Black men in America today are deeply divided over the way they see themselves and their country.
Black men report the same ambitions as most Americans – for career success, a loving marriage, children, respect. And yet most are harshly critical of other black men, associating the group with irresponsibility and crime.
Black men describe a society rife with opportunities for advancement and models for success. But they also express a deep fear that their hold on the good life is fragile, in part because of discrimination they continue to experience in their daily lives.
This portrait of the divided black man emerges from a survey conducted by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.
The survey of 2,864 people, including a sample of 1,328 black men, aimed to capture the experiences and perceptions of black men at a time marked by increasing debate about how to build on their achievements and address the failures that endure decades after the civil rights movement.
In many ways, the outward and inward struggles of black men appear to reflect where the nation is on its journey toward racial equality – unquestionably further along and yet at risk of moving backward.
Many are left behind: The suicide rate among young black men has doubled since 1980. One in four black men has not worked for more than a year, twice the proportion of male whites or Latinos. And trends suggest a third of black males born today will spend time in prison.
“I just get frustrated with my brothers. With black men … wasting life. But then, on the other hand, I wonder: Is there something in society that keeps us down?” said Edward Howell, 57, a Washington, D.C., resident interviewed in the poll.
As the distance between the races narrows, new tensions have emerged in the way black men perceive themselves and their lives:
Six in 10 black men say their collective problems owe more to what they have failed to do themselves rather than “what white people have done to blacks.”
More than half say they place a high value on marriage – compared with 39 percent of black women – and six in 10 strongly value having children. Yet at least 38 percent of all black fathers in the survey are not living with at least one of their young children, and a third of all never-married black men have a child.
Three in four say they value being successful in a career, more than white men or black women. Yet majorities also say black men put too little emphasis on education and too much emphasis on sports and sex.
Eight in 10 say they are satisfied with their lives, and six in 10 report it is a “good time” to be a black man in the U.S. But six in 10 also report they often are the targets of racial slights or insults, and two-thirds believe the courts are more likely to convict black men than whites.
