Over the past ten years there have been a myriad of programs aimed at uplifting Black men. Some of these programs focus on youth, some on college students, and others focus on older adults. Step by step, these programs attempt to chip away at the impediments standing in the way of some Black males’ success.
Ron Mason, president of the Southern University System in Louisiana, is taking a comprehensive approach to uplifting and empowering Black men. In 2012, he launched the Five Fifths Agenda for America, a national effort to reclaim and develop Black male human capital that has four goals. First, Mason wants to increase the number of Black males with bachelor’s degrees. Next, he wants to increase the number of Black male teachers and graduates in the sciences. Then, he wants the nation’s Black colleges to serve as institutional homes for long-term systemic change for America. And, lastly, he wants to facilitate a truthful, national conversation about the relationship between Black men and America. He plans to meet this last goal by focusing on research as well as advocacy.
Changing the perceptions of and realities for Black men is something about which Mason feels deeply passionate. According to Mason, “When you view the statistics relative to Black men in America they can be explained in only one of two ways. Either Black men are genetically predisposed to make more bad choices than everyone else, or there is something wrong in America. There is no science to support the former proposition, so the latter must be the case.”
When Mason explains the plight of Black men, he ties it to the writings of Thomas Jefferson, noting that Jefferson said: “We have a wolf by the ear. We cannot hold on to him, nor can we safely turn him loose. On the one scale we have justice, but on the other we have self preservation.”
According to Mason, “The Founding Fathers made a conscious decision to put justice aside and create a business model that required slavery, a system to control and exploit Black labor. When slavery went away, they weaned the country off of free labor by replacing slavery with a system specifically designed to drive Black men into prison so they could be rented to plantations, mines, etc. The replacement system was called Jim Crow. The ‘wolf’ business model is ingrained in the American psyche. Its latest iteration is the ‘War on Drugs,’ which has resulted in 74 percent of the people in prison in Louisiana, for example, being Black. 95 percent of them are men.”
Mason sees the lives of Black men as deeply rooted in American history and believes that change can only happen if America itself takes responsibility for its role. His beliefs fuel the Five Fifths Agenda for America.
As part of the agenda, Mason and his teams at Southern University and Jackson State University in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund have completed a year-long research project, which was funded by Lumina Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Open Society, and the Education Testing Service. Based on this research, Mason has made a proposal to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities Board of Advisors and the Board has subsequently recommended the Five Fifths Agenda to President Obama.
