Very interesting research. But what is the effect on the women? Does this lack of same race males lead to more mixed marriages? How do these societies deal with this reality, where women are a majority.
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Black males fall to the wayside beginning in adolescence (or sooner) due to multiple factors such as drug use, criminal activities leading to stays in youth detention centers and then prison, and death due to black male -on-black male crime. In the 70s nearly every young black man I grew up with fell off the radar due to one or more of these factors. I can count on one hand the number of black men who were in my high school graduating class and there was a significantly larger number of them when we all began high school. It seems to me that the black male culture making this oppositional behavior acceptable has to change and only black males can do this. Sure, it is fine to create more jobs, fairer policing and reduce racism but until the elephant in the room is addressed, nothing will change.
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At the same time, it is hard to ask black male youths to shape up when they are being harassed by the police, have a much higher chance of arrest (even given the same misbehavior) and their job prospects are bad (again, even adjusting for qualifications).
8
The states where black men outnumber black women all have low overall levels of black residents. This suggests that men move to those areas, probably seeking work only to find that intra racial social relations are lacking.
In areas where there are large black populations you also have ground zero for the prison industrial complex and its corresponding disproportionate representation of blacks in the penal system. This fact might also contribute to some out migration of black men to states like Maine that might seem safer from racial profiling, drug use and regular police encounters. In other words, they leave the target zone of increased systemic black male surveillance. They may be willing to take their chances of standing out in a largely white crowd, but this is preferable to being under constant police scrutiny.
In areas where there are large black populations you also have ground zero for the prison industrial complex and its corresponding disproportionate representation of blacks in the penal system. This fact might also contribute to some out migration of black men to states like Maine that might seem safer from racial profiling, drug use and regular police encounters. In other words, they leave the target zone of increased systemic black male surveillance. They may be willing to take their chances of standing out in a largely white crowd, but this is preferable to being under constant police scrutiny.
7
This is nothing new. Just as police abuses of minorities did not start with the availability of smart phone videos, the mass incarceration of black males is a continuing pattern in American society.
Young black males have long been viewed as aggressive criminals that are a threat to a peaceful community and must be jailed. Black women have been stereotyped as oversexed welfare queens. These concepts are evident in American literature and movies. Part of the contradictions that comprise the US.
Young black males have long been viewed as aggressive criminals that are a threat to a peaceful community and must be jailed. Black women have been stereotyped as oversexed welfare queens. These concepts are evident in American literature and movies. Part of the contradictions that comprise the US.
6
Very interesting and something that black women have known for quite sometime. For black women in urban settings, its no secret that we almost always out number black men on the job, at school, social gatherings, etc. This data is not new to most of us.
on another note, I would love to see some trending data this topic.
on another note, I would love to see some trending data this topic.
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Maybe the Bureau of the Census is merely not counting men who don't want to be counted. I can imagine that a man might, for example, would not be entered on the census form as resident in a household, if his presence could render the woman of the house ineligible for TANF, housing subsidy or some such relief.
Also: the US military contains a disproportionately large number of black men, compared to whites. The Census counts them where they are stationed, not where they're from.
Also: the US military contains a disproportionately large number of black men, compared to whites. The Census counts them where they are stationed, not where they're from.
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The plight of the black male does not just 'suddenly manifest' at age 25. It makes me wonder if the whittling of "prime-age black men" actually begins a lot earlier and only becomes statistically significant at age 25.
I'd also wonder whether the absence of 'jobs' (aka economic opportunity) and/or the need to seek work outside the community contributes.
The numbers are interesting and the answers are likely important, but more detail is required.
I'd also wonder whether the absence of 'jobs' (aka economic opportunity) and/or the need to seek work outside the community contributes.
The numbers are interesting and the answers are likely important, but more detail is required.
6
Area with large black populations have the smallest share of black men because the black population is most concentrated in high-crime urban areas.
