The causes of this national disgrace are complex and multi-dimensional.  African-American youth have been Ill-served and literally betrayed by an inadequate and at times, dysfunctional, public education system.  Too often, African-American children are born to and raised primarily by teenage girls after engaging in unprotected sex with teenage boys, neither of whom are financially, socially or emotionally equipped to bear the burdens of parenthood.  As a result, children born to these circumstances, along with their teenage parents, get trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, financial despair and economic stagnation.  Tragically, American prisons, jails, and juvenile detention centers are now home to millions of African-American males, many of whom have been incarcerated for preying upon and victimizing other African-American males.  Wide spread urban gentrification and the reduction in housing discrimination has ironically fostered the mass exodus of millions of middle and upper class African-American professionals from inner city ghettos into new African-American professional enclaves in formerly all-White suburbs.

This separation of suburban African-American professionals from African-Americans remaining in the inner city has arguably sharpened the class distinctions and increased the internal divisions within the African-American community.  Worse, it has deprived millions of African-American youth with the opportunity to engage, be mentored by and interact with successful African-American men who once served as inspiring role models for achievement and success in the community.