Let’s start with employment, where it is sadly true that it is easier for a black male to illegally obtain a gun on the street than to secure legitimate employment.
The adult unemployment rates for whites in December 2014 was 4.8 percent, compared with a black unemployment rate of 10.4 percent.
On June 3, 2014, the Black Star Project released a devastating fact sheet about life for black men in America. According to the report, “at comparable educational levels, black men earn 67 percent of what white men earn; white males with a high school diploma are just as likely to have a job and earn just as much as black males with college degrees.”
Elsewhere the report notes that “while constituting roughly 12 percent of the total population, black Americans are represent nearly 30 percent of its poor and . . . 44 percent of all prisoners in the United States.”
The challenges faced by young black Americans are also staggering.
Unemployment for white youths stood at 12.2 percent in 2014, compared with a black youth unemployment rate of 24.8 percent.