Grim Report on the Lives of Black Men

“Mounting evidence suggests that a near majority of working-age black men (15 to 44) are alcoholics or drug abusers, are in prison, unemployed, infected with the AIDS virus or suffering from some other life-threatening condition, or are slated to die at the hands of other black men.”

Proceeding from that grim assessment, the November Essence sets out to analyze this mutilation of the male members of a minority group. And, amid recipes for turkey Tetrazzini, articles on black ski clubs and advertisements for expensive liquor and cars, the magazine of the black bourgeoisie offers ambitious--militant, even--suggestions for healing the wounds.

African-Americans have always been under siege. The difference, as William Strickland, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor sees it, is that until very recently, they have always had a black struggle with a well-defined goal, such as the abolition of slavery, to help give their lives direction.

Even 20 years ago, black men were sufficiently inspired and educated by the civil rights movement that they “defiantly rejected the vituperation and racist analysis that eats away at the self-confidence of many of our young men today.”

Now, it’s a different story. “Orphaned by this season’s elitist ‘talented tenth,’ malignly neglected by the government of the United States and excluded from the labor force by American business, young black men have been left to forge their own identities in gangs, out of American television and MTV, and in contention with the dog-eat-dog-get-over-at-any-cost macho street culture,” Strickland writes.

They are internalizing the horrible image white America has of them, he argues, and accelerating their own destruction.

Among his solutions: African-Americans must teach young black men about their history and instill them with a sense of self-worth; they must create new programs, such as mobile libraries of books and films to circulate in the ghettos; they must push a black agenda by voting and exerting increased political pressure, and they must reclaim the teachings of Malcolm X, whose prescription of self-discipline and education Strickland believes helped another generation overcome its circumstances.

In another article, titled “Readin’, Ritin’ and Rage” David Dent, a Nashville television reporter, details what many see as the inherent racism in the American educational system. He also describes the spiral that results when black schoolboys, seeking refuge from the racism in society--including the classroom--turn to peers who disdain academic aspirations.

Despite the seemingly hopeless statistics, the tone of the magazine is hopeful. Perhaps the most encouraging article is one that addresses the issues at hand only obtusely. It’s a letter, from poet Lucille Clifton to her husband of 31 years, who has been dead for five years.

She writes about their loving relationship, their successful rearing of two sons and four daughters and their mutual dedication to improving the world not only for their own family but for their race.

But, she laments to him: “We have a generation enslaving itself to drugs, young men and women doing to our race what slavery couldn’t. And we become parents again who cannot rescue our children.”

The Union View of Contract Privatization

With revelations last week that Los Angeles County’s largest private contractor is reportedly seeking to boost the price of its contract to maintain county vehicles by $2.8 million, the issue of privatization is once again under debate. Since Los Angeles voters passed Proposition A in 1978, opening previously government-run county contracts to the private sector, the privatization of services here has grown rapidly. In its October-November issue, Union magazine, the publication for Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, investigates the trend.

No one will be surprised that the labor publication is less than thrilled about the way things are going with the $913 million in county contracts that pay businesses for everything from janitorial work to management of the county’s GAIN (Greater Avenues for Independence) “workfare program.”

The GAIN program, as managed by Maximus Inc. of Virginia, receives focused criticism for allegedly allowing nonpublic personnel to make decisions about lives of welfare recipients, and because of the suspicious way the contract was awarded to a firm with good political connections.

But author Andrea Malin also quotes critics who contend that privatization, in general, lowers employee morale and turns decent-paying jobs over to underpaid and under-committed private workers.

On a more entertaining note, “Lurid Tales of Bizarro Bosses,” in the same issue, catalogues “outrageous errands, ridiculous rules, and unreasonable demands,” as compiled by 9-5, the National Assn. of Working Women. Among them: the boss who ordered his secretary to return a pair of used underwear to the manufacturer with a note that they “bunched up in the crotch”; another who demanded that his secretary complete a crossword puzzle for him, and the law firm that bolted the legs of office chairs to the floor so secretaries wouldn’t wear out the carpet so quickly.

(Union Magazine, 1313 L St. NW, Washington 20005, (202) 898-3200)

Coping With Holiday Season Bereavement

The ghosts of Christmases past can haunt people who have recently experienced the death of a loved one. Warm traditions are chilled by a sense of emptiness, togetherness breeds loneliness, holiday nostalgia inflames a sense of loss.

An article in the November-December issue of “Bereavement” magazine offers practical advise on contending with the sadness the Yule season can bring--rearrange your holiday traditions, for instance, and let family and friends know that you may need to cancel party invitations at the last moment--as well as articles on other aspects of the grieving process.

A seemingly moribund venture, “Bereavement: A Magazine of Hope and Healing,” is off to a remarkably vital start, having survived a full first year in a business where the mortality rate is deadly.

Created by an Indiana woman whose daughter was killed in an automobile accident, the nine-issue-a-year publication’s stated purpose is to “becoming one--not the only one, but one--of the ‘friends’ who support and encourage the bereaved through the grief process.”

($22 for one year, $39 for two, Bereavement Publishing, 350 Gradle Drive, Carmel, Ind. 46032; (317) 846-9429.)