In 1960 85% of all African American men were married, had full time jobs and were from intact families. In 2000 that number was 18%. What happened?
What happened is that a combination of government errors and social change Black men became marginalized by job loss and slowly they became marginalized. Today this is happening to all men regardless of Race. In a recent Atlantic Article www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009 Richard Florida talked about the change where men who used to be the center of American life have become slowly marginalized. Part of this change is that women have become more prominent but another part of this change is the reality that today the government announced that 25% of all men aged 25-54 in America are out of the workforce.
What does this mean?
It means that we as a nation have got to rethink what is important to us. In societies in the past with lots of idle men, for example China in the 19th century or America's inner cities today bad things happen. Crime rises and violence as well. What is needed is an outreach to Men and a realization that men as a group need attention that they did not need before.
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