By Kevin Shird | The Grio
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
-U.S. Constitution Preamble
The introductory statement of the US Constitution’s founding principles seems inspiring at first glance, but it doesn’t seem to apply to Black men and boys living in America. We’ve been invited to the party, but we haven’t been asked to dance.
In the last few years, the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion have been discussed in countless focus groups around the country, giving the appearance that our nation was addressing these important issues in a substantive way. It began to feel like the American economic system, that whites have had a stranglehold on since the beginning of this country’s founding, was starting to change for the better.
But any hope that comprehensive strategies are in place to help Black men and boys break through the economic glass ceiling have evaporated with the release of deflating, but unsurprising results of a new study about the economic impacts of race for Black boys.
