First the news…

Doctor decries violent culture

Surgeon says ’slave mentality’ leads to low achievement in young black males

By Tom Pelton

Sun Reporter

Black doctors have a special responsibility to speak out against the “culture of violence” and anti-intellectualism in America that encourages failure in young black men, a prominent physician told a conference of medical students yesterday.

“You all are on the pathway to becoming dominant people, and you can change the culture,”…

“The culture of violence is the current health emergency. And it’s not just that, it’s the culture of nonachievement that says studying is ‘acting white,’” said Cornwell, an African-American. “That’s a slave mentality to be a nonachiever because it’s ‘acting white.’ It’s not polite to say that, but changing the culture isn’t going to be polite.”

Cornwell, a professor of surgery who operates daily on gunshot victims in East Baltimore, was a featured speaker at a conference called “The Missed Education: Examining the Shortage of Minority Men in Medicine.”

The focus of the session, organized by the regional branch of the Student National Medical Association, was trying to get more black, Hispanic and Native American men into the medical profession.

Fewer than 4 percent of physicians in America are minorities, and a majority of the black medical students today are female, said Emily Haynes, director of the association’s regional branch and a medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The rapper 50 Cent has more street credibility because he was shot nine times, Cornwell said. “Like he’s taking credit for what we do, as trauma surgeons. … I am offended, as a black male and as a trauma surgeon.” (more…)

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This article addresses some deeper issues that I would like to discuss.

Next to a father, a physician plays a critical role in addressing the “culture of violence” that plagues our young black men. Historically, doctors have always served in some fashion a very important figure when it comes to providing important council to families. For the black community (who has been hemmoraging fathers), having physicians that are very familiar with our culture is critical.

While the article mentions that there is a shortage of black men on college campuses, I will add that this same trend is affecting all men regardless of race (I recently posted an article that talked a little bit about this issue here).

As I just mentioned, the reason why I believe this problem has a more damming effect on the black community is because of the fact that our first line of defense in addressing the “culture of violence” (dedicated fathers) is at an anemic level.

While women of all races have spent the last decade or so “high-fivn’ ” each other because they have gone from a minority to majority on most college campuses here in the US, the women’s movement in general has totally ignored the dwindling numbers of young men on these same campuses. They spent years (and rightfully so) demanding for true equality on college campuses that were at one time mostly male dominated. Today have exceeded their stated goals for equality in this arena:

Here is another article (excerpted)

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As the article mentions, black women are out pacing black men on campus at a very noticeable rate. So is it time now for the black feminist movement (which has gone through many changes since the civil rights era) to turn more of its attention on the same issue where just a few years ago they themselves needed help?

Yes! They didn’t expect any less from black men.

For those that align themselves with the feminist movement, they must now decide weather or not they are shooting for equality or payback based on the ratio mentioned above. Only their response to this issue will provide us with a clear answer to that question. Looking at the present state of black men, we cannot afford the payback option.