Of Black Men and Commitment

In the District of Columbia approximately 50% of African American boys graduates from high school of these young men approximately 30% go on to college and then a third of those young men graduate withing six years. The statistics are similar in other states which then leads to a dearth of African American boys in college. In some schools the ratio is up to seven black girls for every one black boy.

Into this steps an organization I volunteer with, College Tribe, a mentoring organization, African American men mentoring African boys. For the last two years I've been in charge of recruiting and managing the men that mentor the boys. This has turned out to be an exercise in herding cats. The issue is the difference between theory and practice. Everyone understands the importance of the issues we face, but the actual practice of showing up when you are supposed to is a different thing.

What I've learned over the last two years is that the men who come with a lot of rhetoric about the plight of black people are the ones who cancel at the last minute. For these men, the theory is the thing, not the practice. Some of the men are just really busy, with businesses to run and a host of other activities. These men treat their mentoring appointments like business appointments, something they can cancel, reschedule and re-arrange.

My challenge is to weed out the committed men from the theoretical men. In general the quiet serious men are the one's I need. The strong quiet type wins again.