Black Men: Missing?

It's downright depressing how, besieged by poverty, disease, violence and mass incarceration, African-American men are conspicuously missing from families and communities.

By Salim Muwakkil, In These Times
Posted on June 22, 2005, Printed on June 23, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/22283/

The overwhelming absence of black men has always been one of the most distressing facts about life in America's public housing developments. In Chicago, for example, black women are the vast majority of lease holders in the Chicago Housing Authority; men are like ghosts in the projects.

Besieged by poverty, disease, violence and mass incarceration, African-American men are conspicuously missing in action. At one time, this gender imbalance afflicted mostly lower-income neighborhoods. But as we limp into the 21st century, that gender gap is rending the fabric of the entire African-American community.