Think conspiracies are non-existent? Think again. The Federal Government in cahoots with research institutions has cold calculated a formula to keep young Black men from rising economically and socially. There is empirical evidence that unemployment among young Black men, incarceration rates, and child support policies are significant variables in hindering Black men from reaching their full potential. And where does the Black woman fit in?

According to a study released from The Urban Institute entitled, Declining Employment among Young Black Less-Educated Men: The Role of Incarceration and Child Support By Author(s): Harry Holzer, Paul Offner, Elaine Sorensen, "The dramatic rise in the share of young black men who have been incarcerated during the past two decades; and Growing enforcement of child support orders in that time period…disproportionately affect young black men; and both are likely to limit the employment rates of those affected."

Not many Black, working, thinking people are mathematicians but butterflies in the stomach have a way of awakening the unction of fear and truth. Below is a mathematical model used as sociological methodology to prove a theory. When something of this complexity is seen as pertaining to Black people, questions should be raised as to what the hell is going on.

Using these data, our estimated equations are as follows:

1) EMPijkt= f(Xijkt; Xjt; INCARCk,t-3; CSkt; TIMEt; STATEk) + uijkt
2) LFijkt= g(Xijkt; Xjt; INCARCk,t-3; CSkt; TIMEt; STATEk) + vijkt

Where EMP and LF denote whether the individual in question is employed or in the labor force respectively; the X refer to various personal or metropolitan-level characteristics; INCARC and CS refer to incarceration rates and the various child support policy variables respectively; TIME represents a set of year dummies and STATE represents a set of state dummies; and i, j, k, and t denote the person, metro area, state and year respectively. All versions of equations 1 and 2 are estimated as linear probability models (which differ very little from some logit models that we have estimated), and reported standard errors are adjusted for clustering at the state level (using Huber-White methods).

It is this type logic that places the sanity of whites in question. Why something so complicated for such a basic social issue such as Blacks and the oppression we face in America. A more simple formula, constructed from the Black mind would be thus: Young Black man + Urban life + The State = Jail, unemployment, life of poverty: Simple as that.

However one may see the situation, the crisis facing young Black males do stem from a collaboration of all three institutional systems: the courts, the State department of social services, and the workforce. Now it all starts to make sense. And where does the Black woman fit in? According to the study:

During the 1990s, employment rates among young and less-educated minority women-particularly African-Americans-increased quite dramatically. This increase is generally attributed to a combination of welfare reform policies, expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and other supports for working poor families, as well as a very robust labor market during that time period (Meyer and Rosenbaum 2001; Blank 2003).

No one can or will deny that the Black woman has become the apple of employer's eyes. They land jobs faster and more often than Black men. We know this. Black women know this. Now research has acknowledged and proved this. The problem is getting Black women to see this as an added form of hindrance to their Black male counterparts.

Again, as proven by research, Black men are found wanting and lacking in economic stratification as compared to Black women. Not only are we at the bottom of the economic food chain, but there are reasons for us being there and not all because of our supposed stereotypical criminal minds and lack of educational attainment, but because there are systems that work against our success, systematically and in order. The study goes on:

In contrast, the employment rates of young less-educated black men continued their long secular decline during this time period. Though young less-educated black men did benefit from the economic boom of the 1990s, and the wages of those in the labor force seemed to rise in this period, the boom was not sufficient to offset the negative secular trend that has been reducing employment and labor force activity among these young men for the past several decades Furthermore, there has been little good evidence to date about why this trend has continued in the 1990s, despite positive trends in educational attainment and reductions in criminal activity for this group.

So, even though "criminal activity for this group" has declined and "positive trends in educational attainment" have occurred amongst young Black men, they still lack employment and labor force activity. Now, to save white scholars months even years of research and money, a formula for this is not necessary because it would be obvious to any Black person that racism and fear of the Black man is the reason.

Despite the fact that we can advance in education and think twice before becoming criminals, the work force does not trust our progress enough to hire us, but will promote the Black woman in a second. Should not we as a people consider these discoveries and work from there?

For any reason the reader has missed the point of this article, here is a simple breakdown as to what discovery was made.

There is a cycle that hinders Black men from becoming productive in this society: first, deprive the urban areas of jobs limiting opportunities for Black youth, offer liberal- operated government programs such as welfare and legislatively enforce the system of child support to collect as supplement for repaying the welfare system: further strengthen the justice system to profile and incarcerate any young Black men on the urban street that have resorted to the underground economy of drugs, release him after 2-5 years in federal prison and see if he can get a job.

Once researchers discover that these men cannot get jobs or that non-custodial fathers have fallen too far behind on child support payments because of the poverty they live in themselves, which is a reciprocal result of lack of jobs in urban areas, publish a study for the public to see that places all the blame of this cycle on the abilities and willingness of the Black man.

To substantiate the above theory, again we will quote a passage from the research study, which reads: "the effects of previous incarceration and strict child support policy enforcement on the labor force behavior of young black men. We find that past incarceration is strongly and negatively associated with such behavior. We also find some evidence that child support enforcement limits labor force activity, especially among those age 25-34. In fact, our results imply that past incarceration and child support can account for most of the declines over time in labor force activity for this age group, though somewhat less among those age 16-24."

Now we could offer numerous solutions to this problem in as simple a manner as possible to where an 8 year-old can understand, however, since Black intellectuals and Black women have decided to take every word of the white scholar as gospel and ignore the common knowledge and experience of the Black man, we leave the solution to come from those they worship:

Beyond programmatic efforts, some broader policy changes might be needed to address the negative effects of incarceration and child support policy on employment of young black men. Regarding incarceration, policymakers at the state level should review the barriers to employment that they generate for ex-offenders, perhaps distinguishing those that are sensible from those that are strictly punitive and perhaps counterproductive (like drivers' license revocation and other bans on occupational licensing for those with criminal records).

Efforts to link ex-offenders to the private-sector labor market should begin while they remain incarcerated, by lessening restrictions on the ability of private employers to use inmate labor, especially in tight labor markets. And the use of other tools, such as federally sponsored bonding and tax credits to employers, should be explored further as well.

Regarding child support, states should be encouraged and assisted in efforts to review the practices by which child support orders are developed for low-income men- often without any direct evidence of their potential earnings. Arrearage forgiveness efforts need to be explored for non-custodial fathers who make a good-faith effort to keep up with current orders-especially if arrears have accumulated while they were incarcerated or otherwise unable to work.

Conclusion
Think about it. There is definitely something wrong with the way the Black man is being treated in this country and Black women and Black intellectuals must realize this and stop allowing themselves to be persuaded by white ideology that our people are a disgrace to society and deserve punishment. There is a cycle and that cycle turns constantly and grows ever larger, with help from those who fear and hate the Black man.

Source From: http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?NavMenuID=24&template=/TaggedContent/
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Full Report: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/
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© August 2005 by C.R. Hamilton