Is Help On The Way For Young Black Men?

If black boys are failing, who's helping them succeed?

When you wake up in the morning you're guaranteed to hear one of two things about Black men and boys in America:

They either scored a winning goal in the game the night before, or they are failing miserably in life.

As mentioned in Loop 21's Education Special in September, African American boys are lagging behind young men of other races when it comes to education.

Even though they achieved their highest graduation rates this century at 52 percent, the number is still small in comparison to graduation rates of white and Hispanic boys. And of the number of Black boys graduating high school, only 42 percent were graduating on time within four years.

The shortcomings of young Black men in America are widely reported and it would be easy to assume that no one cares to help them. Fortunately, two major organizations have recently entered the battle to save young Black men.

Hungarian-born billionaire and investor George Soros has made headlines in recent years for his efforts in helping young Black men finish school and become better citizens in general. Last year, he and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $30 million each to a New York City program designed to improve the life outcomes of Black and Latino men.

Soros' organization Open Society currently has a campaign dedicated to putting a spotlight on the plights of young Black men in America and showing how their outcomes affect everyone.