Black Boys 2 Men

Rajuhon M. Jones's has gone through challenges in his life that led him to some real awakenings. In his book, Black Boys 2 Men: A Young Black Boy's Journey to Manhood, he shares some of those stories and some hands on activities meant to encourage teens to take a moment and evaluate, their thoughts, choices and activities to lead them to more successful paths in life.

Drawing on personal insights and research-based knowledge, this important work facilitates understanding of the psychological struggles of young African American males and offers ameliorative strategies. Despite examples set by successful black men in all walks of life, the truth remains that a disproportionate number of black boys and young men underperform at school, suffer from PTSD, and, too often, find themselves on a pathway to jail. The two-volume The Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents marks the first attempt to catalog the many psychological influences that can stack the deck against black male children—and to suggest interventions. Bringing together an expansive collection of new and classic research from a wide variety of disciplines, this set sheds light on the complex circumstances faced by young black men in the United States. Contributions by authors Kirkland Vaughans and Warren Spielberg contain insights from the groundbreaking "Brotherman" study, conducted over a ten-year period to report on the lives and psychological challenges of over a hundred African American boys and their families. Among the myriad issues studied in this set are the often-negative expectations of society, the influence of gangs, and the impact of racism and poverty. Of equal importance, the work explores culturally specific ways to engage families, youths, communities, and policymakers in the development of healthy, safe, educated boys who will become whole and successful adults.

Much has been written about reading disparities between African American males and other student groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the reading achievement of African American males, particularly in high school settings, and specific factors that may support this achievement. Specifically, the relationship of reading achievement to parental involvement and culturally responsive instructional practices was considered. The expected outcome was to find correlations between African American parental involvement and reading achievement. It was also expected that culturally responsive teacher instructional practices would be correlated with student reading achievement.

The authors, two noted psychologists who are parents themselves, provide simple yet effective strategies for problem-solving, improving communication, and instilling a positive racial identity in African-American boys.

How neoliberalism and the politics of respectability are transforming African American manhood While single-sex public schools face much criticism, many Black communities see in them a great promise: that they can remedy a crisis for their young men. Black Boys Apart reveals triumphs, hope, and heartbreak at two all-male schools, a public high school and a charter high school, drawing on Freeden Blume Oeur’s ethnographic work. We meet young men who felt their schools empowered and emasculated them, parents who were frustrated with co-ed schools, teachers who helped pave the road to college, and administrators who saw in Black male academies the advantages of privatizing education. While the two schools have distinctive histories and ultimately charted different paths, they were both shaped by the convergence of neoliberal ideologies and a politics of Black respectability. As Blume Oeur reveals, all-boys education is less a school reform initiative and instead joins a legacy of efforts to reform Black manhood during periods of stark racial inequality. Black male academies join long-standing attempts to achieve racial uplift in Black communities, but in ways that elevate exceptional young men and aggravate divisions within those communities. Black Boys Apart shows all-boys schools to be an odd mix of democratic empowerment and market imperatives, racial segregation and intentional sex separation, strict discipline and loving care. Challenging narratives that endorse these schools for nurturing individual resilience in young Black men, this perceptive and penetrating ethnography argues for a holistic approach in which Black communities and their allies promote a collective resilience.

This book is fiction, yet it describes the plight of so many young black boys in real life, who grow up with a sense of making fast money, women, drinking and drugs. They try to grow up too fast and as a result they end up in jail. This is such a story and you will be intrigued by the struggle Jason goes through trying to find himself as a man. After you read this story you come away with a feeling of sadness and despair about the plight and failure of so many young black men who are struggling today to find themselves.

Vol. 2- published by African American Images.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An urgent primer on race and racism, from the host of the viral hit video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” “You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.” In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity—but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.

Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment--a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering. When Black Boy exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, it caused a sensation. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.” Opposing forces felt compelled to comment: addressing Congress, Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi argued that the purpose of this book “was to plant seeds of hate and devilment in the minds of every American.” From 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races.” The once controversial, now classic American autobiography measures the brutality and rawness of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive. Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those about him; at six he was a “drunkard,” hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo."

This critical analysis looks at the disproportionate number of African American males in special education. Arguing that the problem is race and gender driven, questions covered include Why does Europe send more females to special education? Why does America lead the world in giving children Ritalin? Is there a relationship between sugar, Ritalin, and cocaine? and Is there a relationship between special education and prison? More than 100 strategies to help teachers and parents keep black boys in the regular classroom, such as revising teacher expectations, increasing parental involvement, changing teaching styles from a left-brain abstract approach to a right-brain hands-on approach, redoing the curriculum, understanding the impact of mass media, and fostering healthy eating habits.