PERSPECTIVE ON CULTURE : 1995 Should Go Down as the Year of the Black Man : For better and for worse, African American males were front and center of every facet of society.

1995 should go down as the Year of the Black Man: Colin Powell, Michael Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Kweisi Mfume, Johnnie Cochran, Denzel Washington, Jesse Jackson, Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, Chris Darden, Willie Brown, Michael Jordan. These men and others like them have touched all our lives, made us look within and challenge everything we believe is right and/or wrong with this country.

A review of 1995 reveals that never before in this country have black men sold so many newspapers or books, been on the cover of so many magazines, been the topic of so many radio and television talk shows.

Black men were everywhere. From the three servicemen who jeopardized U.S. relations in Japan to a general who polled higher among whites than blacks for that coveted spot in the “big white mansion,” we simply refused to be ignored. We ran the gamut from Michael Jordan, a megastar on Madison Avenue as well as on the court, to Orenthal James Simpson, the gridiron hero who went from mainstream superstar to accused murderer to acquitted inmate to O.J. Simpson, the Sequel.

In 1995, African American men also created an interesting paradox. For example, everyone was discussing published studies showing one in three young black men having some connection to the criminal justice system. These data were personified by the 18-year-old who killed his cousin and her two little girls in a dispute over tire rims. The horrendous killing of a pregnant woman whose fetus was removed and taken also weighed into the widely held belief that black men were ignorant, savage animals. But we had to reconcile those incidents with the fact that several major cities in Southern California have a black man as chief of police. And in the trial of the century, the battle was waged not by white males playing lawyers but between two brilliant black male legal minds.

Politics was another field where black men were not always in the forefront but were in the center. Two congressmen were convicted of criminal activity, yet another left voluntarily to chart a new course for civil rights. In San Francisco, the former Assembly speaker with the Cheshire smile proved that cats aren’t the only ones with nine lives.

You won’t see one black toy in the movie “Toy Story.” Yet any boy who loves sports will have a poster of Rodman, Shaq, Bo, Tyson or Deion hanging on his wall. The likelihood is great that if you enjoy music, you’re keeping abreast of Michael Jackson’s latest exploits, rapping a la Snoop, singing a Babyface tune or buying a CD produced by Quincy Jones. And of course, the ultimate coup in ’95 was the Million Man March. While it had its critics (myself included), black men under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan successfully created an opportunity to participate in some much needed bonding, therapy and brotherly love.

Inevitably, some will challenge the assertion that 1995 was the Year of the Black Man. Whatever the ultimate verdict, there is a strong feeling in the black community that synergy is finally in the air. And for African Americans, particularly men, 1995 was the year to inhale it.