The Black Commentator - Where’s Our Talented Tenth

The following commentary appeared on the web site of the National Black Family Empowerment Agenda (NBFEA).

Are we allowing the elimination of an entire generation of black people?

As the prison industrial complex becomes increasingly central to the growth of the U.S. economy, that growth is predicated on the backs of young blacks. Justice Department statistics suggest the African American community will perish based on the ongoing losses of young black men. Over a million African American males under 40, a major segment of black society, are behind bars. Fully 10 percent of black men and their talents are not available for development in their communities. Black Communities are confronted with negative economics when a tenth of what should be its most productive citizens are prisoners who don’t have jobs, pay taxes, or care for children at home.

The face of crime in America is “black,” creating a vicious cycle for young black men. From school dropout, to unemployed, to criminal, to convict laborer, to unemployed parolee and back again, is the cycle for young black men. Poor people of color are being locked up in grossly disproportionate numbers, primarily for non-violent crimes.

Twelve percent of African American men ages 20 to 34 are incarcerated, in contrast to only 1.6 percent of white men of the same age group. One of every four black men is among more than five million people behind bars, on parole, probation, or under other supervision by the criminal justice system. Each of us has a friend, relative or acquaintance in the criminal justice system – going to prison is a rite of passage among many black males. Across America, governments build, on average, a 1,000-bed incarceration facility every week.

Prisons don’t reduce crime rates, but they help decimate already vulnerable black families and communities. Taxpayers, who happily pay $20,000 a year to house and feed inmates, most for non-violent crimes, would howl at funding similar amounts to send a tenth of the nation’s black male high-school graduates to a Historically Black College. Most of the 10 percent of black men in prison are simply “scapegoats” for America’s floundering economy.

The black men who are “out-of-pocket,” are “unavailable” to help build economics among deteriorated black social structures. Once gone, our castrated black men never come back to us. There’s no longer even a guise of rehabilitation in current penal philosophy. After all: rehabilitate for what? To go back into an economy which has no jobs or hope?

In most cases prisons are vast, over-crowded factories that provide no growth for prisoners. Actually, correctional facilities engage in exploitative enterprises using our young men. Inmates working for UNICOR (the federal prison industry corporation) make recycled furniture, work 40 hours a week and earn $40 per month. Oregon’s Prison Industries claims its “Prison Blues” jeans operation provides rehabilitation and job training for prisoners, though parolees get few jobs in garment industries.

Prisoners do Chevron’s data entry, make TWA’s telephone reservations, raise hogs, shovel manure, make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds and lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. The imprisonment of young black men also results in mass political disenfranchisement for the race. In a dozen states, 30 percent to 40 percent of young black men will permanently lose the right to vote. In nine American states, one in four black men will never vote again because of being convicted felons. Their loss of voting rights erodes black America’s political power.

America’s Wars on Crime curb any notions of black Americans having real democracy. Police look for crimes in black areas and find them there. We are pulled over and targeted by raids more frequently than any other group, ensuring continual emasculation of one-tenth our population. African Americans receive sentences averaging six months longer than whites, showing that the War is against all of us. Isn’t it time 90 percent of us do something about scales of justice that are so tilted?