We live in an age of bad news: Rising unemployment, natural disasters and a political system so ridden with corruption, that policy initiatives are abandoned and social welfare programs take a backseat to the pride and prejudice of political power struggles.
But today’s announcement that New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the billionaire financier George Soros have teamed up to aid African-American and Latino youth, is a testament to hope and goodwill.
The Young Men’s Initiative, as it is called, will overhaul how the city government interacts with the 315,000 African-American and Latino males between the ages of 16 and 24. The aim is to be pro-active: by addressing the much discussed, but rarely confronted, issues affecting this undereducated, over-incarcerated and underemployed minority
In an effort to fully acknowledge the ever-deepening disparities between the educational achievement and employment prospects of young African-American and Latino males with their white counterparts, Bloomberg’s program will focus specifically on closing the gaps.
For more than a generation, thousands of young black and Latino males have become victims of the system: starting with failing schools ill-equipped at retaining them, or effectively addressing family issues and combating peer pressure, many dropout at alarming rates, and pursue financial well-being through drugs and crime.
This inevitably leads to imprisonment or worse, and the vicious cycle is in motion. Those that survive are often relegated to low-wage jobs or shut out of the market completely due to a criminal past. Left with no options: the cycle continues, with African-American and Latino males re-entering the penal system at even higher rates.
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