4
From the data as presented by the NY Times one might conclude that the threat of African American male disappearance becomes greater in the states and localities where more African American females reside.
5
I think that it is worth noting that in most of the states were black men outnumber black women, men outnumber women across all skin colors too. Often do to the the types of jobs available and the rugged lifestyle in most of those geographic areas. Yes, I know that several of those states also have large cities, but urban areas are small compared to the total land areas in those states. Take my state, Utah. Leave the Wasatch Front (population 2.2 million) and over the other 84,299 sq miles of the state there are only 3 other towns with populations over 28,000.
5
There is certainly lots of crime in many black communities, leading to large amounts of men in particular to rightfully be incarcerated. The problem is many men are imprisoned for minor drug offenses which people of other races aren't in the same numbers (even when usage is higher in other races). NY Times has chronicled driver's license suspensions in Tennessee which remove the poor and disproportionately blacks, from the workforce. There is overzealous prosecution based on race - this article illustrates the problem at its worst: http://nydn.us/1PccQE7. The treatment of black men nationwide by the police is far harsher than seen with other races. An entire demographic is being demonized; articles like this shine a light on the problem and simultaneously make things worse.
8
Implicit in comments like this is the idea that crimes are committed in every community proportional to population and that the primary reason that there is higher incarceration in black communities is that there is overzealous enforcement. This is simply untrue. Crimes are committed more frequently and in much higher proportions ranging from minor to major in these communities because families have been destroyed by the Democratic welfare state and drug use is endemic. The rise in the "disappearance phenomenon" coincides precisely with the advent of the Great Society. A strong local community, strong families and religious faith and family commitment to education is the surest and only way to create responsible and accountable citizens who are also employable. Nothing has ever replaced those cultural factors.
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Black people use drugs at rates lower than whites. Drink less frequently than whites. Attend church and read the bible more regularly than Whites. Put in the same number of hours in doing homework. And have better attitudes about the importance of education.
The cultural factors you cite are mostly imaginary racist stereotypes, and not borne out by data.
The cultural factors you cite are mostly imaginary racist stereotypes, and not borne out by data.
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"Crimes are committed more frequently and in much higher proportions ranging from minor to major in these communities because families have been destroyed by the Democratic welfare state and drug use is endemic"
Gosh, you dont think generations of mediocre education had anything to do with it? Or maybe there is a correlation between ongoing poverty and higher crime? Or maybe its just old fashioned racism? And finally, your reference to religious faith, I am perplexed by my lack of memory of famous church leaders in the US denouncing ongoing racism. Oh wait a minute, they never said it.
Gosh, you dont think generations of mediocre education had anything to do with it? Or maybe there is a correlation between ongoing poverty and higher crime? Or maybe its just old fashioned racism? And finally, your reference to religious faith, I am perplexed by my lack of memory of famous church leaders in the US denouncing ongoing racism. Oh wait a minute, they never said it.
18
Be interested to see the demo profile of black men (and women) in these states with few blacks but a higher male black ratio.
That is their income, marital status, and if possible if the marriage is mixed race or not..etc.
That is their income, marital status, and if possible if the marriage is mixed race or not..etc.
1
The answer is pretty obvious. Look at the states: Montana, South Dakota, Hawaii, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, Utah, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Mexico, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, West Virginia, Iowa and Arizona
Are there any large all-black slums in these states? Not compared to a state like Michigan or Missouri, that's for sure. So what sorts of blacks are likely to live in regular middle-class neighborhoods, mixed in with everyone else? The answered is educated middle and upper-class blacks, who are relatively successful in life and are able to live fairly decently. They won't be going to jail or shooting each other, because they're going to work and earning a living.
Are there any large all-black slums in these states? Not compared to a state like Michigan or Missouri, that's for sure. So what sorts of blacks are likely to live in regular middle-class neighborhoods, mixed in with everyone else? The answered is educated middle and upper-class blacks, who are relatively successful in life and are able to live fairly decently. They won't be going to jail or shooting each other, because they're going to work and earning a living.
