factors to economic ...