34
I'm Black. I live in Montana. Have you ever stopped to think about how it is that 99% of Black people ended up stuck in the rural south or forced into northern ghettos? It wasn't chance or culture or genetics or whatever racists excuses you're gonna make. It was purposeful government policy and decades of White terrorism across the south.
24
I agree their may be some self selection in these states.
1
This is a clear hint that there are some systemic issues external to the black male population that result in marginalization of black men and by association, the black family. Unequal education and unequal access to capital are good places to start with causation.
19
Unequal education in 2015 is a lie used to explain the failure of those who do not value education. Unequal access to capital is the excuse of lazy, welfare seeking individuals.
5
"Unequal access to capital is the excuse of lazy, welfare seeking individuals." Actually unequal access to capital is the result of lack of access to corporate welfare -- the enormous tax loopholes that allow corporations to pay taxes at an average 5% rate, the food stamps that allow corporations to pay workers less than a living wage, and the predatory banks that target people of color for sub-prime mortgages and auto loans. All of these practices make it very difficult for people of color to accumulate capital.
11
this seems to point out the ubiquitous toxicity that blacks (and other groups) in America are exposed to from birth to old age, that disproportionately affects males. From the chemical toxicity of environmentally degraded neighborhoods (lead, carbon, other carcinogens), education system that fails to educate children from families that don't already have strong scholastic orientation, criminal in-justice system that targets and exploits poor unrepresented classes, employment system that favors undocumented immigrants over citizens with police records, voting systems that favor already entitled residents and all the way to gun laws that encourage domestic arms races and late night shoot outs. Was this system intentionally designed this way, or did it arise by accident? Hard to tell, but the vested interests that profit from how it works stand in the way of fixing it.
18
Perpetual fear + Perpetual incarceration = Perpetual profit (in perpetuity). The for profit prison industry and their minions in Congress are the main culprits who profit from the in-justice system.
5
The author has presented some interesting and discouraging data regarding black male population and incarceration in different American states. When looking at the states where blacks make up 5% or less of the overall population, it is clear that those states appear to be more socially conservative and stereotypically racist than the states where blacks make up a higher percentage of the overall population. Yet intriguingly it is in the more presumptively "liberal" and stereotypically less racist states, where black men are incarcerated at such a high rate that black females outnumber black males in the (non-incarcerated) state population. One explanation - which racists warned Americans of preceding the civil rights era - is that when blacks make up a sufficiently high percentage of the population, crime correspondingly rises, the black culture becomes a "crime-centric" culture, and group-crime (gang crime) rises. On this racist paradigm, the larger white society responded (in the 1980s and 90s) with more severe punishment for crime and focus on gang crime causing increased incarceration of black males especially in areas where black males made up a more significant percentage of the population. Another (non-racist) explanation for increased black male incarceration in presumptively "liberal" states where blacks disproportionately live is that these states (such as California) are in fact more racist than states like Wyoming or North Dakota (where few blacks live).
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What an interesting article on a subject you probably won't find elsewhere. But those graphics were simply a bad editorial decision.
This unique article deserves decent interactive graphics with pop-ups for the various states and cities. The fit of subject to such a graphic is so perfect, I wonder why NYTimes chose to ignore it, especially considering this is supposed to be an Upshot.
So much time is spent on listing a few selected details in text when a graphic with pop ups could have given much more information on every state. The authors could have used that space for other things they surely wanted to say.
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What an interesting article on a subject you probably won't find elsewhere. But those graphics were simply a bad editorial decision.
This unique article deserves decent interactive graphics with pop-ups for the various states and cities. The fit of subject to such a graphic is so perfect, I wonder why NYTimes chose to ignore it, especially considering this is supposed to be an Upshot.
So much time is spent on listing a few selected details in text when a graphic with pop ups could have given much more information on every state. The authors could have used that space for other things they surely wanted to say.
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